Thomas Tuchel made his Chelsea debut with a 0-0 draw after the Blues failed to beat Wolverhampton at Stamford Bridge in the 20th round. It’s an indisputable fact that the Londoners were the far more attacking team in the course of the game, but the perfect game in defense for the Wolves countered the dozens of attempts to attack by the Chelsea team.
In his debut game in English football, Tuchel bet on a 4-2-3-1. The top of the attack was occupied by Olivier Giroud, and the pair in defense in front of Mendy was Rüdiger and Thiago Silva. Kovacic and Jorgeninho were supporting midfielders, and Ziyech, Havertz and Hudson-Odoi had to help the French scorer.
The Londoners started the game more aggressively and this led to danger in front of Patricio’s door after five minutes of play. Then Hakim Ziyech advanced to the right and passed Ait-Nouri, then crossed for Giroud, but the Frenchman missed score. A moment later, Chillwell looked for Giroud on the left, but the ball was high for the striker. The territorial advantage of the Blues against the guest continued, and the first accurate shot came in the 20th minute, when Hakim Ziyech shot from a distance, but Patircio calmly caught. Ruben Neves tried his luck at Chelsea’s goal from a free kick, but was quite inaccurate. In the 38th minute, the hosts took a free kick near the corner. There, Ziyech crossed on the far post, where he found Rüdiger, but his header was saved by Patricio. A minute later, the guests developed an attack perfectly, as Pedro Neto and Daniel Podence combined on the left. The second crossed in the penalty spot, where he found the completely uncovered Leander Dendoncker, whose header flew over Mendy’s crossbar.
The first big chance in the second half came in the 59th minute. Then Ziyech delivered another cross to Olivier Giroud, but Boly cleared with his head in a corner, and Captain Coady, who blocked the movement of Giroud, helped him intervene. Nothing serious happened in the ensuing corner. After a little more than an hour of play, Mateo Kovacic brought out at good position Kai Havertz, who combined with Mateo Kovacic, but the shot on the diagonal of the Croatian national flew away from. A moment later, Hudson-Odoi combined at the right wing with Ziyech. Giroud broke away from Cody’s marking, but his shot was weak and the Wolves guard intervened calmly. The guests counterattacked through Pedro Neto and Daniel Podence, and after a few ricochets Neto tried a technical lob shot over Mandy, but the ball somehow did not end up in the goal of the French guard.
Chelsea continued to try to find a goal, but the attempts of the Blues were not successful. Time was running out, and with that, Tuchel’s players were getting nervous, although their desire was great to beat the Wolves’ defense. Four before the end, Hudson-Odoi fired from a favorable position after moving to the left on the attack of Chelsea. He went diagonally along the edge of the penalty area and shot, the ball bounced off Cody’s feet, but Patricio was careful and bounced off. In the 88th minute, the substitute Mason Mount ran from the left wing , crossed sharply, but a vital intervention of Boly saved a sure goal after the ball went to Tammy Abraham. In added time, Kai Havertz rose after a cross from a corner kick and made a dangerous header, but Wolves reserve Willian Jose deflected the ball and saved the point for the Wolves.
The draw left Chelsea in eighth place with 30 points – 11 behind the leader Manchester City. Wolverhampton remained 13th with 23 points.
