Chelsea and Wolves both look to bounce back from midweek defeats as they collide at Stamford Bridge.
Victory could see Chelsea climb to ninth in the table, whilst Wolves can leapfrog their hosts into tenth position with a win
Team News
Nicolas Jackson could return for Chelsea after his arrival back at the club following Senegal’s exit from Africa Cup of Nations.
Marc Cucurella (ankle), Levi Colwill (tendon), Trevoh Chalobah, Reece James, Lesley Ugochukwu (all hamstring), Wesley Fofana (ACL), Romeo Lavia (knock) and Robert Sanchez (knee) remain ruled out.
Wolves have no fresh injury concerns after a 4-3 defeat at home to Manchester United as Hwang Hee-chan and Boubacar Traore (both international duty) remain absent.
When is Kick-Off?
Chelsea face Wolves at Stamford Bridge in a 2pm GMT kick-off on Sunday 4 February, untelevised live in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Chelsea have won one of their last seven league meetings against Wolves (W1, D3, L3).
- Wolves are winless in nine Premier League trips to Chelsea (D3, L6).
- Chelsea have kept clean sheets in three of their last four home games against Wolves, except for 2-2 draw in May 2022.
- Cole Palmer has scored three goals in two of his last three league appearances for Chelsea.
- Wolves have won just one of five previous league trips to London-based clubs in the league this season (W1, L4).
Prediction
If Chelsea fans are irate at the team’s inconsistency in performance, it is just as hard for us sport journalists trying to make predictions because we just don’t know what sort of performance to expect from them from game to game.
Throw in a lacklustre performance at Liverpool and there is cause for concern given how their left flank was outclassed by Conor Bradley, before we even get stuck into their messy defence or weak end product which simply needs to improve quickly.
Wolves meanwhile could of easily collapsed defensively after conceding two sloppy first-half goals, yet their team spirit and unity shone brightly in a strong second-half fightback only for their weak defensive marking to cost them a point after recovering to 3-3.
Gary O’Neil’s Old Gold though must use that second-half performance as motivation to get at Chelsea in the same way that Liverpool did, because if they can do that then they should end their Stamford Bridge hoodoo in this competition otherwise Chelsea might nick it if are clinical enough.
Prediction: Chelsea 1-2 Wolves
Result: Chelsea 2-4 Wolves