“What will be, will be, whatever will be, will be”, chanted the Chelsea fans on the way to Stamford Bridge, which took advantage of the meeting with Wolverhampton to welcome its new owner, Todd Boehly. The American businessman was in the stands and enthusiastically celebrated Romelu Lukaku’s two goals, but ended up disappointed following Coady’s 2-2 win in 96′. A tie that endangers the third place of the blues in the Premier League, with three games to go.
Thus the things, to the Chelsea was put to him of face the party from before the initial whistle. Bruno Lage and his brother Luis Nascimento, who are the Wolves’ first and second coach, respectively, have tested positive for COVID. and had to give up their seat to goalkeeping coach Tony Roberts. An anecdote that messed up the visiting team, at the mercy of the blues from the early stages of the game.
But the dominance of Thomas Tuchel’s team took time to translate into great occasions. Lukaku and Werner formed a two-headed striker who had to wait until well into the first half to acclimate to the duel. Even more so, following seeing how Chelsea had two goals disallowed: the first due to an alleged foul by Werner in attack and the second due to a very tight offside by Loftus-Cheek.
Chelsea, however, continued to grow in the game and Lukaku found his best football just before the return to the locker room. A half-turn shot served as a warning for Sa, who stopped the shot but might not contain the Belgian striker in the second half. For this reason, in the 56th minute, following Lukaku had caused a penalty, he himself was in charge of finishing it off and making it 1-0.
Lukaku was on fire and two minutes later, in minute 58, he made it 2-0 with a shot from below with which he seemed to get rid of all his ills. Werner also wanted to join the goal festival, but the Wolves goalkeeper denied him. That cut Chelsea’s landslide, which sinned overconfident and freed up many spaces behind. Neto tried to get a slice without much luck, but Trincao, who came out of shock, did manage to hurt the locals. A great goal from outside the box put the Wolves back in the game, and in the 96th minute they equalized with a sneaky header from Coady. It was he who spoiled Todd Boehly’s party at the Bridge.
Watford relegated
Watford were relegated from the Premier League on Saturday following losing 1-0 to Crystal Palace when Wilfried Zaha’s first-half penalty soured former manager Roy Hodgson’s return to Selhurst Park. Palace were handed a penalty by Hassane Kamara and Zaha stepped forward to score his 13th goal of the season. The visitors needed a win and a mathematical blow to maintain their hopes of surviving the fall, but there was no miracle. Watford’s task of scoring at least two goals was made even more difficult when they were reduced to 10 men in the second half following Kamara, booked earlier for handballing, received another yellow card for a foul on Michael Olise. Foster kept Watford in the game with a number of fine saves, but his team-mates offered little in attack and fell to their sixth successive league defeat. Patrick Vieira’s team climbed to ninth place with 44 points.
Changes
saul (45′, Marcos Alonso), Hwang Hee-Chan (69′, Pedro Neto), Chiquinho (70′, Romain Saiss), latch (76′, Ruben Neves), Poor Sarr (86 ‘, Azpilicueta), Kai Havertz (90′, Lukaku)
goals
1-0, 55′: Lukaku2-0, 57′: Lukaku2-1, 78′: latch2-2, 96′: Coady
cards
Referee: Peter Bankes
Arbitro VAR: Jarred Gillett
Azpilicueta (26′, Yellow) Romain Saiss (35′, Yellow) Pedro Neto (46′, Yellow) Moutinho (50′, Yellow
