Game is over and the final score is Wolves 2-1 Chelsea. Here is the match report.
2023/2024 Premier League
2-1
Match Report
Wolves moved level with 10th-placed Chelsea in the Premier League table after second half goals from Mario Lemina and Matt Doherty sealed a 2-1 win for Christmas Eve's Molineux hosts.
Mauricio Pochettino wanted a victory that would have ended Chelsea's pre-Christmas plans on a positive note, but unfortunately there wasn't much to celebrate for the visitors in the Midlands besides Christopher Nkunku's late consolation goal.
Mario Lemina struck shortly after half time with a powerful header off the back of a Wolves corner as the hosts finally capitalised on one of their chances. Matt Doherty later doubled his side's lead in stoppage time.
Chelsea tried to force their way back into proceedings with Mykhailo Mudryk having an effort desperately cleared off the line, while Raheem Sterling also threatened.
As the teams were announced pre-match, the announcer at Molineux said ‘Let’s get this Christmas party started’ and thanks to Mario Lemina’s second-half header and Matt Doherty’s injury-time finish, Christmas arrived early for the home faithful with a win over Chelsea.
Victory for Gary O’Neil’s side put them level on points with Chelsea and a late goal from Christopher Nkunku on his Premier League debut was ultimately nothing more than a consolation as Mauricio Pochettino’s side suffered their eighth league defeat of the season.
It’s fair to say there was little love for this fixture pre-match - the first Premier League game to be played on Christmas Eve since 1995.
Pochettino insisted he was ‘not happy’ as he was forced to miss his wedding anniversary on the 23rd, while Gary O’Neil wrote in his programme notes how ‘it was an inconvenience for some.’
The Football Supporters Association said that a Christmas Eve game was ‘an unwanted present which no-one asked for’ and such was the discontent around the scheduling that when the dates for next season were announced earlier in the week, the Premier League included a line saying: ‘There will be no fixture on December 24 2024.’
But as thirty-thousand fans made it to Molineux for the first Christmas Eve top-flight game in 28 years, it was yet another reminder of the lifeblood of the game, that is so often taken for granted.
With over a billion pounds spent since Todd Boehly bought the club in May last year, 3,000 Chelsea-branded Santa hats would barely have put a dent in Boehly’s budget.
As it was, the supporters who made the trip north to Wolverhampton were treated with a festive souvenir but the first half was a story of frustration for them amid what seemed like a one-man mission by Raheem Sterling.
He was scintillating yet somehow the game remained goalless at the break.
Just five minutes in, a wonderful Sterling run set up Armando Broja, who cut inside and only had the keeper to beat but Mario Lemina slid in with a perfect tackle to deny the Albanian, who came in for Mykhailo Mudryk as one of three Chelsea changes.
Lemina got up and punched the air to celebrate as if he had scored.
Broja then scuffed his shot from inside the box when he was teed up by Maio Gusto down the right flank after another brilliant Sterling run.
And Sterling’s frustration was visible when he did superbly to float a lofted delivery to Nicolas Jackson, who was free in the box but failed to control the ball.
On the half-hour mark, another marauding run by Sterling was cut out by a cynical challenge on the edge of the box by Lemina, which deservedly got the Gabonese defender a booking.
Sterling’s free-kick failed to test Jose Sa but shortly after, he should have given Chelsea the lead.
Sa - on his return to the side after injury - passed the ball to Joao Gomes who had his back towards goal and was dispossessed by none other than Sterling. who ran clean through on goal and chose to go himself rather than squaring the ball to Cole Palmer or Jackson.
It would have been a justified decision had he finished and more than understandable, given the wastefulness of his teammates but the 29-year-old was denied by a brilliant save from Sa. Palmer and Jackson looked furious. And so did Pochettino. Sterling should have squared.
Yet Chelsea were somewhat fortunate not to go in behind at the break. Pablo Sarabia’s goal-bound strike was deflected by Thiago Silva for a corner before Hwang Hee-Chan rifled his effort over the bar when he got in behind the Chelsea backline to ensure that Chelsea remain the only side in the Premier League not to trail at half-time this season.
That is a stat that will surprise many but they went behind six minutes after the restart.
Chelsea’s midweek hero Djordje Petrovic kept away Toti’s header with a stunning stop but a few minutes later, the keeper was caught in two minds whether to come out for Pablo Sarabia’s inswinging corner. And Petrovic could do nothing to keep out Lemina’s glancing header.
It was the 16th consecutive top-flight game at Molineux that Wolves have scored in, equalling a club record from 1969-70 season.
Chelsea’s frustrations grew when Palmer was booked for kicking the ball away, meaning he will miss their next game against Crystal Palace and just shy of the hour mark, Pochettino turned to Nkunku off the bench after an injury to Lesley Ugochukwu. Nkunku and Mudryk came on for Ugochukwu and Broja.
Sterling had a penalty appeal waved away which seemed to exasperate Jackson who dropped to the ground in disbelief and was then given a yellow card for dissent by referee David Coote.
Including Gusto’s booking, Pochettino’s men had received three bookings in the space of six second-half minutes.
Yet they were unlucky not to level when Toti denied Nkunku a goal with an off-the-line clearance.
Goal-line technology showed that some of the ball had crossed the line but Toti had got there just in time.
Sterling was then denied by a superb tackle from Craig Dawson, who was then forced off with injury with 20 minutes left on the clock.
With ten minutes to go, Pochettino made his last three changes in the hope of salvaging at least a point and when eleven minutes of additional time was announced, there were groans galore around Molineux.
Those groans would turn into cheers when the two subs who were brought on to close out the game combined to put the game to bed.
Matt Doherty put the icing on the cake with a calm finish after some good work from Hugo Bueno down the left flank
The Chelsea fans headed for an early exit and despite Nkunku pulling one back with his first Chelsea goal to give a glimmer of hope, it was merely a consolation.
And when Sterling was booked for diving in the dying stages, meaning he will be suspended for Wednesday’s clash at Stamford Bridge, it summed up the story of a bleak afternoon in the midlands for Chelsea.
For Wolves, who were bottom of the table at Christmas last year, a massive three points.
Match Events
0' The match is about to start!
5' Broja misses good chance
21' Unbelievable! What a miss from Jackson
27' Yellow Card! Lemina booked
28' Sterling's free kick over the bar
32' How could Sterling miss such a goal??
44' Hee-Chan Hwang's shot wide out
48' Petrovic makes good save
51' GOAL! Wolves 1-0 Chelsea (Lemina)
63' Gomes makes goal-line clearance
78' Petrovic makes good save again
93' GOAL! Wolves 2-0 Chelsea (Doherty)
96' GOAL! Wolves 2-1 Chelsea (Nkunku)
Line-ups
Wolves XI: Dawson, Sarabia, Lemina, Semedo, Jose Sa, Hwang Hee-Chan, Kilman, Matheus Cunha, Rayan Aït-Nouri, Toti Gomes, João Gomes
Subs: Doherty, Daniel Bentley, Sasa Kalajdzic, Santiago Bueno, Doyle, Tawanda Chirewa, Hugo Bueno, Owen Hesketh, T. Barnett
Chelsea XI: Thiago Silva, Sterling, Axel Disasi, Conor Gallagher, Djordje Petrovic, Cole Palmer, Armando Broja, Levi Colwill, Malo Gusto, L. Ugochukwu, Nicolas Jackson
Subs: Marcus Bettinelli, Nkunku, Benoît Badiashile, Noni Madueke, Mykhaylo Mudryk, Maatsen, Lucas Bergström, Roméo Lavia, Alex Matos