(Reuters) -Goals from Kai Havertz, Christian Pulisic and Armando Broja helped Chelsea to a 3-0 win over struggling Wolverhampton Wanderers at Stamford Bridge on Saturday to hand new boss Graham Potter his first home win in the Premier League.
Chelsea had clinched a last-gasp win at Crystal Palace in Potter’s first league game before thumping AC Milan on Wednesday and continued their run against managerless Wolves, with a scoreline that eventually reflected their dominance.
Potter made seven changes to his starting lineup with Tuesday’s reverse fixture against Milan at San Siro in mind, but Chelsea showcased their strength in depth and outclassed a lacklustre Wolves side whose only win this season came against Southampton early in September.
The victory took Chelsea to fourth in the standings with 16 points from eight games while Wolves remain 18th with six points after three straight defeats.
“It’s difficult to keep the same eleven with the schedule but there is an element of consistency to how we play. Really happy with the boys and how we’ve recovered,” Potter said.
In the first half alone, Chelsea had 12 shots at goal, four of them on target, and dominated 70% possession but struggled to make the pressure count as they were thwarted both by their own wastefulness and a string of fine saves from Jose Sa.
Wolves threatened to steal the unlikeliest of leads minutes before the break through Matheus Nunes but the midfielder headed over, while former Chelsea striker Diego Costa missed another rare chance after stumbling as he tried to control the ball.
Havertz finally found the breakthrough just before the half-time whistle as Sa, who was off his line, was unable to deal with his looping header that matched the equally impressive cross from Mason Mount.
Pulisic missed some of Chelsea’s best chances and had his curling shot tipped away by Sa in the first half but made amends 10 minutes into the second, playing a swift one-two with Mount before dinking the ball over the onrushing goalkeeper.
The visitors were never really in the contest and substitute Broja hammered home a through ball from Mateo Kovacic in added time to score his first Chelsea goal and cap a perfect afternoon for Potter.
“We needed that goal before halftime,” Havertz said. “We have a big squad, a lot of good players. We’re all together in this. Today we had a lot of changes but everyone is involved in every game.
“We have to be positive, even those who don’t play. Armando gets a chance and scores straight away… 3-0 is a good result. In general, I’m very happy.”
(Reporting by Hritika Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Toby Davis)
