Small matter of Chelsea at home
Live @ http://www.ja606.co.uk/articles/viewLiveArticle/399720
One match ban enabled
Wolves are without midfielder Ruben Neves, who serves a one-game ban after accumulating five yellow cards.
That could mean Morgan Gibbs-White, 18, starts his first Premier League game, while alternative replacements include Romain Saiss and out-of-favour summer signing Leander Dendoncker.
Chelsea will monitor Mateo Kovacic and Marcos Alonso, who are nursing ankle and back problems respectively.
Blues boss Maurizio Sarri is set to make changes to keep his side fresh.
Alvaro Morata, Ross Barkley and Ruben Loftus-Cheek are among the players hoping for recalls.
Wolves are "in a bad moment", concedes Nuno Espirito Santo
Chelsea boss praises Loftus-Cheek
MOTD COMMENTATOR'S NOTES
Jonathan Pearce: After their bright start, Wolves are now on their worst run in 20 months. I doubt there's enough squad strength to turn their form around here.
Seven goals in their last nine league and cup games is a paltry return. It could get worse before it gets better for Nuno Espirito Santo, who is enduring his worst run as a coach in over five years.
Chelsea admit they were shell-shocked by the defeat at Tottenham. Two wins have followed but too many players are still below par.
Marcos Alonso has been affected by crowd taunts. N'Golo Kante has been sacrificed to accommodate Jorginho. Willian looks jaded. Alvaro Morata isn't strong enough or aware enough at the moment.
With Manchester City to come at the weekend it will be interesting to see what team Maurizio Sarri picks.
VIEW FROM THE DUGOUT
Wolves head coach Nuno Espirito Santo: "A team is like a player, it has ups and downs.
"You have to find solutions to help them and give them good advice and work with them. It doesn't have to do with confidence, it has to do with so many aspects of the game - technical, tactical, mental - and we have to solve it.
"We have had a block of games with mistakes, from a team which is still growing. When the results don't come, what is important is how you approach the situation."
Chelsea head coach Maurizio Sarri: "I expect a very difficult match because they are a very technical team.
"They have a lot of players who are very technical. So they were unlucky in the last few matches, I think, but it's not really very easy to play there."
LAWRO'S PREDICTION
Has once again been deleted, because nobody in the world cares what he has to say
MATCH FACTS
Head-to-head
Chelsea have won the last four meetings in league and cup by an aggregate score of 13-1, including a 2-0 victory at Molineux in the FA Cup fourth round last season.
Wolves' solitary victory against the Blues since 1983 came in a Premier League game at Molineux on 5 January 2011, courtesy of a Jose Bosingwa own goal.
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wolves lost just one of their first eight league games this season but have been beaten in five of their subsequent six matches.
They have scored only three first-half goals this term, the lowest figure in the top flight, including just one at Molineux.
They could suffer four consecutive home league defeats for the first time since a similar sequence in the Championship in October and November 2016.
All four of their league wins this term have come against teams below them in the table prior to the latest round of games.
Matt Doherty has been directly involved in four Premier League goals this season (scoring two and assisting two). The only defenders with higher tallies after 14 games are Jose Holebas and Benjamin Mendy (six and five respectively).
Chelsea
The Blues could keep clean sheets in consecutive league games for the first time under Maurizio Sarri.
They have won seven of their last nine games in league and cup.
The Londoners have lost just one of their last 13 away league games against newly-promoted sides (W10, D2), with that defeat coming at Newcastle on the final day of last season.
Chelsea have kept clean sheets in four of their six Premier League away games this season.
Three of the four goals they have conceded on the road came in their last away match, against Tottenham.
Eden Hazard has been directly involved in 12 Premier League goals this season (scoring seven and assisting five) - only Raheem Sterling (14) has a better record prior to the latest round of games.
Pedro has five goals in 12 league appearances this season - more than he managed in 31 games last season.
💧Wolves v Chelsea💧[LIVE]
posted on 6/12/18
comment by ☠ Tube of Lies ☕ (U16473)
posted about a minute ago
Considering how highly we rate winning corners, I’m puzzled as to why long throws, which are effectively the same thing, are held in disdain by some.
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I think they are fine as an extra weapon just not as a big part of the game plan like with some teams.
posted on 6/12/18
i have said that with 1 draw and 5 defeats that he was heading for the sack - which makes me wonder why the big boss man was here last night.
posted on 6/12/18
comment by ☠ Tube of Lies ☕ (U16473)
posted 1 minute ago
Considering how highly we rate winning corners, I’m puzzled as to why long throws, which are effectively the same thing, are held in disdain by some.
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Reality is that players are usually closely marked from a throw in situation so possession is often lost from short throw ins. So why not put the ball into the danger area if you have a player with the technique and strength to do that
posted on 6/12/18
comment by Spangles (U17289)
posted 4 hours, 26 minutes ago
We also need to learn things from Chelsea. In the first hour they were so good at knocking the ball forward to feet and their players were constantly on the move when they didn’t have the ball to make themselves available for those passes. With all of Neves, Moutinho and MGW in the team we have the players to do that and with the mobility of Jota we have that up front as well. Jiminez is good, usually, at holding the ball up but maybe needs to improve his movement off the ball
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For once I agree with DJ. We do have the players that can pass a ball to feet and move around when they are off the ball. That's exactly how to play against a side with 5 midfielders and trying to stifle you.
Play to our own strengths and not worry about opponents.
posted on 6/12/18
especially in comparison to last season, douglas's freekicks in particular, we are poor at set-pieces
posted on 6/12/18
comment by ☠ Tube of Lies ☕ (U16473)
posted 47 minutes ago
Considering how highly we rate winning corners, I’m puzzled as to why long throws, which are effectively the same thing, are held in disdain by some.
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See your point Bute, but it takes better attacking play to win a corner than a throw-in in the 'launch it' zone, most of the time.
This also means that there are fewer opportunities in a game to kick from the corner than to launch a long throw, and the disruption to the flow of a game against the likes of Cardiff or the Stoke of old is desperately frustrating as an opposition fan of a side that wants to get on with the game.
Finally, this is the beautiful game....FOOTBALL, and launching long throws is more like the line-ups from that toffs game, rugby.
posted on 6/12/18
Where's everyone's favourite JA606 troll? Normally he would have been on here saying that Wolves were lucky and Chelsea should have won 12-0 or some such twaddle.
Hope he's okay and hasn't fallen down a mine shaft or been hit by a bus or anything
posted on 6/12/18
Romain Saiss completed all 32 of his passes last night and made more tackles (3) than any other Wolves player. (Just read that on Twitter from Wolves) ⚽️👍
posted on 6/12/18
Awful game. We got lucky like the last time we beat them when McCarthy was in charge. Ask Wolfie, he'll know.
posted on 6/12/18
comment by ☠ Tube of Lies ☕ (U16473)
posted 7 hours, 17 minutes ago
Romain Saiss completed all 32 of his passes last night and made more tackles (3) than any other Wolves player. (Just read that on Twitter from Wolves) ⚽️👍
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That’s incorrect. He actually only had a 74% passing success rate whereas Moutinho had 88%. Moutinho also made 5 interceptions compared to Saiss’ two and showed a lot of tenacity.
Everyone is raving about Saiss; but Moutinho had a fantastic game. There are games where Saiss or Dendoncker are the right option; but playing Saiss we do lose creativity and ball retention. Neves and Moutinho are much better at ball retention and can mix it up with the best of them defensively. I think they have been overrun recently due to tactics and the presence of MGW helped the midfield; more than Saiss being the major cog in the machine.