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Pedro Neto fired a winning goal in injury time to cap off a spectacular Wolves comeback and inflict a tough defeat on a Chelsea who had briefly threatened to stumble to the top of the Premier League. After a boring first period, Olivier Giroud opened the scoring with a well scored goal, but Daniel Podence tied the Wolves with an even better one before Neto scored a precious victory for Nuno Espírito Santo’s side. Chelsea have lost consecutive league games for the first time in more than a year.
Always eager to deflate expectations around his splendidly assembled squad, Frank Lampard had insisted that his team’s defeat at Everton last weekend was not much of a surprise, that a team at a relatively early stage of development the occasional drop can be forgiven. The Chelsea manager’s lineup certainly didn’t suggest he was scared by anything he saw at Goodison Park, as he only made an alteration on the side that started there, with Christian Pulisic starting in place of Mateo Kovacic. That meant Giroud started a third straight league game up front despite Tammy Abraham chasing Conor Coady at Molineux last season, scoring a hat-trick in a 5-2 win for the visitors.
Nuno has been in place at Molineux for more than twice as long as Lampard has been in charge of Chelsea, but the Wolves are going through a major transition, complicated by the loss of Raúl Jiménez. Coady, however, remains a fixture, the centerpiece of the Wolves defense, as Nuno returned to three in an effort to avoid falling to a third straight league loss for the first time in two years.
Caution characterized a slow-paced first half in which play on either side rarely got over the prosaic. The Wolves started off quite brilliantly, with Nélson Semedo and Leander Dendoncker exchanging ingenious passes before the winger fired from 20 yards. Three minutes later, Coady even stepped into midfield before launching a long-range shot that went wide.
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Chelsea’s response came mainly from the left, with Pulisic in particular tormenting Semedo, with frequent assistance from Ben Chilwell and Mason Mount. When Pulisic produced a bewildering change of pace to beat Semedo and cross in the 15th minute, Timo Werner failed to apply a decisive touch from 12 yards. There has been worrying unrest in the German since his much-heralded arrival at Chelsea and he, like Kai Havertz and Mason Mount, struggled to exert regular influence in this match.
When Werner switched flanks with Pulisic after about half an hour in an attempt to contribute more, Chelsea suddenly began to route their attacks from the right. But they still lacked fluency and it was telling that Chelsea’s clearest chances in the first period came from the corners.
Giroud shot well before heading a Chilwell corner kick over the bar from six yards and then just before half-time Kurt Zouma came even closer, leaping like an Olympian before sending a powerful header against the crossbar. Giroud couldn’t adapt fast enough to push the rebound into the net.
The only time the Wolves really worried Edouard Mendy in the first half was when Neto unloaded a volley from 20 yards after some lovely work from Podence and Fábio Silva. Mendy lunged to his right and pushed the shot into a corner.
Wolves have a habit of improving in the second half, but here they were forced to retreat immediately after the break. Chelsea again concentrated their attacks on the left, where Werner began to threaten. When the German scored a cross pass in the 48th minute, he deftly fed the overlapping Chilwell, who sent a cross into the six-yard box. Giroud showed his sharpness by beating Willy Boly on the ball and sweeping a volley towards the goal. Rui Patrício tried to block him but couldn’t stop him from crossing the line.
Going behind woke up the Wolves. Silva thought he had scored the immediate tie, and his first goal for the club, when he deflected a deflected shot from Neto to Mendy, but the teenager was quickly informed that he had been offside. He was then replaced, with Adama Traoré taking action in his place.
But it was Podence’s individual brilliance that tied the locals in the 66th minute. Picking up the ball on the left side of the Chelsea box, the ingenious and fiery forward fooled Chilwell with a neat spin and then fooled Reece James with a feint before passing the ball to Mendy from 12 yards.
Now the wolves smelled blood. Chelsea got raggedy. When Neto ran into the area in the 81st minute and fell when James tried to challenge him, referee Stuart Attwell signaled the spot. But after reviewing the evidence, the official ruled that James had not made contact with the forward. All of that became moot when Neto capped off a counterattack in the closing seconds, outscoring Zouma in the box before firing a wonderful low shot into the far corner.
