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Wolves have a terrible recent record against Chelsea, losing three, winning none, drawing none, and conceeding 14 in the Premier League.  Chelsea, I hear, have a rather good recent record against most teams and are currently sitting on the top of the League.  They do however, have surprisingly fragile away form of late, coming straight from an away defeat against Everton, and on the back of only one win in six.

Realistically, however, few people will expect Wolves to come away with anything from this.  Given the recent dodgy decision by the Premier League to make an example of Wolves following the ‘weakened side’ debacle at Man U, however, we can be sure good old Mick won’t risk the appearance of not going all out for this.  And if the team can match that appearance with some of the genuine belief so lacking at Stamford Bridge earlier in the season, then I say, why not hope for a point at least.

Defensively, Wolves sucked last time, but let’s take a moment to look at November’s line up:

Hennessey
Halford, Craddock, Berra, Stearman
Surman, Edwards, Henry, Castillo (Knightly 52), Jarvis
Ebanks-Blake (Keogh 62)

Assuming Wolves stay with the line up that was so successful against Spurs two weeks ago, tomorrow we’ll be looking at:

Hahnemann
Zubar, Craddock, Berra, Ward (Elokobi 60),
Foley, Guedioura (Mancienne 72), Henry (capt), Jones, Jarvis (Milijaš 80)
Doyle

The only possible areas in which that isn’t a stronger line-up is the replacement of Edwards by Foley, and more debatably, Stearman by Ward/Elokobi.  Foley isn’t doing too bad but still looks far from right as an attacking winger, and while Ward has converted with remarkable ease from striker to left back, his one weakness (and it’s a big one) is to back off and back off and then see the ball sail past into the back of the net.

That aside:

Doyle for Ebanks-Blake – while I still believe Ebanks-Blake will make an impression on this League one day, this one’s a no brainer.
Jones for Castillo – there’s nothing wrong with Castillo, but Jones has a great wins to appearances ratio, and looked to have shapness and quality on his full return to the team two weeks ago.
Guedioura for Surman – Guedioura looked strong, clever and positive in his last two appearances; without being a bad player, Surman has looked none of these in any of his 6 showings so far.
Zubar for Halford – despite a strange desire to flap and foul in key areas, Zubar is going to be a good Premier League player for Wolves.  Halford will eventually be a good Championship player for someone.
Hahnemann for Hennessey – I think this will be the big difference between the two games.  Hennessey will be a good all-round goalkeeper one day, rather than the great shot-stopper he has shown himsef to be so far, but Hahnemann’s greater ability to come out and claim a cross and to communicate with his defenders before the ball is in the back of the net will be critical if Wolves are going to put in a solid defensive show in what is likely to be the most testing of circumstances.

If Chelsea play to their best, none of this will matter, but with enough belief (and perhaps a bit of luck) Wolves can hope to frustrate Chelsea and take something more than pride from this game.

Prediction: 1 (Berra) – 1 (who cares)

Kevin Doyle, Wolves’ stand out player of the season so far, reports on the Official Wolves site that he’s in the form of his life.

I’m not going to argue with his claim that he has been playing well, that his all round play has improved, and I certainly hope he is right that his best years are ahead of him.  I’m pleased to hear Doyle assert that he’s fitter and stronger and that Wolves work him harder than ever.  He says he’s learned to “sleep better, generally look after myself and be more professional in everything I do”.

Maybe if I were a Reading fan I’d be a little bit narked by the implication that he ate junk food, stayed up too late and didn’t exercise when he played for them (and I’m sure this isn’t the case - Mr Doyle seems a lovely young man).  However, as a Wolves fan, all I’m going to ask is: can he beat his first Premier League tally of 13 goals for Reading?  I hope so, but even if not, and if Wolves stay up,  there will be no doubt that his all round play will have been instrumental in this.

With no game at all this weekend for Wolves, having been so unceremoniously dumped out of the cup last week, I am free to let my mind wander to higher things.

Right, having done that, now would also be an opportune time to review Wolves’s activity in the recent transfer window. For all the positive news coming of Molineux last summer, and for all the positive action we are assured took place this window, Wolves net gain is 2 loanees from Belgian club Charleroi.  Is this enough?

Our esteemed CEO, Jez Moxey, reports that several over-the-odds and/or record breaking bids were made for three players: 7m for Adam Johnson, who untimately ended up at Man City; 5m for Stephen Hunt who stayed with Hull; and an undisclosed bid to bring Robbie Keane back to Molineux on Loan.  Keane opted for the delights of Scottish football instead. 

Any of these players (with the arguable exception of Keane, where sentiment may have won out against rantionality) would have improved the team.  Wanting them shows ambition and no fear of splashing the cash. 

It’s easy to say with hindsight, but the odds of ever having to part with the money, however, were always small.  However cash-strapped Hull might be, they would be prepared to gamble their balance sheet for another six months rather than part with a player who could be key to their Premiership survival to a relegation rival.  Johnson and Keane were always likely to have a choice, and always likely to chose a safer option.  I suspect, however that despite these objections, the management believed they might pull off one of these deals so I’m not going to criticise the lack of spending.

So, we have two low-cost loans – ultimately a gamble.  Handily, on the basis of two half games, it seems they may have hit the jackpot with Guedioura, who looks to be just what the doctor ordered in midfield.  I’ll diplomatically say that’s it’s too early to tell with Mujangi Bia. 

The business of the transfer window was disappointing, although not unexpectedly so, but I still maintain Wolves have just enough spirit and quality on their books to stay up this year.  But if they do, things have to change in the summer, because there won’t be many years worse than this in terms of the quality of the field.

That’s much more like it. A great performance rewarded by a great result. It’s not great to have to make up for slipping up against the bottom half teams with unexpected wins against the top half. But it is kind of fun when you get them.

Spurs didn’t look like a team with top four pretensions on the day, but let’s not let that diminish the achievement – Wolves did look like a team with a serious intent, and more importantly belief, to stay in this League. Dave Jones looked pleased to be back in the starting line up, and we should be pleased to see him. Hahnemann wasn’t called on for shop-stopping heroics, but did all that was asked of him confidently, inspiring a vital confidence in the players in front of him. Doyle was as magnificent as ever, Jarvis looked threatening and produced a good cross for the goal, new boy Guedioura produced a good show to build on Sunday’s substitute appearance, and the team performance all round was enough to set Molineux grinning for once.

A double over Dirty ‘Arry’s boys to lift Wolves out the relegation zone. Doesn’t get much better than that.

Find the match reports below. Generally a sorry read:

Guardian | Times | Telegraph | Mail