Wolves 2-1 Chelsea: Pedro Neto scores late winner to condemn Blues to second defeat in four days

Paul Scholes can sometimes have a tendency to take things a little too far but his observation in a pre-match discussion of Chelsea that ‘I’m not sure I think they’re a really good team’ was not so outlandish. 

This was a very substantial dent to the air of invincibility that they seemed to have been developing just lately.

Frank Lampard’s frustration was there, in plain sight, as he remonstrated with the Wolves bench, even before Pedro Neto had claimed a 95th-minute winner.  

Pedro Neto scored a last-gasp 95th-minute winner to complete a comeback win for Wolves and condemn Chelsea to a defeat

The Wolves forward broke down the left before firing a low shot past Edouard Mendy in the Blues’ net in the dying seconds

Mendy is unable to stop the stoppage-time winner as Wolves roared back from a goal down to beat Chelsea on Tuesday 

Neto (centre right) celebrates with his Wolves team-mates after scoring the winning goal deep into stoppage time

‘Sit down. Sit down,’ he told them with a sequence of hand gestures. The VAR official was weighing up a Wolves penalty appeal at that time. The decision went Chelsea’s way but Lampard knows this is a side is a long way from the finished product.

They took the lead through the surprise quantity of this winter – Olivier Giroud, pouncing in the blink of an eye to crash in a cross Wily Boly was only vaguely trying to clear and making it seven in seven games since his barnstorming return to the side in Seville.

But that was Chelsea’s first shot on target and the broader picture was a side struggling for the magical commodity which Timo Werner and Kai Havertz were supposed to have brought this season. 

Havertz puts in a shift, though that is not really exactly what Chelsea paid £62m for, while Werner looked like a centre forward stuck on the wing. Which he was.

It was the returning Christian Pulisic who provided the flickers of menace and pulled the levers, occasionally switching flanks to do so.  

After a goalless first half, Olivier Giroud gave the visitors the lead minutes four minutes after the restart

Giroud’s first-time volley was fired at Wolves keeper Rui Patricio, who failed to keep the ball from crossing the line

The Frenchman celebrates with his Chelsea team-mates after giving his side the lead early on in the second half

But all he delivered came to nothing. Little more than 15 minutes after taking the lead, Chelsea surrendered it to a player who had threatened more than anyone in their own number all night. A half clearance was knocked down to Daniel Podence, who cut onto his right foot, manufactured some space from Reece James and scored at the near post.

Chelsea looked finished; extinguished. The VAR call which then fell in their favour was fair. What seemed like 20 replays provided no sense that James had clipped Neto’s right as he burst into the area. 

But Neto’s clinical finish at the death – easing to Kurt Zouma’s left and despatching a shot across Edouard Mendy which the goalkeeper probably should have stopped – was a metaphor for the night. Wolves looked a yard or two sharper in the critical moments.

The result signifies little in the wider scheme of this deeply unpredictable Premier League. But taken with the defeat inflicted by Everton on Saturday, it does provide a sense that Chelsea are vulnerable to sides who sit deep and break on them. 

‘Defend well, good, strong and use the counter attacks,’ as Carlo Ancelotti put it after beating them. ‘Chelsea is a young squad and maybe sometimes they do not have the experience to manage a difficult game.’ 

Daniel Podence (No 10) then equalised for Wolves with a stunning solo effort in the second half to get his side back in it

The Portuguese winger caused plenty of problems for Chelsea and was able to cap off a fine performance with a goal

Podence celebrates getting the equaliser after what had been a good showing from Chelsea during the majority of the game

So sit deep Wolves most certainly did, with a five-man defence, anchored by the mountainous Marcal, which Lampard’s players rarely looked capable of piercing. There were two promising first half moments. 

Giroud escaped Boly and leapt unhindered to a Mason Mount corner, depositing the header over the bar. Kurt Zouma evaded detection in the same way and powered his against the cross bar. But there was nothing from open play. Very little shift through the gears.

Wolves were the one who provided that. They are desperately depleted, shorn of the players who have created and scored most for them since promotion, with Diego Jota and Matt Doherty’s departures compounded by Raul Jiminez’s long-term absence since the skull fracture.

But they brought impeccable defensive resilience through Marcal, Leander Dendoncker and Conor Coady. When space opened up, the Podence was bursting into it and Chelsea also found some of their long, patient periods of possession hard to break.  

Just before Podence’s equaliser, Fabio Silva had the ball in the Chelsea net but was flagged for offside straight away

At 1-1, Wolves were awarded a penalty after Neto went down under the challenge of Chelsea defender Reece James (right)

However, VAR instructed referee Stuart Attwell to review his decision at the pitchside monitor moments later

Attwell reversed his decision after replays showed there was no contact from James and instead gave Chelsea a free-kick

The most prolonged – two minutes or so of unbroken passing – brought opportunity. Neto found good contact on a ball Fabio Silva flicked around the corner, forcing Edouard Mendy to dive to his right to repel it.

Wolves’ defence did look vulnerable at the start of the second half and goalkeeper Rui Patricio will want to forget the Giroud strike he fumbled in. The Portuguese seemed to have grasped the ball but it slipped from his hands and over the goal-line.

It means Giroud has now scored more Premier League goals (88) than Dennis Bergkamp and more in all competitions than any other Chelsea players this season. But after the size of investment Chelsea made, Lampard did not want him to be the leader

Nor would he have relished the kind of defensive collapse which, as his players pushed for a winner, allowed Neto to race after Romain Saiss’ ball through a wide open midfield and score. It was the fitter, stronger, more athletic side that took the points.  

Scroll down to re-live Sportsmail’s minute-by-minute coverage of the game at Molineux