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 arrived at 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. Already eight points from safety and in danger of being cut adrift at the foot of the table, their campaign was collapsing into complete chaos.

For this one game, Wanderers put academy coaches James Collins and Richard Walker in charge. Their plan was to play at the Bridge in a low block, using a 5-4-1 formation, which they had difficulty implementing initially.

But, pushed back by Chelsea from the start, they got 10 men behind the ball and began to frustrate the Blues, who had only returned from Azerbaijan on Thursday after a 5,000-mile round trip to play Qarabag in the Champions League in midweek.

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