Chelsea: Four things to look for on final day against Wolverhampton
By Nate Hofmann
Chelsea faces Wolverhampton on Championship Sunday in a must not lose affair. What should fans be looking for in the clash?
At this point, everything on the field is pretty much a known quantity. Chelsea’s defense is creaky. Kepa Arrizabalaga is a sieve. Christian Pulisic is football Jesus. In that sense, there’s nothing new under the sun.
What sets this final match of the season apart though is what happens inside the heads of everyone involved. While those mental games aren’t exactly “things to look for” in the traditional sense, the pressures, permutations and paranoias that each player and manager has in their head will most certainly affect the football itself. Match day 38 is inherently impossible to predict, but the ultimate results will come down to each team’s success in tackling these mental tests.
Which Chelsea shows up?
It’s tough to find the bright spots in a match where the team concedes three goals in the first half, but Chelsea’s 5-3 loss against Liverpool had its moments.
That first half was a train wreck of the highest magnitude, where the Blues couldn’t have responded any worse after Naby Keita’s exceptional opener. Chelsea’s blushes were at least partially spared by Olivier Giroud, whose goal in stoppage time provided at least a modicum of positive momentum headed into the break.
The second half, then, was a different story entirely. Of course, it was Liverpool who scored first, pushing the Reds’ lead back to three, but the rest of the match was mostly in Chelsea’s favor. Whether it was the substitutes, a halftime come-to-Jesus speech, or just Liverpool’s arrogance, the Blues looked like an entirely different side in the final half hour of the match. Ideally, fans love to see that kind of effort kick in before they’re staring at a three goal deficit, but it’s better than nothing.
Against Wolves, Chelsea will need to produce a full ninety minutes full of the same vim and vigor that almost led to a miraculous comeback on Wednesday. Anything else will be expertly punished by a Wolves side that has no problem stepping up against the “big” clubs.
Chelsea certainly didn’t lack energy in the first half against Liverpool, but it was the kind of nervous energy that is nearly impossible to focus correctly. Unfortunately, it took twenty minutes of being utterly dominated for Chelsea to clear their minds and begin playing like a legitimate professional football club. The effort and desire were obvious from the start, but there’s a point where freneticism is actually more dangerous than ennui. Chelsea eventually landed on a healthy middle ground, but by that point it was too late to truly trouble the Reds.
On Sunday, the stakes will be even higher than they were on Wednesday, and the natural tendency will be to come out like a frenzied bull from the first whistle. That would be a massive mistake against Wolves, who are organized, systematic and ruthlessly efficient at capitalizing on opponents’ mental errors.
Instead, Frank Lampard will be looking for the type of professional display that Chelsea put on in the second half against Liverpool. It was bright, aggressive football, but it lacked the air of manic desperation that got the Blues in such a hole in the first place.
The Liverpool performance served as a perfect example of the two versions of Chelsea seen this season: the naively exuberant version, and the reasonably aggressive one. The former will be punished dearly, whereas the latter could seal a spot in next season’s Champions League. It will be clear within the first five minutes which version is showing up on Sunday.