Match Review: Chelsea throttle Wolves 6-2!

Chelsea's best performance in years sparks hope for what's to come

Chelsea's most complete performance of the season on Sunday against Wolves saw the group put together one of the best 45 minutes in the second half that many Chelsea fans can remember from recent seasons. There were slight alterations in the Manchester City performance from a tactical standpoint but mostly from an execution standpoint.

Inverting Gusto & The Pairing of Palmer and Madueke

We saw a lot of positives from Chelsea from a player performance standpoint, but the tactics were designed to create immediate overloads on the left-hand side to pull the Wolves defense. It just took a link in the middle. Usually, Enzo Fernandez or Moises Caicedo move the ball over the right 10 Cole Palmer.

Defenders had an extremely difficult time deciding what to do when Palmer picked up the pass in the half-space with Noni Madueke overlapping on the right-hand side. After the first-match defeat against Manchester City, Enzo Maresca decided to utilize three midfielders, with Gusto as the wide player, providing width for Palmer, who was playing as a right winger.

By making Gusto the wide player rather than inverting, it felt like there were not enough attackers centrally, so it was mostly Jackson, Nkunku, and Enzo waiting in the box for a cross. Understanding fully that you want to protect your back line against a potent Manchester City attack with two defensive midfielders, it wasn’t allowing for the most strength in attack.

Moving Palmer into the 10 allowed Madueke, a more clinical finisher and technical dribbler, to make decisive goalscoring runs and shots, leading to his hat trick.

It also allowed Enzo to play a box-to-box role and allow Palmer to be the creator. This role suits Enzo much more than distributing at the top of the box. His link-up play was sensational.

It’s hard just to highlight a few individuals who stood out, but here are a few.

Nicolas Jackson

We have undoubtedly seen Chelsea sniffing around the striker market, but Nicolas Jackson's performance brings me a little pause. Jackson was outstanding in all aspects of his play against Wolves. The thing that excited me more than everything was the hold-up play. Jackson was reliable in collecting the ball under duress and making the right pass. This part of Jackson's game can take him to the next level. We knew that Jackson was good at certain aspects of hold-up but mostly looking to dribble out of it, but in this match, we saw direct passes, flick-ons, and dribbling.

Also, for his goal, another aspect we want to see improvement in is his set-piece finishing. He scored a beautifully guided header into the short side of the net.

For the striker position as a whole, I am still very interested in bringing in another player. While I have appreciated Guiu’s performances so far, I believe he is still quite raw. He may be just seasoned enough to start in UEFA Conference League matches, but I think we need a more experienced striker. Someone who can share the load with Jackson and provide the necessary guidance. In my opinion, Victor Osimhen is the best option. He is at an age where there is still room for Guiu and the other strikers within Chelsea’s ranks to grow, but we need his experience now.

Levi Colwill

A lot has been said about Colwill and the entire defensive backline, but today, you saw what the sporting directors and Enzo Maresca want from their centerbacks and how they have recruited for those positions. We saw dynamic long balls, clean and direct passing, and, for the most part, a pretty clean defensive display in open play, and Colwill was the best. His passing was the trait that makes him incredibly special, so if his defensive work can continue to improve and stay consistent, we could have a special player on our hands.

Colwill registered more successful passes (69/75) and more successful long balls (6/8) than any other player for either Wolves or Chelsea. Levi was also 100% on his successful ground duel battles (2/2).

Noni Madueke

What an eventful 24 hours for Madueke! Between the social media post explaining his dislike for the city of Wolverhampton and his 13-minute hat trick, Noni talked the talk and walked the walk with an actual end product.

As I was thinking about this season and my biggest questions, Noni Madueke’s progression was one that I was most excited to see resolved. What has impressed me with Noni, despite some of his immature moments, has been his pure brilliance. If you are going to make some immature decisions on and off the field, you better have some real quality, and Noni showed that against Wolves.

Cole Palmer

When we talk about Palmer, we wonder where he would feature in Maresca’s system, but it's clear that he, as an inside 10, is the way to go. His ability to impact the game, utilize the space around him and manipulate defenders through his ability to threaten by passing, dribbling, and shooting. This is also a big positive from Maresca. Initially, we saw Palmer playing out on the right-hand side, but his flexibility has shown even in these first couple of matches, and Palmer has been the beneficiary.

Natural Progression

Something that I wanted to cover in this article is the expectations of this team and where those expectations should come from. Clearly signing new players and a new manager can give a bounce, but I think when you look at the scope of this project overall, Chelsea have bought young players with vast potential. Despite last season not showing everything you might like to see, we should remain optimistic. Year after year, we should see a natural progression in terms of quality in the system, comfort in the tactics, and the challenges of the Premier League.

Patience is something that every fan has a tough time dealing with, especially after the last few seasons of struggle. Still, if we continue to see the growth as a team and individually, I believe we could be in for an exciting time ahead.

~ CFCDP (Dylan)