Chelsea vs Wolves Odds
| Chelsea Odds | -175 |
| Wolves Odds | +300 |
| Draw | +500 |
| Over / Under | 2.5 -150o / +115u |
Chelsea will look to rebound from an embarrassing midweek defeat at league leaders Liverpool when it hosts a Wolverhampton Wanderers squad that is only two points back of the ninth-place Blues in the league table.
Mauricio Pochettino’s Chelsea side was hardly the first to take a hiding at Anfield, where the league-leading Reds have been unbeaten in all competitions this season. But the 4-1 defeat — and Liverpool's statistical dominance that accompanied it — was a sobering reminder of how far the Argentine manager’s project still has to go, especially given those teams will meet again in the late February League Cup final.
Wolverhampton Wanderers will have to overcome the emotional roller coaster that was its 4-3 home defeat to Manchester United on Thursday, having overcome deficits of 2-0 and 3-1 to draw level before conceding again in the dying moments of injury time.
Wolves were good value for their 2-1 win over the Blues in their previous league meeting back on Christmas Eve on the strength of Mario Lemina and Matt Doherty’s second-half goals.
Read on for my Chelsea vs Wolves prediction.
Chelsea
Chelsea’s midweek defeat at Anfield was jarring for a couple of reasons.
The first was that it puts in doubt the idea that a previous three-match league winning streak was representative of true progress rather than a soft spot in the schedule. The Blues had won three a row in the league before heading to Anfield. But they have still only taken three points in total while traveling to teams above them in the table this season — and all of those came in their win against nine-man Tottenham Hotspur.
The second was that the scoreline was every bit an accurate reflection of the game, and perhaps even flattered the visitors. Liverpool outshot Chelsea 27-4 and 13-3 in terms of efforts on target and won by three despite even failing to convert a first-half penalty.
Striker Nicolas Jackson should be available for the Blues for the first time this year after he was part of a Ghana side that lost in the African Cup of Nations Round of 16.
The 22-year-old has only seven goals and has suffered from wasteful finishing this season, but he’s still probably Pochettino’s best option at center forward.
However, Cole Palmer might be the likely source of goals, leading the Blues with nine in the league and scoring five in his last seven appearances in all competitions.
Wolves
While Wolves were defeated at the death only three days ago, they have mostly survived the absence of top scorer Hwang Hee-Chan, who has been off playing for South Korea at the Asia Cup.
Despite them missing the 10-goal scorer since 2024 began, Wolves’ loss to Manchester United was their first in all competitions in the new year — and they’ve scored nine goals across those five games while navigating a successful run to the FA Cup last 16.
But even though Manchester United snapped what was Wolves’ home unbeaten run at eight league matches, the goals it scored were a continuation of the exposure of Gary O’Neill’s defense against better sides.
Wolves have now conceded 23 goals in 12 league games against the current top half of the table, and it arguably should be worse, with those opponents generating a total of 32.8 expected goals in those games.
The visitors are mostly healthy despite the quick turnaround from Thursday’s defeat, albeit they will still be without Hwang and Mali’s Boubacar Traoré to international duty.
Wolves have made up for Hwang’s attacking production by committee, with Pedro Neto the only player to score multiple times over his five-game absence.
Chelsea vs Wolves
Prediction
The issue at hand for betting on this game is whether Chelsea's apparent improvement is real or an illusion.
The Liverpool performance was a poor one. It’s also the kind that is easy to react to if not put in the proper context. The Reds beat nearly everyone by multiple goals when playing at Anfield. And as young as Pochettino’s Chelsea side is, it’s understandable that it might have not had the steel for the occasion.
That same trait should give the Blues a short memory for Sunday. And in some ways, Wolves' 4-3 defensive capitulation at home to a Manchester United side that hasn't been very good was more worrying. So while fading Chelsea has been the smart play most of the season, it may not apply here.
That said, the price on the money line — implying a better-than-60% probability — is still prohibitive.
The better play here is a small but aggressive wager on the Blues to win by exactly one goal. It’s been the margin of victory in every Chelsea home triumph except over the two newly promoted sides, as well as the margin of defeat in five of Wolves’ 11 away matches. It’s a wager that is more likely to lose than win, but still carries value at +280 odds and an implied 26.3% probability.
