Wolves 2-1 Chelsea: Late Christopher Nkunku goal not enough as Blues fall to fourth straight away defeat

Chelsea fell to a fourth consecutive defeat away from home as Wolves held on for a 2-1 win on Christmas Eve.

In the first Premier League fixture played on December 24 since 1995, the Blues made a confident start and should really have taken an early lead, with Nicolas Jackson fluffing his lines in front of goal and Armando Broja equally wasteful.

The biggest chance of a goalless first-half fell to Raheem Sterling, who robbed Joao Gomes and ran clean through on goal. He had Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson completely free to his right, but went for goal himself and was denied by Jose Sa.

Almost inevitably after those missed chances, it was Wolves who took the lead five minutes after the break. With their eighth corner of the match, the hosts opened the scoring as Mario Lemina flicked a header into the far corner.

Christopher Nkunku was brought on after an hour for his League debut and nearly provided a swift equaliser, but his poked effort was hacked off the line by Toti Gomes, before Craig Dawson was forced off with injury after making a superb block to deny Sterling.

The board went up to show 11 minutes of added-time, but Chelsea's hopes of a late charge were immediately dented by a second Wolves goal. Benoit Badiashile made a mess of a low ball into the middle, succeeding only in laying it off for Matt Doherty to finish calmy.

Nkunku did get his goal as the visitors responded, heading home well from Sterling's ball into the middle, and that left Chelsea with six minutes or so to level it up.

But an equaliser did not come for Chelsea, as they fell to a 19th Premier League defeat of 2023. That is, remarkably, more than any other side, with the latest poor result leaving the Blues tenth in the table at Christmas.