(Football news) Matchweek one saw Wolverhampton Wanderers lose 2-0 to Arsenal, while the Blues were defeated 2-0 by Manchester City before making up ground in Europe.
Pitting their wits against a side whom they had not kept a clean sheet against since 1979, Wolves conceding first at the Emirates was perhaps the least surprising occurrence of the opening weekend, as Kai Havertz nodded in Bukayo Saka’s delivery on the 25-minute mark.
However, Arsenal’s initial failure to build on their one-goal lead allowed Wolves back into the battle, but O’Neil’s team were also found wanting in the final third and had their defeat rubber-stamped when Havertz and Saka swapped roles for the Gunners’ second.
While O’Neil could understandably take pride from Wolves’ overall display in North London, he conceded that last year’s runners-up possessed the killer touch that his players lacked, as Wolves suffered an opening-day defeat for the fourth season running.
A return to Molineux turf may not provide the Wolves faithful with much comfort either, as the hosts lost four of their final five home matches in the 2024-25 Premier League season, with their only triumph in that sequence being a 2-1 win over relegated Luton Town.
In fact, six losses at home in the whole of 2024 is more than any other Premier League side in the current calendar year, and should O’Neil’s men come up short again, the 41-year-old will become the first single Wolves boss since Terry Connor in 2012 to lose five top-flight games on the spin.
O’Neil and his opposite number Enzo Maresca can empathise when it comes to two-goal losses against Premier League title challengers, as even though Manchester City were only operating in third or fourth gear at Stamford Bridge last weekend, they still travelled home with an expected three points.
Who else but Erling Haaland would open the champions’ account for the new season, before a former Chelsea flame in Mateo Kovacic left the Blues’ current midfielders chasing shadows before succeeding with an attempt that Robert Sanchez arguably should have done better with.
Discontent around West London grew exponentially in the opening 45 of Thursday’s Conference League playoff against Servette too, where Maresca’s men were booed off the field following a goalless first half, but Christopher Nkunku’s penalty and Noni Madueke’s thumping finish spared Blues blushes.
Never far away from the off-field headlines regarding their astounding squad size and ostracisation of celebrated names, Chelsea seek a third straight Premier League away win on Sunday following successes at Nottingham Forest and Brighton & Hove Albion last year, but the jaws of Wolves have often proved too difficult to pry open.
Indeed, Chelsea have been beaten in their last three matches against Sunday’s hosts, losing 2-1 at Molineux on Christmas Eve 2023 before a 4-2 home humbling in February, where Matheus Cunha became just the fourth visiting player to score a Premier League hat-trick at Stamford Bridge.
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