Chelsea 2-0 Wolves - Second gear again Chelsea!

Chelsea beat Wolves 2-0 on Saturday at the Bridge and the overiding feeling I was left with was that firstly Chelsea played well within themselves once again, more or less in second gear and secondly, credit to Wolves for the way they came to Stamford Bridge and took the game to Chelsea. Wolves got beat 2-0 but left the Bridge having more shots on target compared to Chelsea and Petr Cech was made to work much harder in our goal than Marcus Hahnemann was in theirs!.

They started off the brighter, had early pressure and a number of corners but at that point never forced Cech into any save. Edwards and Van Damme then tested Cech with headers, Stephen Hunt's diving header was cleared off the line by Essien. Cech then performed acrobatics to deny Kevin Doyle from 18 yards and Cech then saved easily from Milijas. Doyle then forced Cech to collect his close range header from a corner. You have to hand it to them they played well. Very rarely at the Bridge has Cech been called into action has often has he had been. Despite all this Chelsea kept a clean sheet to make it 8 consecutive games which beats our old record.

We created chances in the game. Bosingwa forced Hahnemann into a save early doors, Drogba shot just wide and Cole had a chance but we were yet to hit the back of the net. However that changed on 23 minutes. Nico Anelka broke with the ball and fed Zhirkov down the left and his pullback found Malouda who hit it first time and found the back of the net. 1-0 Chelsea.

Before the break Jose Bosingwa, making his first start for a year, was at it again and forced another save from Hahnemann in goal. Second half and Chelsea had alot of possession in and around the Wolves box but lacked that killer ball at times. Drogba, Malouda and Essien all chances to add to our goal tally but never worked the Keeper which was disappointing. Late on in the game Essien curled a shot towards the top corner but over the bar and it looked like a 1-0 was on the cards.

Carlo made the decisions to bring on his subs, Ferreira and Kalou for Bosingwa and Malouda and it was the latter who finally killed the game off with the second goal. Kalou picked up the ball and fed Drogba, Drogba then passed to Essien and it was Essien's through ball to Kalou that opened up the defence and Kalou slotted the ball under Hahemann's dive to make it 2-0 Chelsea and we saw the game out and won the game.

Of course we could have played better and know we could of played better but never really seemed to be at it on Saturday. Ancelotti has even admitted and acknowledged the fact that we weren't at 100% but a win is a win especially after playing a Champions League game in the week and that game being in Moscow!.

Wolves do deserve alot of credit for the way they played but you do feel if Chelsea were up and at it from the off then it would have been a much different story. We have to put this one behind us, take the three points and move on to next week at Blackburn now.

The positives we do take from the game are, the return to the starting eleven of Jose Bosingwa who will get better and better with each game he plays. The return of Didier Drogba to the side. Ok he wasn't at his best but he has been laid low with a fever so I am sure we will see him back to his old self on Saturday and also Zhirkov playing gives Ramires a much needed breather. Come Saturday it would be two weeks since his last game so will be fresh and ready to be involved.

So its eight clean sheets in a row at the Bridge and a five point lead in the title race we take into next week. I think anyone of us would have settled for that at this stage as we need to keep winning games no matter how we play.

For now though, we all know we can play so much better and when are we going to get out of second gear!?

Chelsea (4-3-3): Cech; Bosingwa (Ferreira 78), Ivanovic, Terry (c), Cole; Essien, Mikel, Zhirkov (McEachran 81); Anelka, Drogba, Malouda (Kalou 72).
Unused subs Turnbull, Bruma, Kakuta, Sturridge.
Booked Mikel

Wolverhampton Wanderers (4-5-1): Hahnemann; Foley, Stearman, Berra (c), Ward; Jarvis (Fletcher 86), Edwards, Milijas, Jones, Van Damme (Hunt h/t); Doyle (Ebanks-Blake 86).
Unused subs Hennessey, Elokobi, Mouyokolo, Davis.
Booked Stearman, Berra

Referee Lee Probert

Shots on target Chelsea 7 Wolverhampton Wanderers 9
Corners Chelsea 8 Wolverhampton Wanderers 8
Fouls Chelsea 9 Wolverhampton Wanderers 8
Offsides Chelsea 2 Wolverhampton Wanderers 1

Attendance 41,752
(Stats source: ChelseaFC.com)

KTBFFH