Wolves 2 Chelsea 6: Madueke wreaks havoc, the Portuguese connection – anyone for the chaos?

Enzo Maresca may still be yearning for greater ‘control’ of games and pining for a new No.9 to lead the line, but the Premier League has been offered a reminder of the attacking force already at the Italian’s disposal.

A frantic game at Molineux saw the new Chelsea manager secure his first Premier League win, a resounding victory that included a 14th-minute hat-trick from Noni Madueke in the second half. The winger, public enemy number one in the Black Country after his pre-match social media post angered the home side, was untouchable after the break as the visitors ran riot.

It was a game of glorious freneticism. Nicolas Jackson put Maresca’s men ahead within the first two minutes through Cole Palmer, who assisted all three of Madueke’s goals, scoring with a magnificent lob before half-time. Despite that, Chelsea struggled to contain Wolves in the first half, with Matheus Cunha and Jorgen Strand Larsen forcing the hosts to equalise twice.

Then came Madueke’s masterclass, with a blistering first top-flight win for Maresca capped off by substitutes Pedro Neto and Joao Felix combining for their sixth.

Liam Twomey analyses the key talking points of a fierce competition.

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How did Madueke start this competition?

It took Wolves fans at Molineux less than a minute to let Madueke know exactly what they thought of his pre-match Instagram claim that “everything about this place is s***”.

Chelsea sent a high ball to Madueke on the right flank from the kick-off and as he rose to receive it, the boos rained down, quickly followed by thunderous cries of “f**k”.

Madueke flashed a quick smile and appeared to use the vitriol as fuel, driving aggressively with the ball at every opportunity, carrying a huge threat whenever he was isolated against Rayan Ait-Nouri and testing Jose Sa with several fierce shots in a brilliant opening period.

Perhaps the purpose behind the initial Instagram post was to motivate herself. There is no doubt that she unnecessarily inflamed the tempers of her teammates at a stadium where Chelsea had not tasted victory since September 2019. Jackson hit back at the home fans shortly after giving his team the lead, apparently in response to Madueke’s insults.

The result was a cauldron of noise from the start that increased the intensity of Wolves’ pressure, increased the ferocity of their tackling and heightened the chaos of the game.

At times in a breathless first half, Madueke threatened to overwhelm Chelsea, but in the second he was there to forcefully solve the problem he had helped create. Three times Palmer provided him in space on the right – no Chelsea player had provided three assists in a Premier League game since Cesc Fabregas in 2016 – and three times he beat Sa, once with a deflection off the outstretched leg of Ait-Nouri.

What could have been a humiliating response to online exuberance has become the kind of star-making day Tammy Abraham enjoyed on this pitch five years ago.

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Anyone for chaos?

After the expected defeat to Manchester City and the expected Europa League qualifying win over Servette, this seemed like the right start to the season for Chelsea – knowing that Maresca could no longer afford to lose ground in the race for the Premier League’s top four, especially given how a poor start doomed Mauricio Pochettino’s side last season.

His players delivered, overcoming real adversity in the first half to outclass Wolves and, in the process, delivering some promising signs that the Italian’s ideas are starting to bear fruit.

We were told that Marescaball was about control, and perhaps in time it will be. There were plenty of examples of the new head coach’s work in some of Chelsea’s best attacking sequences, while in other ways it was also an extension of the chaos that defined this team for better and worse last season under Pochettino.

Maresca’s choice in midfield, choosing Palmer as the right-wing No. 8 in the absence of Romeo Lavia (who was sidelined with a minor hamstring problem), provided Chelsea with what could best be described as fragile creativity in the first half, carving up Wolves with incisive possession but also frequently leaving alarming spaces to exploit on the counter.

This meant that the first half was almost entirely spent in a state of difficult transition, with both teams taking turns looking threatening and vulnerable.

Fortunately for Chelsea, Palmer thrived on the chaos and produced what could have been the most important moment of the game from the visitors’ perspective, capping off a brilliant long kick from Robert Sanchez – there was a suspicion the ball was moving when it was struck by the goalkeeper – and a clever flick from Jackson with a sublime first-time lobbed finish.

In the second half, it was Chelsea’s ruthlessness that allowed them to take control, exploiting Wolves’ complete loss of structural discipline amid a barrage of goals from Madueke and substitute Joao Felix.

There were still enough risky moments in the back-passing from Enzo Fernandez and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to underline that this is a work in progress, but also enough to satisfy Maresca at the end of his first competitive week at Chelsea.

1.92 – Wolves had a higher expected goals (1.92) than their opponents Chelsea (1.56) today, and lost 6-2. Confusing. pic.twitter.com/EzrHXcmUPw

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) August 25, 2024

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Welcome to the Portuguese Connection

In the 80th minute, Chelsea scored their sixth goal, worth £96 million ($126.8 million), which could have brought the greatest satisfaction to Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly.

Neto created a counter-attacking chance out of nothing with a lightning strike over the halfway line on the left, Palmer ran him over with a measured pass and the rest seemed strangely inevitable: the inviting cut-back to find Joao Felix, who didn’t even break his stride as he swept a first-time shot into the top corner.

Chelsea’s two latest signings both found plenty of space to exploit as Wolves collapsed in the second half at Molineux, but the lasting impression their contributions created is that Maresca has far more attacking power than Pochettino did this time last year – whether or not Victor Osimhen arrives before the transfer deadline.

Jackson has already found his attacking game, Madueke looks determined to fit into this team and Palmer is as effective as ever. Christopher Nkunku, Chelsea’s best player in pre-season, didn’t even start this game and has yet to score as many predicted in the early weeks, while Mykhailo Mudryk still looks lost.

In other circumstances, the Ukrainian’s withdrawal after 45 minutes of anonymous play would have been a bigger deal. Chelsea had Neto, Joao Felix and Nkunku in reserve and while Maresca’s side will face far more defensive resistance than Wolves, they look better equipped to face the challenges ahead.

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What did Maresca say?

“I think the intention in the first half was good, but we lost four or five easy balls on set pieces and counter-attacks. The second half was completely different, we didn’t lose any balls and controlled the game. The tactical plan in the second half was the same, but we were a bit more precise and didn’t lose any easy balls.”

On Madueke’s performance: “In the first 10 minutes he had two chances and overall he was very good. The only thing I didn’t like about Noni was the free-kick he conceded before half-time (from which Larsen equalised) and we can avoid that. Especially against a team that is good at set-pieces.”

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What’s next for Chelsea?

Thursday August 29: Servette (A), Conference League play-off second leg, 7:30 p.m. UK, 2:30 p.m. ET

Chelsea lead 2-0 from last week’s home game at Stamford Bridge and are looking to qualify for the group stage.

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(Top photo: Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)