Mad for it! Chelsea winger bags hat-trick in impressive 6-2 win at Wolves

BY RICHARD CAWLEY
richard@slpmedia.co.uk

Noni Madueke claims he brought the “fire” to Chelsea’s attack as they smashed Wolves 6-2 on Sunday at Molineux.

The Blues swatted the hosts aside with a rampant second-half display with the winger, 22, scoring a 15-minute hat-trick.

England international Cole Palmer set up all three of Madueke’s finishes and also levelled for them just before half-time with a impudent and effortless-looking lob of Jose Sa.

Madueke told Premier League Productions: “I was really just trying to be clever and wait for the right moment. The system allows us to probe and probe, and keep the possession higher up the pitch.

“Maybe in the first half it was a bit more end to end, but then we gained control in the second half.

“Today means a lot (scoring a hat-trick). The first one was a bit lucky. The second one was all Cole Palmer – two brilliant passes and, with the weight of pass, I just had to step on to the ball and score. I’m made up for the hat-trick, but I’m more made up that we won the game.

“He (Palmer) is unbelievable. He is cold and I am fire, so it mixes well.

“He has the ability to always play a pass at the right time. I like to get the ball in space, beat people, and make things happen.”

Madueke apologised for a social media post – quickly deleted – which was critical of Wolverhampton and said ‘Everything about this place is s***’.

“I just want to apologise to everyone that I might have offended,” said Madueke. “It is just a human mistake, an accident. It wasn’t meant to be out on my socials like that.

“I’m sure Wolverhampton is a nice town – I’m sorry.

“In terms of the boos, I expected it but it is part of the game. You have to be able to play under that sort of pressure.”

Nicolas Jackson and Joao Felix scored the other Chelsea goals.

Enzo Maresca’s side ran riot in the second period as they cut through Wolves at will.

Asked whether they will attack like that every week, the Italian head coach said: “That is the intention, but there are teams that want the same, so it is not that easy. In the first 10 minutes, we created two or three chances, scored a goal, and then we started to lose the ball. But, overall, it was a good performance.

“There are always things that we can improve on. We can learn many things.

“The second half was completely different. We didn’t lose any balls and we were in control of the game. We were a bit more accurate and didn’t give away any easy balls.”

PICTURES: PA