Chelsea kept the pressure on fourth-place Manchester United as Cole Palmer burst back into life with a 38-minute hat-trick to sink Wolves at Molineux.
The Blues beat the Premier League’s bottom club courtesy of two penalties and a fine finish into the roof of the net from Palmer, racking up a strong enough lead that their second-half drop-off did not prove costly.
Victory made Liam Rosenior just the second English manager in Premier League history to win his first four league games in charge. In the rain and wind on a grim day in Wolverhampton, Chelsea recovered well from their midweek defeat at Arsenal.
Palmer’s long-time-coming moment
A match like this where it all just fell into place for Palmer has felt a long time coming, possibly months in the offing.
His season has been such a frustrating one, marred by different injuries but with the unmovable theme being his groin injury in particular, painful one day yet unnoticeable the next, impossible to plan for and so frustrating for all at Chelsea as well as the player himself.
But luck was on Palmer’s side at Molineux, with Chelsea not needing to get out of second gear before he had helped himself to two ice-cool penalties after a couple of crazy, needless fouls committed by Wolves on Joao Pedro in the box.
The third goal was a touch of class and displayed Palmer’s attacking instincts as he arrived in the box late to fire high into the roof of the net from Marc Cucurella’s pull-back.
And from Rosenior and Chelsea’s perspective, it was perfect to be able to substitute the Englishman after an hour, with Leeds United to visit Stamford Bridge on Tuesday.
Records tumble for the hat-trick hero
The fact first Chelsea’s first clear-cut chance from open play was the opening that saw Palmer make it 3-0 spoke volumes about Wolves’ gifts to Chelsea, but Palmer was delighted to accept that, and it was a record-breaking afternoon for the 23-year-old as a result.
In just 41 touches and with only three shots on target — goal, goal, goal — Palmer became the first player in Premier League history to have scored three hat-tricks in the first half of a match, having previously done so against Everton in April 2024 and Brighton in September 2024.
He also netted his fourth Premier League hat-trick for the Blues, the most of any Chelsea player ever. Those he overtook to claim that record for himself? Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and Jimmy Floyds Hasselbaink.
It was quite the afternoon for him. Thomas Tuchel, the England head coach, will have been delighted from wherever he was watching on.
A worrying trend continues
Chelsea, under Rosenior, are still a way off producing a sparkling 90-minute performance that is free-flowing from start to finish.
Indeed, he said afterwards at Molineux: "I want us to have a perfect 90 minutes. It was very frustrating."
And Tolu Arokodare’s scrappy second-half goal from a corner was a needless consolation goal to concede and ruined the Blues’ chances of a clean sheet that, at 3-0 up, they really ought to have been able to get over the line and claim for themselves.
It was little wonder Robert Sanchez was so visibly furious — he was given no help from his defenders to clear the corner from which Wolves scored.It was a similarly poor goal to ship to Antonio Vergara’s effort for Napoli in Chelsea’s 3-2 win in Italy, and Jarrod Bowen’s cross-cum-goal at the Bridge last weekend.
Chelsea must cut that out. They are lucky it did not cost them this time.
