On Christmas Eve, Wolves held on for a 2-1 victory over Chelsea, condemning the former to their fourth straight away loss.

Nicolas Jackson erred in front of goal and Armando Broja wasted plenty of opportunities for the Blues to take an early lead in the Premier League match, which was played on December 24 for the first time since 1995.

Raheem Sterling had the best opportunity to break the scoreless first half when he robbed Joao Gomes and broke through on goal. Despite having Nicolas Jackson and Cole Palmer entirely clear to his right, he attempted a goal himself but Jose Sa stopped him.

Five minutes after the interval, Wolves took the lead, almost inevitable following those wasted opportunities. Mario Lemina’s header into the far corner of the goal gave the home team the first goal with their eighth corner of the game.

After an hour, Christopher Nkunku was substituted for Craig Dawson due to injury. Dawson had made an incredible block to keep Sterling out, but Nkunku’s poked effort was blocked by Toti Gomes, denying him a quick equalizer.

A second Wolves goal quickly dashed Chelsea’s hopes of a late charge as the scoreboard ran up to 11 minutes of added time. Benoit Badiashile attempted a low ball into the middle but failed miserably, just managing to lay it off so Matt Doherty to score composedly.

After Sterling’s cross into the middle was well-headed home by Nkunku to give the visitors a response, Chelsea had about six minutes to draw even.

Chelsea, however, was unable to pull off an equalizer as they suffered their 19th Premier League loss of 2023. That is considerably more than any other side, and the Blues finished the Christmas season eighth in the table after their most recent bad performance.