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Chelsea slipped 10 points behind Manchester City in the Premier League title race after a shock defeat at feisty Wolves.<\/p>\nChelsea slipped 10 points behind Manchester City in the Premier League title race after a shock defeat at feisty Wolves.<\/p>\n
The hosts ended a two-month wait for a win with quickfire second-half goals from Raul Jimenez and Diogo Jota clinching a 2-1 victory.<\/p>\n
Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s deflected strike opened the scoring for the Blues but they now sit fourth to seriously trail leaders City.<\/p>\n
Pep Guardiola’s side visit Stamford Bridge on Saturday with Chelsea facing a must-win game to avoid slipping further behind after a second defeat in three league outings.<\/p>\n
Maurizio Sarri’s five changes backfired as Alvaro Morata again drew a blank and Andreas Christensen was culpable for both Wolves goals.<\/p>\n
Wolves had lost five of their previous six games but showed excellent fight at Molineux to recover and lift themselves up to 12th.<\/p>\n
Chelsea bossed the first half and Rui Patricio gathered Hazard’s tame effort early on while Morata fired over after 12 minutes.<\/p>\n
But the visitors did not have to wait long to open the scoring when they grabbed a slice of fortune 18 minutes in.<\/p>\n
Hazard found Loftus-Cheek on the edge of the box and the England international’s shot took a wicked deflection off Conor Coady’s head to deceive Patricio and fly in.<\/p>\n
The mercurial Hazard had begun to pull the strings and he was soon brought down by Joao Moutinho, with Patricio turning Willian’s free-kick over at full stretch.<\/p>\n
Wolves barely threatened although Cesc Fabregas needed to produce an excellent challenge on Morgan Gibbs-White.<\/p>\n
The soft center of Nuno’s side had been ruthlessly exposed by Brighton, Huddersfield and Cardiff in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
But Ryan Bennett showed his steel six minutes before half-time when he arrived from nowhere to block from Willian after the Brazilian raced clean through.<\/p>\n
Chelsea had won the previous four meetings by an aggregate score of 13-1 and Morata almost added to their haul only for Willy Boly to reach Loftus-Cheek’s teasing cross first less than a minute after the break.<\/p>\n
Seven-goal Morata then horribly miscued a header before Willian and N’Golo Kante drilled wide.<\/p>\n
But, however comfortable Chelsea appeared, they were undone by the hosts who turned the game on its head in four minutes.<\/p>\n
First, after 59 minutes, Gibbs-White found Jimenez and he outpaced Christensen before drilling through Kepa Arrizabalaga – with the keeper needing to do better.<\/p>\n
Then, four minutes later, Christensen gifted Wolves possession.<\/p>\n
Chelsea failed to initially clear and the ball was eventually worked to Matt Doherty and his low cross was converted by the unmarked Jota.<\/p>\n
The visitors struggled to respond despite Sarri throwing on Olivier Giroud, Pedro and Mateo Kovacic.<\/p>\n
Hazard shot over and Fabregas sliced off target with three minutes left as Chelsea chased a leveler which never came.<\/p>\n