A scratch of the eyebrow. It wasn’t much, but it was enough. This, Todd Boehly, who on Friday signed a contract to buy Chelsea, seemed to be acknowledging, is what sport can do. His prospective new side had been leading 2-0. They had seemed comfortable. It had seemed that those vague worries about Arsenal and Tottenham catching up would disappear as rapidly as the spring sunshine. But as Conor Coady headed an equaliser deep in injury time, the reality dawned: Chelsea, out of form and out of sorts, still face a major fight to secure their place in the top four.
Boehly’s purchase will go through so long as approval is granted by the Premier League and the UK government. The former should be a formality; the latter may be rather more complicated, if only for logistical reasons. Boehly was at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, sitting in a largely empty corporate box, although the chairman Bruce Buck joined him at half-time.
Given the patchy nature of much of the football before half-time, a lack of confidence in both sides manifesting in a curious game that at times managed to be simultaneously half-paced and frantic, he quickly became the centre of attention. Like Roman Abramovich, whose sanctioning by the UK government forced the sale of the club, Boehly dresses down. He was studiedly casual on Saturday, wearing sunglasses and a long-sleeved T-shirt with sleeves pushed up to the elbows, one trainer-clad foot propped on the back of the seat in front of him.
Then came a rite of passage. When Ruben Loftus-Cheek lashed the ball in from close range after 39 minutes, Boehly got to his feet to applaud, adding a whistle with the aid of his thumb and forefinger, a high-tariff technique that added to his air of alphadom; this, it seemed to say, was somebody who had been a successful college athlete.
When, several minutes later, VAR finally concluded that Loftus-Cheek had been offside, Boehly spread his arms in bewilderment before sitting down with a shake of the head and a muttered expletive. It was all very different from the blank-faced clapping that used to characterise the Chelsea owner. In a VAR delay Boehly had displayed more emotion than Abramovich had in 19 years.
By the second half Boehly seemed reconciled to the idiosyncrasies of VAR, merely picking his teeth as a penalty was mystifyingly given by VAR for a tangle between Romain Saïss and Romelu Lukaku that seemed neither inside the box nor a foul. When the Belgian converted, Boehly punched the air. Lukaku’s second, swept in following a mistake from Coady, brought just blasé clapping.
The Wolves manager Bruno Lage, who was restricted to the training ground because of a positive Covid test, had described last week’s 3-0 defeat at home to Brighton as the “worst performance” of his time in charge. This was far better. Wolves had chances even before the late fightback, begun by Trincão’s remarkable 79th-minute strike and concluded by Coady’s header. The fitness coach Tony Roberts was frustrated by the “mad five minutes” in which Chelsea scored, but spoke of Wolves’ “strength and spirit as a group” and said he was “disappointed we haven’t won it.” Their dream of Europe nevertheless remains alive.
Chelsea’s Champions League hopes, meanwhile, suddenly look precarious after a run of eight points in seven games. Thomas Tuchel was clearly frustrated, saying it was “not the time to praise individuals” when invited to comment on Lukaku’s two goals. He preferred to talk of structural issues.
“We were disciplined over most parts of the first half but within certain situations we took too much risk and lost discipline in the formation and that cost us some dangerous moments,” he said. “We reminded them to stick to the gameplan. We were 2-0 up but then we took risks in situations where you cannot take this much risk with such an aggressive approach. We invited counterattacks and big chances and when you lose confidence you invite the opponent to smell that something is possible.”
Champions League qualification would make everything more straightforward for Boehly, both in terms of budgets and the club’s capacity to attract players. Slowly, the confusion over the club’s future is clearing, but the recent dip in form is making everything murkier than it might have been.
