Premier League 2018/19: Wolves vs Chelsea

Chelsea went to Molineux looking to secure consecutive premier league wins following defeat against Tottenham. Wolves arrived on the back of five defeats in their last six outings. Form pointed to a Chelsea victory; however. Wolves were ruthless when it came to converting their chances securing a 2-1 victory which is a blow for Chelsea ahead of their premier league encounter against Man City.

Despite dominating possession yet again in this match Chelsea failed to turn that into meaningful efforts on goal. They had 17 attempts at goal but just 3 of those were on target; the goal, a Willian free kick and a tame effort from Hazard. This must be a cause of concern for Sarri moving forward.

Fabregas made his first premier league start of the season after his impressive performance in the Europa League against PAOK with Jorginho rested with one eye on the weekend clash against Man City. Christensen also came into the side in place of Luiz who was again rested according to Sarri although it does come off the back of his terrible performance last time out against Tottenham.

Chelsea’s deep possession

Chelsea struggled throughout this match to build up play efficiently due to Wolves’ excellent execution of their pressing game. This began in Chelsea’s defensive third where they would press Azpilicueta when he received the ball near the touchline. This played on Chelsea’s weaker side of the field when building out from defence. With Azpilicueta, Kante and Willian on this side of the pitch, they are technically inferior to the left side of the pitch in which Alonso, Loftus-Cheek and Hazard were positioned.

The pressure applied by Wolves often led to a loss of possession with the ball either being played longer or blocked for a throw-in. Fabregas was often too slow to move across to the ball near halfspace to provide support to switch the ball away from pressure.

A lot of Chelsea’s possession was in deeper areas of the pitch. They failed to push Wolves back into their own defensive third often enough. This was in part due to the mid-block that Wolves deployed in this match which made it increasingly difficult to cleanly progress up the pitch.