Wolves bite back to beat Chelsea
WOLVERHAMPTON, United Kingdom: Pedro Neto’s struck five minutes into stoppage time as Chelsea missed the chance to go top of the Premier League for the second time in four days when Wolves fought back to win 2-1 at Molineux.
Olivier Giroud’s eighth goal of the season put the visitors in front early in the second-half, but Daniel Podence equalised before Neto’s purposeful run and precise finish condemned Chelsea’s to a second successive defeat.
Frank Lampard’s men remain in fifth, three points adrift of Tottenham and Liverpool at the top, ahead of a clash between the top two at Anfield on Wednesday.
Victory was no more than Nuno Espirito Santo’s men deserved as they bounced back from two consecutive defeats since losing top scorer Raul Jimenez to a fractured skull.
Lampard himself called into question the Blues title credentials after a 1-0 loss to Everton on Saturday. There was more evidence that Chelsea are still a team in transition after a £220 million ($294 million) transfer spending spree as two of their big money signings, Timo Werner and Kai Havertz, again failed to sparkle.
Other than bursts from Christian Pulisic past the struggling Nelson Semedo, Lampard’s men created precious little from open play.
Set-pieces caused Wolves more problems as Giroud headed over when he should have hit the target from Ben Chilwell’s corner.
Just before the break, Kurt Zouma rose highest to crash Mason Mount’s corner off the crossbar and Giroud was too slow to the react to the rebound as the ball ricocheted off the French striker and behind for a goal-kick.
The 34-year-old was razor sharp four minutes into the second-half as he volleyed Chilwell’s cross towards goal and the ball slipped through Rui Patricio’s grasp and just over the line.
Going behind awakened Wolves and Fabio Silva was denied his first Premier League goal since a 40 million euro ($47 million £36 million) move from Porto by an offside flag. Wolves had not scored in two games since losing Jimenez to a sickening head knock suffered in a 2-1 win at Arsenal.
But Podence produced a moment of magic as he twisted and turned inside the Chelsea box to find space for a shot and his effort deflected off Reece James and inside Edouard Mendy’s near post.
Chelsea’s record signing Havertz had another night to forget. The German international was replaced by Mateo Kovacic, while Tammy Abraham replaced the injured Giroud as Lampard went in search of a winner.