FROM STAMFORD BRIDGE – Chelsea won their first Premier League title of 2025 with a 3-1 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers on Monday night.
Predictably, the Blues dominated their struggling visitors, taking a deserved lead through Tosin Adarabuioyo midway through the first half.
Wolves played on the seeds of doubt planted by Chelsea’s poor form, with Matt Doherty capitalizing on a Robert Sanchez mistake on the stroke of half-time.
A flurry of goals shortly after the hour mark from Marc Cucurella and Noni Madueke calmed the gently rising sense of tension at Stamford Bridge as the Blues held on for three points that lifted them above Manchester City and back into the middle. Premier Leaguethe first four.
How the game developed
Enzo Maresca described Chelsea’s management in January as a “disaster” due to the endless whirlwind of transfer the speculation Results have not eased that pressure, with the Blues winless in five league games heading into Monday night’s clash.
A bright start quickly banished memories of that poor form. Cole Palmer wreaked havoc with spikes between the lines, both full-backs took a beating from their opposite full-backs and Marc Cucurella turned with his trademark sense of reckless abandon. However, it was Wolves which gave Chelsea their breakthrough.
A miscommunication between Matt Doherty and Jose Sa, their minds fried by the daily stress that hangs over a relegation-fighting club, almost put the ball into their own net. The visitors escaped with a corner, which still led to the first goal.
In the second phase of that set piece, Reece James’ deflected effort bounced kindly off the belly of Tosin Adarabioyo. Fresh from a brace last weekend against Morecambethe prolific new center kept his cool and slotted the opener past Sa in the 24th minute.
If Chelsea’s first strike came with a helping hand, Wolves’ equalizer might as well have been wrapped in a ribbon. Robert Sanchez fired home Matheus Cunha’s corner in first-half stoppage time, sending the ball straight into the path of a grateful Doherty, who made up for his earlier error with a stabbed equaliser.
The Blues regrouped at the break, returning to the second half with the uneven monopoly of possession and chances that had marked the first 45 minutes.
Cucurella finally made the dominance count on the hour mark, finishing off a quick zig-zag move with a chipped effort just inside the far post before Wolves even had a shot in the second half. Noni Madueke’s cross was flicked on by Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Cucurella’s run was picked out from the bottom corner, just like his colleague at the back, Tosin.
Barely five minutes had passed before Chelsea doubled their lead. Returning Trevoh Chalobah soared above a group of gold jerseys to blast Palmer’s floating free kick into the turf. Before the ball could nestle into the net, completing a hat-trick of defensive goalscorers for the Blues, Madueke snuck in to nod off. ChelseaThe third of the night over the line.
There was a collective feeling of pulling away from the Blues in the closing stages, leaving Wolves to hold on to the illusion of remaining in the contest. However, Chelsea finally got a much-needed win that piles the pressure back on their opponents, who sit above the relegation zone on goal difference alone.
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“This place sucks.” This was Madueke’s blunt and forceful assessment of Wolverhampton as a city on social media before it moved in a hat-trick against the Wanderers come back in august The England international apologized for his hastily deleted post but had no reason to once again regret his impressive contribution against the same opposition.
Madueke had his way with Rayan Ait-Nouri so often and forcefully in the opening 20 minutes that Pereira took the unorthodox approach of switching his full-backs. Nelson Semedo was more successful against the intriguing left-footer, but as soon as he gave Madueke more than a whisper of space, the headband-clad forward placed the cross that led to Cucurella’s goal.
Maresca has he questioned Madueke’s work rate At times this season, but the striker showed plenty of desire to steal a goal from Chalobah, nodding in from the touchline before celebrating directly in front of the away fans who now had another reason not to like the extreme
Wolves manager Pereira described Cunha as a player who can “take a rabbit and magic in the moment on the pitch and create something special”. Reece James was tasked with addressing the Brazilian’s deception and did so by turning the duel into a physical slugfest.
Wherever Cunha wandered, James’ thick shoulder was never far. At one point midway through the second half, Wolves’ talismanic forward drifted to the center circle to escape his chief jailer, but the Blues skipper materialized to take him (pretty much) to the turf .
There will be those who argue that Cunha wasn’t himself as he spent the week recovering from illness, but James’ entire career is essentially one long comeback from injury. The Stamford Bridge crowd certainly appreciated their captain, giving the right-back a standing ovation as he trotted off for the final 15 minutes.
The speed of Trevoh Chalobah’s return to the Chelsea first team was so quick that the he quickly recalled he didn’t even make the matchday program for the Wolves’ visit.
Maresca insisted Chalobah, who spent almost two decades coming through the Blues’ academy, only joined Crystal Palace this summer to comply with the club’s financial fair play requirements. After an excess of defensive injuries, “the best solution was to recover Trev”, as explained by the Italian.
Excitement at Chalobah’s first challenge on Monday surged around Stamford Bridge, giving way to spontaneous outbursts of the returning defender’s name. The 25-year-old made so many subsequent interventions that the shouts of approval were no longer just sentimental but fully deserved.
It was almost a fairytale comeback for Chalobah, whose header bounced past Sa and over the line before Madueke got his header on the ball.
