Chelsea suffered their fourth consecutive away defeat as Wolves won 2-1 on Christmas Eve.

The Blues made a solid start and should have taken an early lead in the first Premier League match played on December 24 since 1995, with Nicolas Jackson fluffing his lines in front of goal and Armando Broja similarly wasteful.

Raheem Sterling had the best chance of a goalless first half when he robbed Joao Gomes and ran clean through on goal. He had Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson completely open to his right, but he tried for goal and was denied by Jose Sa.

Wolves took the lead five minutes after the break, somewhat predictably following those wasted chances. The hosts opened the score with their tenth corner of the game, as Mario Lemina curled a header into the far corner.

After an hour, Christopher Nkunku was introduced for his League debut and nearly produced a quick equalizer, but his poked effort was hacked off the line by Toti Gomes, before Craig Dawson was taken off with injury after making a spectacular block to deny Sterling.

The clock struck 11 minutes of added time, but Chelsea’s dreams of a late comeback were dashed by a second Wolves score. Benoit Badiashile botched a low ball into the middle, just managing to lay it off for Matt Doherty to finish calmly.

Nkunku scored as the visitors replied, hitting home well from Sterling’s cross into the middle, giving Chelsea around six minutes to equalize.

Chelsea, however, unable to equalize and suffered their 19th Premier League defeat of 2023. That is, remarkably, more than any other team, with the Blues being eighth in the table at Christmas.