Chelsea steal into second place as Estêvão excitement builds at the Bridge

Chelsea (0) 3 v Wolverhampton Wanderers (0) 0

Gusto 51

João Pedro 65

Neto 73

By Kaz Mochlinski at Stamford Bridge

Premier League

Matchweek 11

Malo Gusto scored the first goal of his career and Estêvão Willian increased his growing star status still further as Chelsea moved into second place in the Premier League with a 3-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Three goals in the second half eventually broke the stubborn resistance of the league’s bottom team, who came to Stamford Bridge winless and managerless but succeeded in keeping the Club World Champions scoreless at half-time.

Gusto took the example of his fellow full-back Marc Cucurella in arriving unexpectedly into the opposition penalty box for a headed finish to crucially break the deadlock less than six minutes after the interval.

Then Estêvão conjured space on the right wing within not much more than a minute of coming on as a substitute to supply the ball from which João Pedro with a first-time strike scored for the second successive Saturday night.

And Pedro Neto against his former club confirmed Chelsea’s seventh victory in their last nine games in all competitions by putting away another first-time contact to complete a quick counter-attack.

The passes for the first and third goals both came from Alejandro Garnacho on the left wing, as the Argentinian produced his best performance for the Blues since his summer signing from Manchester United for £40 million.

It was the first time that Garnacho managed to play the full 90 minutes for his new club, with his ever-increasing fitness and sharpness being evident throughout the match, as he made an incessant nuisance of himself from the outset.

Garnacho won a free-kick in the opening exchanges, from which Enzo Fernández very nearly scored, despite a tight angle on the left wing, curling-in an effort right-footed and forcing Sam Johnstone to tip the ball over at full stretch.

The two Argentinians linked well together, with Fernández turning provider in improvising a chip over Wolves’ five-man defence for Garnacho ghosting in off the left, but Johnstone reacted rapidly to smother the resulting shot.

Soon afterwards, the two full-backs combined, as Gusto’s run down the right wing led to a Cucurella shot from the edge of the penalty area, which again had Johnstone scrambling but slipped past the post.

This was all in the first 10 minutes as Chelsea tore into their struggling visitors from the kick-off and looked like they would take advantage of a weakened Wanderers side to secure an overwhelming win early on.

Wolves had sacked their head coach, Vitor Pereira, after losing in SW6 last weekend, and their first game since then was back in the same London neighbourhood, already eight points from safety and in danger of being cut adrift at the foot of the table.

With their campaign collapsing into complete chaos, for this one match Wanderers put their academy coaches James Collins and Richard Walker in charge. The plan they prepared was to play at the Bridge in a low block, using a 5-4-1 formation.

Their team had difficulty initially implementing it, but, repeatedly pushed back by Chelsea, they focused on getting 10 men behind the ball and began to frustrate the Blues, who were still feeling some effects from their midweek European assignment.

The squad had only returned from Azerbaijan on Thursday after a 5,000-mile round trip to play Qarabag in the Champions League, necessitating yet more rotation with eight changes to the starting XI being made by head coach Enzo Maresca.

This was the sixth successive game with at least seven changes in the Chelsea line-up, taking the total to 93 changes between their 17 matches in all competitions so far this season, significantly more than any other top flight club.

It results in the Blues players sometimes failing to connect instinctively on the pitch with different teammates around them. Against Wolves, they rapidly reverted to the Maresca default of keeping possession at the back and waiting for openings to occur.

The chances dried up, the home fans became restless, and the expectation was of further changes at half-time, with Maresca’s well-established fondness for triple substitutions. Surprisingly, this time he resisted making any at all.

Facing the worst defence in the Premier League, which had not kept a clean sheet all season, Chelsea trusted that opportunities to score would arise, and it helped that they started the second half as swiftly as the first.

Garnacho’s two excellent assists from wide positions just needed finishing off from close range by Gusto and Neto. In between, João Pedro showed his scoring skills in the box with a similarly sweetly-struck goal to his winner at Spurs a week earlier.

Away to Tottenham Hotspur he had been set up by Moisés Caicedo’s brilliance. Welcoming Wolves, João Pedro had to be grateful to Estêvão, who created the goal just 68 seconds after being introduced as Chelsea’s first substitute of the evening.

Estêvão’s entry increased the excitement around the ground immensely, with camera phones being raised every time he got the ball. He is already being rated by data analysts at over £100 million and the second most valuable teenager in world football.

Estêvão may still be a fair way behind Lamine Yamal, but his cameos for Chelsea are appearing ever more promising. And the pair of exceptional 18-year-olds are on course to face each other before the end of the month when Barcelona visit the Bridge.

Another teenager from Barca’s academy, Marc Guiu, almost added to Chelsea’s lead over Wolves, when Fernández set up a João Pedro shot. The save rebounded to Guiu, who hit the post and so continues his wait for a first goal in English domestic football.

3-0 is a dangerous scoreline for the Blues against Wolves, having led by the same margin at Molineux a week and a half ago in the League Cup before facing a fightback and only scrambling nervously through 4-3.

A somewhat stronger side for the league meeting in London ensured that there would be no comparable dramas for Chelsea this time. Instead it ended 3-0, just as Fulham v Wolves. Two consecutive weekends, two nearby stadiums visited, same result.

By an amazing coincidence, there was also another piece of history repeating itself. Collins was once previously co-caretaker of Wanderers, after Bruno Lage’s departure in October 2022, when his first match was at Stamford Bridge and was lost 3-0.

Nevertheless, Maresca afterwards admitted to being unusually nervous: “I was very worried before this game. Because these are the worst games. These are tricky games. Because everyone is thinking that it’s going to be easy…

“So I can understand that, first half, a lot of people was not happy. Probably because we didn’t score. I don’t think because of the performance, to be honest. And then, when Estêvão was inside, the energy raised.

“It’s because people loves, you know, that kind of player. So we are happy that he can help the team, and also the fans they can be happy.”

Especially while continuing to wait for Cole Palmer to come back from his current groin injury, having already missed 11 games, the demands from Chelsea supporters to see more of Estêvão, in Maresca’s phrase, “inside the pitch” will only grow greater.

Chelsea: (4-2-3-1) Sánchez - Gusto (James 77), Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella - Caicedo, Fernández (Andrey Santos 83) - Neto (Guiu 77), João Pedro (Gittens 83), Garnacho - Delap (Estêvão 64)

Wolverhampton Wanderers: (5-4-1) Johnstone - Tchatchoua, Santiago Bueno, Krejčí, Toti Gomes, Hugo Bueno - Bellegarde (Munetsi 70), Hwang Hee-Chan (Mané 70), André, João Gomes - Strand Larsen

Attendance: 39,467