Wolves 1-2 Chelsea

 Today, Wolves went down 2-1 to Chelsea. After Ramires had given Chelsea the lead, Stephen Ward equalised late on. Wolves' joy was to be short lived; Frank Lampard secured the three points for Chelsea just three minutes later.    

• As usual, I'll start with the lineups. Given the closeness of the games, it was of no surprise to see four changes being made. I had thought Steven Fletcher might have started given he did not play a full 90 minutes against Bolton last week, and he can easily be given the full weekend off next week. As it was, Kevin Doyle was left to play the loan strikers role, supported by David Edwards.

• One of the other starters was young Anthony Forde. I guess there are easier games to make your home league debut (and indeed easier places than the Emirates to make your full debut), and Ashley Cole is probably some way down the list of fullbacks he'd want to be up against. As it was, he struggled badly, and the graphic below shows his first half contributions. At times it felt like we only had 10 men on the pitch, and I suspect that had it been a more senior player, or indeed had we been losing, he would have been taken off long before the half time break. Ashley Cole has had one or two problems in recent weeks, and perhaps Mick McCarthy missed a trick in not having Matt Jarvis up against him from the off.

  

• On the other flank was Adam Hammill, who acquitted himself far better. Given his inclusion today, I guess those rumors that surfaced over the Christmas period can be dismissed. Hammill at times tries to do too much. He doesn't have the pace to trouble defenders of the class of Cole and José Boswinga, yet his delivery into the box is the best at the club. He sent in two excellent free kicks in the first half, the second of which should have been tucked away by Ward, who headed wide when well placed.

• I don't think it happens often, but was there a question of the players' effort today? Or was it the fact that it is so difficult to change the players' mentality mid-game. After Chelsea had taken the lead for the first time, they looked incredibly comfortable, able to stroke the ball around at will while our players sat back and let them. At one point, Chelsea won a corner and sent just four players into our penalty area. We had ten players back marking them, with just Doyle forward. I know McCarthy tends to be a reactive rather than a proactive manager (not necessarily a bad thing - Jose Mourinho is definitely a reactive manager) but this seemed ridiculous for a team losing by a single goal at home.

• Saying that, when Doyle went so close to equalising with the last head of the game, all of the players looked crestfallen. Most of them just stood there with their hands on their hips, like it was the worst thing in the world. I know a lot of players get stick for not caring about the club, but I don’t think that's an accusation that can be leveled at most of our players.

• If I was to conduct a straw poll as to who are our players of the season so far, I reckon Wayne Hennessey would gain a fair few votes - he is easily our most improved player of 2011. However, he still needs to work on his decision making when coming out of goal. He seems to be fine when collecting crosses, but when the ball is in front of him, he can be very slow to leave his line. This has occurred a few times over the past few weeks (the matches against Bolton and Sunderland spring to mind, as well as today's), and is something that needs to be worked on.

• And speaking of goalkeepers, halftime through up an amusing moment. Stephen Hunt found himself in goal facing shots from Fletcher and George Elokobi. Hunt made one scrambling stop at his far post from Fletcher, before Elokobi scored a screamer from 30 yards, right in the top corner. It was one of the best goals I've seen at Molineux in a long time.