Molineux has been a good hunting ground for Chelsea in the 21st Century with victories on four of our last six visits to the home of Wolverhampton Wanderers.
As the Blues look to return to winning ways against Wolves in the Premier League this weekend, we revisit some big moments for our players on our recent trips to the Black Country.
Hernan Crespo – September 2003
Hernan Crespo got off the mark for Chelsea in just his third game for the club after coming on as a substitute midway through the second half against Wolves in September 2003.
The Blues were already three goals up but the Argentinian striker still made a big impression as he turned in a cross from Damien Duff seconds after his introduction and added his second in stoppage time with a fierce right-footed drive as we won 5-0 and recorded our biggest ever victory at Molineux.
Didier Drogba – February 2010
Didier Drogba won the Premier League’s Golden Boot for the second time in 2009/10 with 29 goals, two of them coming on our visit to Wolves in late February.
The Ivorian broke the deadlock after 40 minutes, rounding off a slick Chelsea counter-attack by turning in Yuri Zhirkov’s pin-point cross from close range and got his second midway through the second half after latching onto a long clearance by Petr Cech and rounding Wolves keeper Marcus Hahnemann before tapping the ball into the unguarded net.
Frank Lampard – January 2012
Frank Lampard opened the scoring in our 5-0 win over Wolves in 2003 with a stunning effort from range but it was his less spectacular effort at Molineux nine years later which proved much more important for the Blues.
Wolves appeared to have rescued a point when Stephen Ward cancelled out Ramires’ opening goal with six minutes left but the Blues got the winner in the final minute when Lampard made a late run into the box to meet Ashley Cole’s cross from the left with a close-range volley to secure a 2-1 win.
Pedro – February 2017
Wolves were a Championship side in 2016/17 but they frustrated Premier League leaders Chelsea for 65 minutes in our FA Cup fifth round encounter before a header by one of our smallest players opened the scoring.
With Diego Costa, Eden Hazard and Willian drawing the attention of seven Wolves players as they exchanged passes on the right of the box, Pedro ghosted in on the opposite side and rose to nod in Willian’s hanging cross as we won 2-0 during our run to the final.