A few minutes after the final whistle, victory boxed off, most of Chelsea’s players had headed for the tunnel but Cole Palmer was wandering around the halfway line in search of lost property. Enveloped by his space-grey puffer coat, making a circle with his hands, bemused staff and teammates soon caught his drift: Palmer wanted evidence of his handiwork, a 25-minute first-half hat-trick that put this game beyond Wolves, even if Liam Rosenior’s side eased off in the second.
After retrieving the match ball from a pitchside attendant, Palmer juggled it halfway across the pitch, embarking on a warm-down of keepie-uppies. It would be easy to paint this as a Palmer masterclass, the England midfielder completing his hat-trick on 38 minutes, but it is fair to say by the time he was substituted on the hour, his work was done. At that point it was 3-1 to the visitors, Wolves pulling a goal back nine minutes into the second half when Tolu Arokodare spun in the box to convert at a corner.
