Cole Palmer scored a first-half hat-trick featuring two penalties in Chelsea’s 3-1 win over Wolves at Molineux.
Two unnecessary fouls on Joao Pedro presented Palmer with his penalties, the experienced Matt Doherty fouling the Brazilian from behind for the first and Yerson Mosquera shoving him over with both hands for the second. Palmer made no mistake.
Chelsea took advantage of Wolves’ low confidence, Marc Cucurella’s fine run from deep converted emphatically by Palmer for his third in the 38th minute. Wolves, who had not scored a Premier League goal for a month, appeared to have little hope of coming back.
Player ratings:
Wolves: Sa (6), Doherty (4), Mosquera (5), S Bueno (6), H Bueno (6), J Gomes (6), A Gomes (7), Mane (7), Hwang (4), Armstrong (6), Arokodare (6).
Subs: Krejci (6), R Gomes (7), Bellegarde (n/a), Lima (n/a).
Chelsea: Sanchez (6), Gusto (7), Fofana (7), Chalobah (7), Cucurella (7), Andrey Santos (6), Caicedo (7), Palmer (9), Enzo (7), Neto (7), Joao Pedro (7).
Subs: Garnacho (6), Delap (6), Acheampong (6), Hato (n/a).
Player of the Match: Cole Palmer.
Team news:
Angel Gomes and Adam Armstrong came in to make their Wolves debuts with Matt Doherty the other to come in as Wolves switched to four at the back.
Liam Rosenior also reverted to a back four with Cole Palmer and Pedro Neto coming into the Chelsea side in place of Jorrel Hato and Liam Delap.
Tolu Arokodare did pull one back early in the second half as Chelsea wobbled, failing to manage the game as well as they might once Wolves had switched to five at the back. But the game fizzled out in the rain as the away side took the points.
Chelsea’s win means Liam Rosenior’s side stay fifth but move within a point of fourth-placed Manchester United and four ahead of Liverpool in sixth, before the Reds face Manchester City on Sunday. The Blues have beaten all but Arsenal in their last nine.
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Player of the match: Cole Palmer
Palmer has been in the spotlight of late after an injury-hit season in which he has failed to find his best form so the hope is that this hat-trick will be the prelude to a strong finish to the season in Chelsea blue. His finishing was certainly exemplary.
“When you have a player like Cole Palmer you’re glad he is your penalty taker because he is fantastic,” Rosenior told Sky Sports.
“He is a fantastic player, but I think he gets the goals because it was a fantastic team performance. It created those moments for him. Because he is a world-class player, he takes those moments.”
Rosenior: We played some outstanding football
Chelsea boss Liam Rosenior speaking to Sky Sports:
“In the first half we played some outstanding football – combination play, we tweaked the system a little bit and the lads took to it so, so well.
“Then you want to kick on in the second half, but credit to Wolves – every team in the Premier League is a good team.
“Our level wasn’t at the level it was in the first half, which was disappointing.
“But when you come away from home in the Premier League, you take it, you move on, and focus on another difficult game on Tuesday.”
Edwards: Ludicrous mistakes cost Wolves
Wolves boss Rob Edwards speaking in the press conference:
“My hand is sort of feeling the effects after thumping the door with it in a bit of anger. It was a real promising start and then a couple of real ludicrous mistakes against a top team of brilliant players, it’s going to be a really difficult day for us then.
“And then at 2-0 down, you felt the energy and everything, and looking at the lads on the pitch, it looked a little bit like when we first came in. That’s what it felt like for a period of time. It looked a bit disjointed for a period.
“They’ve got their tails up, you know, they’ve got Enzo [Fernandez], Cole Palmer, they’ve got those other people in pockets of space and they’re finding them. And obviously when they get the third, then it was about stopping the bleeding.
“I thought the players reacted very, very well then, once we were able to get them in at half-time and organise things as the challenge was then, obviously we know it is going to be very difficult to win the game or get something from it, but it was about trying to win the half and sticking to the things that we wanted to do.
“On the tactics board but we’re also then about showing some passion and making sure we fight. And we did that, it wasn’t a team that went under in the end. Because if it had, it would have been embarrassing.”
Story of the match in stats…