Chelsea put in a dazzling attacking display to emerge 5-2 victors over Wolves at Molineux, with hat-trick hero Tammy Abraham (£7.3m) stealing the headlines to underline his credentials as one of the leading value-for-money forwards in 2019/20.
Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-5 Chelsea
Goals: Patrick Cutrone (£5.8m) Tammy Abraham (£7.3m) own-goal | Abraham x3, Mason Mount (£6.5m), Fikayo Tomori (£4.5m)
Assists: Matt Doherty (£6.0m) Roman Saïss (£4.4m) | Marcos Alonso (£6.2m) Jorginho (£5.0m), Michy Batshuayi (£6.7m)
Bonus: Abraham x3, Mount, Tomori x2
With all five of the goals from Frank Lampard’s side being scored by players produced from their academy, this was a performance and a result that strongly justified the Chelsea boss’s faith in youth during his tenure at Stamford Bridge.
There can be no doubting, though, that despite the emphatic team performance and such a bruising scoreline, this was an afternoon that belonged to Abraham.
With seven goals from four league starts, and two braces and a hat-trick in his last three games, Abraham is continuing the goalscoring form that he displayed in 2018/19 whilst on loan at Aston Villa during their promotion-winning campaign from the Championship.
The 21-year-old was exceptional throughout the afternoon at Molineux, and despite scoring an own-goal to reduce his haul by two points, Abraham’s total of 14 points was his highest of the season and his third successive double-digit haul.
Owned by just 18.9% of managers, those who are still in possession of a Wildcard but may be considering deploying it over the coming weeks will find it difficult to resist the goalscoring appeal that Abraham is providing at an extremely competitive price.
The England striker was supported in his goalscoring endeavours by fellow academy graduates Mason Mount (£6.4m) and Fikayo Tomori (£4.5m), who both scored well-taken goals.
On his first league start for the club in 2019/20, Tomori fired an outstanding strike from 25 yards beyond the grasp of Rui Patricio (£5.1m) to give Chelsea an early lead alongside sending a timely reminder to Lampard that his assets as a player in the team are not solely defensive.
Mount then rounded off the scoring after good work in the final third to add gloss to the scoreline that Lampard will hope can give this Chelsea side momentum heading into their next three fixtures against Liverpool (h), Brighton (h) and Southampton (a).
Despite their highly impressive attacking display at Molineux, the defensive fragilities that have seen Chelsea keep no clean sheets in their first five Premier League fixtures were on show on Saturday afternoon, and managers monitoring assets of the west London side will certainly be more inclined to invest in their attacking options as opposed to their defence.
Whilst Chelsea centre-back Antonio Rudiger (£6.0m) did go down injured, Lampard confirmed his removal from play was more precautionary ahead of a packed run of fixtures.
“He has a groin issue that he bothered, near me actually. It was more than a precaution. Hopefully not too bad. Hopefully, it is a quick turnaround.”
For Wolves, this was a result that continued their underwhelming start to the season, and any managers still in possession of defensive assets from Nuno Espirito Santo’s side are likely to be considering moving them on.
The 5-2 defeat to Chelsea marked Wolves’ fourth successive failure to keep a clean sheet, and the added pressure of Europa League football seems to already be taking its toll on the West Midlands side before the group stage has even begun.
Whilst Patrick Cutrone (£5.8m) did register his first league goal for the club, there were very few positives for Wolves to take from the game as they were outclassed at home by a calibre of opposition who the Wanderers typically excel against.
Yet whilst Wolves fell short of the standards they set for themselves in 2018/19, this was a performance that underlined Chelsea’s credentials as being serious challengers for Champions League qualification, whilst pointing to some extremely promising work being done by manager Lampard.
If the Chelsea boss can persist in his faith of players such as Mount and Abraham, who are presently performing to an almost undroppable standard, then these are assets who could offer exceptional value into the Blues’ frontline.
Whilst Mount is currently the top-owned Chelsea asset with an ownership of 21.9%, this is likely to change in the build-up to Gameweek 6 as Fantasy managers flock to the irresistible Abraham who is seemingly in the form of his life; defying critics who claimed the 21-year-old could not make the grade in the top-flight.
Lampard will be extremely pleased with this result from Chelsea, and as the Blues bid to build on such an efficient performance with a challenging game against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge next weekend, it will be difficult for Fantasy managers not already in ownership of Mount and Abraham to continue ignoring these extremely exciting English prospects.
Wolverhampton Wanderers XI (3-5-2): Patricio; Vallejo, Coady, Saiss; Traore (Doherty 56′), Dendoncker (Cutrone 46′), Neves, Moutinho, Jonny; Jota, Jimenez (Gibbs-White 69′).
Chelsea XI (3-4-3): Kepa; Rudiger (Zouma 46′), Christensen, Tomori; Azpilicueta, Kovacic (Barkley 70′), Jorginho, Alonso; Willian, Abraham (Batshuayi 77′), Mount.
5 years, 1 month agoHeaton
Robbo - walker - digne - vvd
Salah - sterling - mount - david silva
Pukki - wilson
1. Vvd + dilva To 4.5 + son
2 downgrade vvd and upgrade Greenwood?