The first of the big-name Premiership teams visits Molineux this season as Chelsea take on Wolves on Saturday. The match is a full sellout of over 29,000 as Chelsea have taken their full ticket allocation, and it will mark the biggest crowd at Molineux since a FA Cup replay with Middlesbrough drew over 40,000 in 1981. This is also the Saturday noontime match, live on Sky in England at 12:30. For those in the US, the match is on live on FSW at 7:30, Eastern. It's also on tape-delay on Fox Sports Espanol at 2pm. Wolves have yet to win this season, while Chelsea have not lost in the Premiership, and are coming off a Champions League win, 1-0 over Sparta Prague on Tuesday. The BBC doesn't have team information up yet, but there shouldn't be any major changes for Wolves. Matt Murray says that he is ready to go, but there has been no indication one way or another yet if he will be the starter in goal. After Mark Kennedy came back last week, it spurred on Kenny Miller, who will start training this week, and could make his season debut as early as a week from Saturday, at Bolton. (Wolves play their fist Carling Cup match against Darlington on Tuesday, so that's probably a bit too soon to see Miller.) In the "yet another distraction" department, media reports, denied at this point by Wolves, say that England U-19 coach Stuart Baxter is to become Wolves no. 2. Dave Jones' first choice in the matter is actually Brian Kidd, who is still being compensated by Leeds after his dismissal in May. Kidd apparently will not entertain the job offer while he is still being paid by Leeds, so, this will probably go on for a while longer. In any event, back to the match at hand. Matt Messias, in his 3rd Premiership match this season, is the referee. Prediction: The Carling Cup match with Darlington on Tuesday might be just what Wolves need to get on track this season. Unfortunately, they have to play Chelsea first. The skid continues, 1-0 to Chelsea.
Another disaster for Wolves in the early season. FINAL- Chelsea 5 Wolves 0 Wolves came out with: Oakes, Irwin, Bulter, Craddock, Naylor, Newton, Ince, Gudjohnsson, Kennedy, Camara, Iversen. Murray, Luzhny, Cameron, Silas and Kachoul on the bench. Silas came on for Gudjohnsson and Cameron came on for Newton. Chelsea goals from Lampard (16), Hasselbaink (35), Duff (51), and Crespo (66, 90). Crespo was on the field for about a minute and a half before he scored, coming on as a subsititute in the 64th. Chelsea also had a goal disallowed in the 8th minute. So, the first 6 matches are in the books, and they contain losses of 5-1, 4-0, 1-0, 2-0 and 5-0. The only point taken off a 0-0 draw. No goals since the 71st minute of the opening match, a streak of 5 full matches, and almost 470 minutes. 1 goal scored and 17 allowed. I think it's getting ugly a lot sooner than any of us thought, and pretty soon, the drop Dave Jones band will start warming up, if it hasn't already.
Absolutly pathetic. And Jones has the audacity to say after the game that the fans need a reality check. Fcuking wanker.
What a disaster! Anything that could have gone wrong for Wolves thus far, has gone wrong. I hope this situation can be resolved.
It won't be resolved. We didn't get the quality players we needed. The fcuking board said we wouldn't pull an Albion, that we would spend money. We spent F U C K ALL. We went the cheap way getting players on a free. We've gotten all these foreign players who can't speak English and feel left out. They are probably hating it. We've got players who couldn't make the grade before (Blake) and still obviously can't. Before the season Jones and other players were saying how they didn't just come to make up the numbers.
The only difference between Wolves and Albion in preparation for the promotion year was that Wolves may have spent a buck or two - but no more. I just hope that the grand plan inside the board room was not simply to rent out the year in the Premiership in order for Hayward to recoup some of the money he has spent over the past few years.
Darlington in the Carling Cup tomorrow night. Is this the first of the "must-wins"? And if Darlington (16th in D3) manages to pull of the upset? It may get very ugly in Wolverhampton, very quickly