Chelsea suffered a fourth successive away defeat and Wolves held on to win 2-1 on Christmas Eve.
In the first Premier League fixture played on December 24 since 1995, the Blues made a confident start and should really have taken an early lead, with Nicolas Jackson fluffing his lines in front of goal and Armando Broja equally wasteful.
The biggest chance of a goalless first half fell to Raheem Sterling, who stole from Joao Gomes and scored a clear goal. He had Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson completely loose on his right, but he scored the goal himself and denied it through Jose Sa.
Almost inevitably, after wasted chances, it was Wolves who took the lead five minutes after the break. From the eighth corner of the match, the hosts opened the scoring when Mario Lemina headed into the far corner.
Christopher Nkunku came on after an hour in his league and came close to equalising early, but his effort was stopped on the line through Toti Gomes, before Craig Dawson was injured after making a very good block to deny Sterling.
The score went up to 11 minutes of stoppage time, but Chelsea’s hopes of a late pace were dashed by a second goal from Wolves. Benoit Badiashile wasted a low ball in midfield, only managing to recover it for Matt Doherty to finish calmly.
Nkunku did get his goal as the visitors responded, heading home well from Sterling’s ball into the middle, and that left Chelsea with six minutes or so to level it up.
But an equaliser did not come for Chelsea, as they fell to a 19th Premier League defeat of 2023. That is, remarkably, more than any other side, with the latest poor result leaving the Blues tenth in the table at Christmas.