PEDRO’S A GOALD DIGGER
Neto leaves it late to break Blues’ hearts
CHELSEA’S bid to go top of the Premier League table blew up spectacularly as Wolves hit them with a two-goal blast.
Frank Lampard’s men were heading for the summit when Olivier Giroud fired them in front – but the Blues were looking down on the rest for less than 20 minutes.
Daniel Podence pegged them back with a 66th-minute equaliser, then Pedro Neto floored them with a stoppage-time winner.
It had all been going so well when Giroud made it seven goals in seven games for the visitors.
The French star struck with an opportunist volley when he got across Willy Boly to meet Ben Chilwell’s cross four minutes into the second half.
It looked like Lampard’s men might get to spend at least 24 hours on top of the table, but it all went horribly wrong.
Podence sold Chilwell and Reece James dummies before curling a shot goalwards. It took a deflection off James on its way past Blues keeper Edouard Mendy.
Then the game suddenly threatened to get ugly when referee Stuart Attwell was forced to go to the monitors to adjudicate on how much, if any, contact James had made on Neto as he went tumbling.
Both benches got wrapped up in verbals, with Blues boss Lampard and his assistants clearly anxious that their opposite numbers would be in the referee’s ear.
Attwell decided there had been no contact and Neto was quite rightly given no reward for his theatrics.
The Portuguese certainly could not complain, but he came back to haunt Chelsea right at the death when he forced his way past Kurt Zouma and fired the ball into the far bottom corner to wrap up victory. Chelsea were left cursing their luck they had not gone in at half-time with at least a one-goal lead.
The real killer was fresh in their minds, coming right on the stroke of half-time when Zouma’s header crashed against the crossbar.
The big defender showed just what a great leap he has got when he rose head and shoulders above everyone to meet Mason Mount’s corner and steer a powerful header goalwards.
Wolves keeper Rui Patricio could o n ly look on anxiously as the ball flew away from him but the woodwork came to his rescue.
Chelsea really should have broken the deadlock midway through the first half when the in- form Giroud would have hoped to do better with a close- range
header from Chilwell’s corner out on the left.
The French striker, who has proved undroppable in recent weeks, was left looking skywards in disbelief as he sent the ball flying way over.
It had been a cagey opening 20 minutes, which was hardly surprising, as both sides came into the game on the back of painful inful weekend defeats.
Lampard’s men were trying to put behind them the disappointment of a 1-0 loss at Everton – only their second defeat all campaign to that point – while Wolves suffered a late home defeat to local rivals i l Aston Villa.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s men threatened to capitalise within minutes of Giroud’s miss and only the quick reactions of keeper Mendy came to the rescue.
The Frenchman had to go full stretch to push Neto’s volley around his post in the 22nd minute.