**Date:** Saturday 8th November 2025
**Venue**: Stamford Bridge
**Kick-off:** 20:00 GMT
I’m still searching for my jaw after the midweek Champions League shambles. How do we go from bossing Sp\*rs in the Premier League to desperately clinging on against Qarabag? I’d say Maresca’s still searching for his strongest XI – or maybe just his glasses – because picking that centre-back pairing was a crime even Sunday League managers would disown. Put it this way: most of us have seen garden gnomes with more defensive awareness. At this point, Maresca’s attempts at line-ups and in-game management are less “tactical genius” and more “lucky dip at the school fete”. It’s almost impressive how spectacularly wrong it goes every week.
Now, it’s winless Wolves at the Bridge. Given they nearly nicked a result off us in the Carabao Cup (helped by us doing our best Keystone Cops impression), they’ll turn up in London with more hope than a lottery winner buying a second ticket. Wolves are managerless after Vitor Pereira got the boot, so they’ll have two caretakers sharing a dugout and zero expectations – which is probably more than our back four can say right now. You just know they’ll be itching to break their duck today, and frankly, we might as well roll out the red carpet for them.
Our last six games? Three wins, three defeats – the sort of form you’d expect from a team whose main tactic is “see what happens”. We’re leaking goals like a sieve, racking up more errors than a broken calculator, and excitement levels are officially “watching paint dry” territory. Unless, of course, you’re a neutral – then it’s pure slapstick comedy.
I’ve given up on predictions – it’s as futile as guessing Maresca’s starting XI. It should make sense, but somehow you just end up scratching your head, muttering, “What’s he playing at now?”
**MANAGER’S VIEWS**
Going into today’s game, Enzo Maresca says “_We are in a moment, in an era where anyone can say what they want, it’s correct, I completely respect, but I also said after the Qarabag game, that since I joined the club, it’s also my view to rotate players, and no-one complained in the moment that you don’t win a game. I can understand that no-one disagreed. I think that when the rotation is Andrey Santos, Brazil international player, Jorrel Hato, Holland international player, Estevao Willian, Brazil international player, it’s not about rotation. They are good, they are talented, they are young, and for sure when they are young, you have to give them the chance to make some mistakes, to be better. The same thing I think happened in the past with Josh Acheampong. But again, I understand that when you don’t win a game, the problem is the rotation or defending._ _I think in this moment football is a bit different compared to years ago, in terms of physicality and intensity. For me personally, it’s impossible to play with the same players 65 games in one season, Champions League, Premier League. And you cannot say, but why years ago it was possible? Because it was different. It was not so physical. I played for 20 years. It was not so physical. Now it’s_ changed. So you need to rotate. This is my personal view. And I think you need to do that. If _you want to see a season like a marathon, then when you are in February, when you are in March, that is the last spring, probably you have to think in a different way. But at the moment, I think you have to think like a long race._
_I can understand that this season, the expectation has risen around the team. Again, last year, after 11 games, I think we had 19 points. If we are able to win tomorrow, we have more points this season compared to last season. So, do we have consistency or not? The big difference for me, personally, from this season and last season, is the expectation around the team. Because the numbers are there and we can be even better than last season. But because the expectation has risen, it’s obviously a big difference. I don’t like to think where we can be in April, May, June. I like to think how we can win tomorrow. This is the only target I have in my mind at this moment. Then after tomorrow, we have an international break. And then we go again. But for me, if you want to try to compete, you have to think about the next one, next one, next one. And then again, when we need the last sprint in March, April, it depends where we are, and then we decide.”_
Wolves caretaker, under-21s head coach, James Collins, says _“I would like to become a first-team coach of a Premier League or international team. There’s always a burning desire to coach at the highest level with the best players you possibly can. Whether that’s the highest development level or whether that’s first-team level, it’s not an itch I’ve been able to scratch. But what it (working with the first team) makes me realise is that I can do it. I can do it well. I’ve got experience to do it, and the players respond to it. There’s no getting away from the fact the excitement at the top end is different than when you’re taking in young and youth-team players. So yes, it’s something that I would like to do. I would like to coach the best players I possibly can coach, and if that’s in the Premier League with the (Wolves) first team, then that’s what I’d like to do.”_
**SQUAD NEWS**
For Chelsea, Levi Colwill (ACL), Benoit Badiashille (muscle), Dario Essugo (thigh), and Cole Palmer (groin) are all injured, and unfortunately, if not unsurprisingly, are joined by Romeo Lavia again who suffered another thigh problem just minutes into the Champions League game against Qarabag midweek. Mykhaylo Mudryk (remember him?) remains suspended.
For Wolves, Matt Doherty (knee), Leon Chiwome (knee) and Rodrigo Gomes (groin) are all out injured. Emmanuel Agbadou is suspended after a straight red card against Fulham.
**TEAMS**
CHELSEA (Possible line-up): Sanchez; Gusto, Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella; Caicedo, Fernandez; Neto, Pedro, Garnacho; Delap
WOLVES (Possible line-up): Johnstone; Toti, Krejci, S. Bueno; Tchatchoua, Andre, Gomes, H. Bueno; Munetsi, Bellegarde; Strand Larsen
**LAST SEASON**
Chelsea 3-1 Wolves (20th January 2025)
**CURRENT FORM (PL)**
CHELSEA: LLWWLW
WOLVES: LDDLLL
**OTHER STUFF**
* After losing three consecutive Premier League games against Wolves between April 2023 and February 2024, Chelsea bit back last season, putting 9 goals past them in two games.
* Wolves have only escaped Stamford Bridge with all three points once in 11 tries – they must really love sightseeing in London.
* Chelsea have scored at least five goals in four matches against Wolves in the Premier League, including a 6-2 away day – and nobody else gets the same treatment!
* Wolves have collected just two points in ten games this season – that’s not just bad, it’s “book the Championship bus” bad if history’s anything to go by.
* While Chelsea rarely know what losing feels like, Wolves have practically set up camp in the losing column – they’ve spent more time behind than anyone else!
* Wolves are winless in 14 games – not quite record-breaking, but they’re closing in on a 1970s throwback they’d rather avoid!
**PREDICTION**
[Sportsmole](Preview:Chelsea vs Wolverhampton Wanderers - prediction, team news, lineups - Sports Mole): Chelsea 2-0 Wolves