It wasn’t the most enjoyable of wins for Chelsea fans, who weren’t let relax until the final whistle as Wolves fought back from three goals down — and Liam Delap’s sending off certainly didn’t help.
Chelsea are through to the last eight in the Carabao Cup, but they had to earn it with a hard-fought contest against Wolves.
It didn’t look like going that way, with Chelsea entering the break three goals to the good. But the second half performance from Wolves was much better, and the second half from Chelsea was dramatically worse.
It didn’t help that Delap saw red with five minutes left of normal time, and fans have had their say on the incident.
Chelsea fans react to Liam Delap’s red card in comeback match
The last ten minutes of this one were wild, with both teams scoring in quick succession — only after a second yellow card was shown to Delap for an elbow to the face of Emmanuel Agbadou.
It’s another sending off to add to Chelsea’s bizarre disciplinary record this season, and fans are far from pleased with their returning striker’s behaviour.
Delap was returning from a long absence and would have benefitted from a good performance.
As this fan puts it: “That was unacceptable from Delap.”
Another doesn’t seem surprised, and is noticing a trend: “Chelsea needs to sign experienced players, indiscipline is costing us games. These youngsters need an experienced fellow to learn from.”
In his short amount of time on the pitch, Delap looked far from convincing. This fan remarks: “Such an immature act. He was very rusty and it looked inevitable to go without a red. Shame!”
A trend in the Chelsea fan discourse after the game was to cite Nicolas Jackson, who was killed for a similar error last season.
One fan says: “You guys slandered Jackson his whole time here and look at Delap.”
Similarly: “Liam Delap with a red card we cursed Nicolas Jackson for doing months ago. Shame on you”
Chelsea got the win despite Delap’s error
As much as there is a prevailing dissatisfaction in the fanbase after such a shaky second half, Chelsea held on and got the win.
Jamie Gittens was outstanding against Wolves, and Estevao popped up with another sublime goal. That’s five in seven. Tyrique George also played very well.
Estevao Willian celebrates scoring for Chelsea against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Carabao Cup.
Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images
A display like that in the quarter-finals won’t do the job, and the players will know that. This is a poor, poor Wolves side that Chelsea allowed to look dangerous.
Maresca has a lot of work to do with regards to set-pieces.
But a win’s a win, and the quality of performance will be forgotten by the time the next round kicks off. Now onto Tottenham at the weekend.