It was a rather one sided battle of Stamford Bridge on Saturday afternoon as Wolves were comprehensively dismantled by Carlo Ancelotti’s blue army. Three changes were made by the visitors- Greg Halford and Matt Jarvis returning to the starting line up while Andrew Surman was finally given a debut following his summer move from Southampton, Kevin Doyle, Nenad Miljas and Ronald Zubar the three making way. And the game started quickly, Sylvan Ebanks- Blake seeing a shot blocked by Alex in the opening minutes- but within seconds the hosts had blistered up field and scored a first goal through Florent Malouda, who blasted a 25 yard effort into the top corner. Clearly this was to be no walk in the park for the men in old gold as they saw Joe Cole’s effort from a Juliano Belletti cross go harmlessly wide before realising that the respite was all too brief when Michael Essien powerfully headed in from a Malouda corner, David Edwards miscuing his shot at the other end moments later.

Hearts were no doubt in mouths in the away end as Salomon Kalou lined up a shot but he drove over the bar- no such luck just past the 20 minute mark when Malouda teed up Essien once again, the Ghanaian making no mistake with a 25 yard thunderbolt which Hennessy was helpless to do anything about. Halford then put a shot over the bar at the other end following a Surman corner prior to Alex’s attempt from a free kick after a foul on Ashley Cole, the wall doing its job on this occasion. Richard Stearman was able to go on a mazy run down the left wing to feed Ebanks-Blake who in turn slipped the ball to Jarvis for him to then put in a cross for the onrushing Stearman but he could do nothing as the ball eluded him. The half was ended with a pair of good saves when Petr Cech kept out an Ebanks- Blake header and Hennessy was at his best to deny Malouda.