Wolves Hoping To Kick Start Their Campaign Against Chelsea

After ten games in just over a month, Wolves will be hoping to finally kick start their Premier League campaign after a slow start.

Nuno Esporito Santo’s side are the only team yet to take a lead in a Premier League match so far this season and conceding 60% of their goals in the first 15 minutes of games hasn’t helped that fact.

Wolves will be hoping to start positively after the international break against Frank Lampard’s Chelsea.

Here are some of my memories from some of our favourite clashes with Chelsea in the past.

Wolves 1-0 Chelsea – (5/1/2011)

You’d have to go back to 1983 to find the last time Wolves had beaten Chelsea before this fixture in 2011.

Wolves were sat in 17th at the time, still very much fighting against relegation whilst Carlo Ancelotti’s Chelsea were sat in 5^th, just one point outside the top four.

WOLVES TO WIN 1-0 – 10.00*

Despite the large difference in league positions, it was Mick McCarthy’s Wolves who got off to a dream start.

An inswinging corner from winger Stephen Hunt was directed into the net by Chelsea defender Jose Bosingwa resulting in an own goal.

Despite Chelsea’s dominance, Wolves held on to a huge three points, keeping them outside the relegation zone but with a fighting chance of survival.

Wolves 2-1 Chelsea (5/12/18)

After a pathetic November, Wolves were six games without a win despite a fairly promising start to life back in the Premier League.

They came up against Maurizio Sarri’s side who were sat in fourth place.

It was a nightmare start for Wolves as Ruben Loftus-Cheek scored his sixth goal in seven games to give the Blues the lead.

A terrific sliding challenge from Ryan Bennett denied Willian doubling Chelsea’s lead before half time.

However after half time the momentum changed and Wolves were knocking on the door for an equaliser.

Youngster Morgan Gibbs-White slid a fantastic ball through to Mexican hitman Raul Jimenez who made no mistake in smashing it past Kepa Arrizabalaga.

Diogo Jota then gave Wolves the lead to send almost 30,000 Wolves fans crazy.

It finished 2-1 and was arguably the turning point in Wolves 18-19 campaign and a huge catalyst to help Nuno’s side grab Europa League football.

Key Wolves Players

It’s always difficult to predict who is going to turn up after an international break.

Will players be fatigued or will their sharpness be as good as ever? On this fixture last year, we saw Diogo Jota have his best performance in the Premier League since the start of last season.

After a slow start, I’m hoping he’ll be the danger man again and cause Chelsea some serious issues.

Alongside him, Raul Jimenez. He was the only player to score home and away against Chelsea in the Premier League last season so they definitely know what he is capable of.

RAUL JIMENEZ TO SCORE FIRST – 4.90*

Predicted XI:

Always difficult to predict these after an international break but with Willy Boly suspended it means that there is a gap at the back for Romain Saiss and Jesus Vallejo to be considered for.

I’m going to go for:

Patricio; Adama, Bennett, Coady, Saiss, Jonny; Moutinho, Neves, Dendoncker; Jota, Jimenez.