And so Frank Lampard was back in charge of Chelsea — their fourth manager of the season. All change then? Not a bit of it. The Blues delivered one of the most abject performances of their cursed season.
804 days since he last took charge of a Chelsea match, Lampard was back in the dugout. This glorious afternoon in the beaming sunshine at Molineux was the latest reset in Chelsea’s storied season. But it proved a reset from which they will need to take a cold shower… and then reset again.
Julen Lopetegui’s Wolves showed endeavour, ability and nous. Chelsea, meanwhile, played more disjointedly and with less synergy even than during Graham Potter’s disastrous tenure.
At least under Potter it could fairly be said that goals were all the Blues were consistently lacking. In their first match under a manager who seems perhaps harmfully in awe of his job, not even their performance could offer a silver lining from their bluntness in the final third.
Reece James’s fizzed cross flew right past Jose Sa’s goalmouth in the second minute, begging to be tapped home but never finding a potential suitor who looked like he actually wanted to do so. It typified not only Chelsea’s chronic lack of a striker with natural goalscoring instincts but also their very bright start early on.
Chelsea had flown out of the blocks, but slow and steady wins the race. Wolves were the game’s better side from that opening five-minute flurry onwards. Whenever Chelsea won the ball, they were so rushed, so desperate to get themselves moving up the pitch.
It was to their detriment. Wolves regained possession and used it more assuredly and with greater purpose each and every time. The Blues remain 11th because the only goal of the game was not theirs but their hosts’.
Daniel Podence approached the box, crossed with the outside of his boot, and the overall impressive Kalidou Koulibaly glanced it towards to edge of the box. Arriving to meet it was Matheus Nunes, the Brazilian-born Portuguese.
Everyone inside Molineux knew he only had one thing on his mind. What they surely weren’t quite so aware of was just how sweetly Nunes was about to strike the ball. He cannoned it beautifully, on the volley — the ball whistling past a nonplussed Kepa Arrizabalaga and into the far reaches of the far post.
Molineux roared not once, but four times. Once when it went in, then once for every new sumptuous camera angle shown of the goal on the big screen in the minutes after.
Chelsea had an hour of play to try and muster something. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Christian Pulisic, Trevoh Chalobah, Mykhailo Mudryk and Ben Chilwell were all chucked into the fray by Lampard in the second half, in the hope they might accidentally stumble upon the key to unlock the Wolves rear-guard.
But it has been common knowledge for some time now that Chelsea’s problems are not based on personnel. They derive from such a rampant churn of change in such a short space of time at the club.
At least there is one constant. They still can’t score.
