Tough conditions

The Blues arrived at Molineux with several players out through both Covid-19 and also injury, and also had difficult weather conditions to contend with as the mist circulated around the ground.

Chelsea’s depleted squad was epitomised by our bench, with just six substitutions named – two of which were goalkeepers. A lack of cutting edge was evident throughout the game and Thomas Tuchel would have loved to have had a recognised striker on the bench to bring on in search of an opener.

Tuchel admitted that his side were lacklustre in the first half and perhaps lucky not to be behind given Wolves had a goal disallowed early on. Yet a clean sheet and a point gained with so few players available could be crucial come the end of the season.

The heartbeat

It was yet another commanding Chelsea performance from Thiago Silva yesterday, whose ability to control the tempo of the game from the centre of defence again shone through.

The Brazilian attempted the most passes on the pitch with 123, successfully completing 118 of these, and also made the joint-most clearances on the pitch with five – three of which were with his head.

Thiago has become a huge influence at Cobham for the younger players coming through the ranks and has perhaps had to play a few more games than both him and Tuchel anticipated at the start of the season.

Given his record of winning a trophy at club level in every season since 2012, the 37-year-old will again be crucial to mounting a challenge for any silverware at Chelsea this season.

A tough nut to crack

Whilst Thiago’s effortless defending ensured Edouard Mendy had only one save to make, a Leander Dendoncker header, the same could be said at the other end of the pitch as Wolves played a similar system to Thomas Tuchel’s side.

With England international Conor Coady sandwiched between Romain Saiss and Max Kilman, Wolves were also resolute and compact in their shape and limited the Blues to just eight shots – six of which were blocked.

It is a pattern that has been constant throughout Bruno Lage’s first campaign in charge of a Premier League side. Wolves now have seven clean sheets, only two fewer than Chelsea.

Whilst they are solid at the back, Wolves are also finding it hard to find the back of their opponents net, scoring just 13 goals, a number only worsened by Norwich City with eight goals. This was evident in the second half of this one, with the hosts failing to conjure up a shot of any kind after the break.

Wolves games have now averaged just 1.5 goals per fixture, with just 27 goals across their 18 tussles so far, the lowest in the division by some margin.

Fitting back in seamlessly

A return to the side for N’Golo Kante yesterday was another positive to take. The midfielder had missed just under a month of action with a knee injury, and whilst Tuchel admitted the plan was never for Kante to complete the full 90 minutes, the Frenchman stepped up when called upon and produced an ever-impressive performance.

Kante has only made 37 appearances under Tuchel’s 57 game stewardship so far, and a return to the team ahead of our hectic Christmas schedule is most welcome for the Bavarian given recent injury and illness trouble in the centre of the pitch.

Saul's most impressive Blues outing

34 of these passes were in the middle third of the pitch as we searched for the winning goal in the second half. The 27-year-old has only completed 90 minutes once in a Chelsea shirt, but he did himself no harm in weaving his way into Tuchel’s thinking for the upcoming matches with his confident and assured display on Sunday.