STAMFORD BRIDGE — What a strange kind of rapture this was: three points, nil drama, empty stadium and a place in the Champions League secured.
That was the requirement at the start of the day and after the pyrotechnics at Anfield on Wednesday, a low-key finale at the Bridge proved just the ticket for Frank Lampard and Chelsea.
The match was settled in first-half added time with two goals of contrasting quality, the first a beauty from the excellent Mason Mount, the second three minutes later a yeoman heave from Olivier Giroud.
Lampard could not choose between them, judging by his reaction, a mixture of excitement and relief and a fair bit of air-punching. The top four is some statement by a novice coach at a club with Champions League pedigree. And he has an FA Cup final to come.
Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo was as accepting of the result as Lampard, avoiding any of the dug-out morality disputes that erupted between Chelsea and Liverpool, even though the outcome dropped his team into seventh spot.
Covid denied us the usual last-game rituals. No ovation at the close, no football-shirted kids bursting on to the pitch, with mums huddled on the touchline contemplating the dash to the airport. Just a fist bump with colleagues, a pat on the back for the opposition and straight into the post-match media obligations, which for Lampard meant an interview first up with his cousin Jamie Redknapp.
“Delighted with the performance against a team difficult to play against,” Lampard said. “It means a great deal.
“Coming into the job I don’t think a lot put us in the top-four bracket. Now we have achieved that, can we close that gap to Liverpool and Man City? We have shown we can improve players and bring in young players.
“The difficulty taking this job last July was there were a lot of unknowns. Could we move forward without Eden Hazard, one of, if not the best player in the Premier League? We couldn’t do any [transfer] business. Lost a massive player and the ban was what it was, but now we have seen a real development, a team effort and that is really pleasing.”
Wolves did what they do, threw a black and gold weave across the piece, shutting down space and forcing the opposition to work as hard as they do. Watching them squeeze every inch of space it is incredible to think that Wolves have been at it 12 months already. And still they roll on indefatigably into August to contest a Europa League that began for them in July 2019.
If there is a criticism to be levelled at Nuno Espirito Santo it is a lack of variety in Wolves’ play, which seeks to stifle the opposition rather than liberate their own potential.
You wondered what Chelsea’s new signing Timo Werner made of it all from his seat in the stand.
Probably laughing his head off internally as Christian Pulisic, the smallest figure on the pitch, bounced off Willy Boly, the biggest. Less so when noting the amount of time the ball spent in the air. The airborne collision that saw Kurt Zouma wipe out Raul Jimenez was typical of a first half hour of epic grunt and few chances.
My new home! Come on, @ChelseaFC ???????????? pic.twitter.com/7jF4GeCeQ2
— Timo Werner (@TimoWerner) July 26, 2020
This was a match ultimately conditioned by events elsewhere. Chelsea needed a point to ensure a top-four spot. The requirement was to protect what they had. Thus did a game of muscular cat-and-mouse unfold. Any incursion into either half met with uncompromising beef.
In short the game needed a goal, or at least a shot on target. It got not one but two, and both resulted in eruptions of ecstasy on the Chelsea bench.
The first was curled in beautifully by Mount from a free-kick conceded by Pedro Neto. The irony. Moments earlier Neto had woken us all up with a cross that had Willy Caballero at full stretch in the Chelsea goal to tip it behind for a corner.
The second was a more prosaic bit of centre-forward endeavour, with Giroud throwing himself into a challenge and hooking the ball into the net. Lampard was no less pleased, however, knowing that the Champions League, from which Chelsea look sure to exit next week in Munich, will be back at Stamford Bridge next season.
Nuno went for the Adama Traoré option at the start of the second half, which would at least bring the speed gun into the equation. Traoré was into the action almost immediately with a trademark slalom which began in his own half and ended on the edge of the Chelsea box with a trail of blue-shirted debris behind him.
In possession Traoré invariably drew two Chelsea defenders, creating the space for others, in particular Diego Jota, who almost took advantage with a shot ultimately snaffled by Caballero. Beyond Traoré, Chelsea had this match under control.
Wolves’ commitment never faded but a largely one-dimensional vision was running into too many dead ends. Wolves just could not conjure enough points of difference to discomfit the home side enough.
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