Chelsea must shake off their midweek disappointment when they welcome bottom-of-the-table Wolverhampton Wanderers to Stamford Bridge on Saturday night.
The Blues have blown hot and cold as of late, with the very best and worst of Enzo Maresca’s Blues manifesting in recent outings. After outclassing Tottenham Hotspur in N17 last weekend, Chelsea subsequently produced a woeful defensive display and drew 2–2 with Qarabag in Azerbaijan.
That result leaves Chelsea with an uphill battle to qualify automatically for the Champions League round of 16.
Domestically, last week’s victory helped them up to seventh in the league table, with the top half currently tightly packed.
Wolves can only dream of such lofty heights. Managerless and without a Premier League victory this season, their outlook is bleak.
The Vitor Pereira era drew to a close with a 3–0 defeat at Fulham last weekend, and their failed approaches for former boss Gary O’Neil and Middlesbrough manager Rob Edwards mean youth team coaches James Collins and Richard Walker will take charge of the visitors in west London.
Here’s Sports Illustrated’s guide to Saturday’s game.
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Chelsea vs. Wolves Head-to-Head Record (Last Five Games)
Current Form (All Competitions)
Chelsea Wolves
Qarabag 2–2 Chelsea - 05/11/25 Fulham 3–0 Wolves - 01/11/25
Tottenham 0–1 Chelsea - 01/11/25 Wolves 3–4 Chelsea - 29/10/25
Wolves 3–4 Chelsea - 29/10/25 Wolves 2–3 Burnley - 26/10/25
Chelsea 1–2 Sunderland - 25/10/25 Sunderland 2–0 Wolves - 18/10/25
Nottingham Forest 0–3 Chelsea - 22/10/25 Wolves 1–1 Brighton - 05/10/25
Country TV channel/live stream
United Kingdom Sky Go UK, NOW, SKY GO Extra, Sky Sports Main Event, Sky Sports Premier League, Sky Ultra HD
United States fuboTV, UNIVERSO NOW, Peacock, Telemundo Deportes En Vivo, Amazon Prime Video, NBC, UNIVERSO
Canada DAZN Canada, fuboTV Canada, Amazon Prime Video, Fubo Sports Network Canada
Mexico Caliente TV, Amazon Prime Video, FOX One
Roméo Lavia
Roméo Lavia is injured again. / Heuler Andrey/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images
Roméo Lavia pulled up again with an injury on Wednesday night, and the perpetually unavailable midfielder will be out of action this weekend.
There are also doubts over Pedro Neto’s fitness as his former club visits Stamford Bridge. Maresca has said a decision has not yet been made as to whether the winger will play on Saturday.
Cole Palmer is continuing his recovery from a groin injury, while Levi Colwill and Dário Essugo are long-term absentees. Benoît Badiashile is also sidelined.
Wesley Fofana and Trevoh Chalobah should return to Chelsea’s defence, while Enzo Fernández and Moisés Caicedo will come back into the engine room. The latter played most of Wednesday’s game anyway because of Lavia’s injury.
Chelsea
Maresca will make plenty of changes from their midweek disappointment. / FotMo
Chelsea predicted lineup vs. Wolves (4-2-3-1): Sánchez; Gusto, Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella; James, Caicedo; Estêvão, Fernández, Garnacho; Pedro.
James Collins will be taking today's press conference at 1pm.
Watch live on the Wolves App 📲 https://t.co/WR96IyHj5k pic.twitter.com/iBn3K4HSp6
— Wolves (@Wolves) November 7, 2025
There are unlikely to be wholesale changes from the interim managers despite Wolves’ woeful start to the season, but they will have to manager without the suspended Emmanuel Agbadou, who was sent off in last week’s defeat.
João Gomes will come in for the Ivorian and potentially partner Marshall Munetsi in midfield.
Matt Doherty and Rodrigo Gomes are believed to be the visitors’ only other two absences, with the pair missing out through injury.
Jørgen Strand Larsen is the man they’ll turn to to lift them out of the mire, while Jhon Arias is an impressive counter-attacking threat who could cause Chelsea problems.
Wolverhampton Wanderers
There are unlikely to be drastic changes from the interim managers. / FotMo
Wolves predicted lineup vs. Chelsea (3-4-2-1): Johnstone; Krejčí, S. Bueno, Toti; Tchatchoua, Munetsi, J. Gomes, H. Bueno; Arias, Bellegarde; Strand Larsen.
A heavily rotated Chelsea recently won a back-and-forth Carabao Cup tie at Molineux 4–3, with the Blues’ team set to look completely different this weekend.
They’re returning from Azerbaijan, so we perhaps shouldn’t expect a performance akin to last week’s triumph in north London, but it’s hard to imagine a Wolves team currently without a clear direction rocking up to the Bridge and stunning Maresca’s side.
Pereira’s exit may offer the visitors bump, which means they should avoid a battering.
Prediction: Chelsea 3–1 Wolves
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