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2024/25 English Premier League
Matchday 2
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Chelsea
Molineux Stadium
Wolverhampton, England
Sunday, 25 August 2024
Kick-off is at 15h00
Chelsea will attempt to get their
Premier League campaign up and running when they make the journey to the West Midlands to take on Wolves at Molineux on Sunday, August 25.
The Blues began the Enzo Maresca era with a 2-0 defeat at home to defending champions Manchester City on August 18 - the first time since 2019-20 they had lost on the opening weekend.
Maresca had replaced Mauricio Pochettino in the off-season after the West Londoners had failed to qualify for the UEFA Champions League, although the Argentine had done well to get them to sixth.
Pochettino's squad had been ravaged by injuries, but he still guided the club to the EFL Cup final and the FA Cup semi-finals before going on to win his final five league games at the helm.
Maresca will go in search of his first win in the Black Country, where Chelsea have enjoyed little success in recent seasons, with their last win (5-2) coming on 14 September 2019.
Image Source: Alamy Stock Photo
Wanderers will also be seeking their first points of the new season as they look for a fourth consecutive victory against the Blues.
Gary O'Neil's side were beaten 2-0 by Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on August 17 which extended their losing streak to four matches from last season.
Maresca believes the team is heading in the right direction after they gave the Citizens a real fight despite only being together as a unit for six weeks.
"I thought our performance was good. We don't like to lose but I thought the performance was there. We competed against the best team in the world and we competed for large parts at the same level and in some moments were even better," the Italian said.
"I think today we were better than the last game, against Inter Milan, and I think that this is the most important thing - to improve game-by-game. For me, it is very clear that we are improving and the direction is the right direction.
"I said the other day that I didn't expect the team to already be this [far] ahead so the direction is a good one and I don't have any doubt that day by day we are getting better and we are going to have days where we win games and we will be happier."
O'Neil was delighted with the work ethic of his players, but acknowledged they lacked that extra bit of quality to really hurt Arsenal.
"I thought we were good. I thought we were in the game at all times, carried a threat and needed a little bit more quality," he said.
"[David] Raya makes an unbelievable save from the header at 1-0. Obviously, Matheus [Cunha] misses a good chance, again at 1-0. I thought at that spell in the second half, we were one-nil down, and we were pushing, and could feel we were right in the game. Then a disappointing second goal, obviously.
"I was pleased with most of it. It was always going to be a tough ask, and I can only ask my team to represent what we are and what we want to be, and they definitely did that today. Pressed quite well and loads of high regains against a good side.
"We were going to need to be good, and things go our way today, and we were good, but we didn't quite have the details in certain moments."
Head-to-Head (Last Five Premier League Meetings)
Matches - 5
Wolves wins - 3
Chelsea wins - 1
Draws - 1
Premier League Matchday 2 fixtures:
Saturday, August 24
13h30: Brighton & Hove Albion v Manchester United
16h00: Crystal Palace v West Ham United
16h00: Fulham v Leicester City
16h00: Manchester City v Ipswich Town
16h00: Southampton v Nottingham Forest
16h00: Tottenham Hotspur v Everton
18h30: Aston Villa v Arsenal
Sunday, August 25
15h00: Bournemouth v Newcastle United
15h00: Wolverhampton Wanderers v Chelsea
17h30: Liverpool v Brentford
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