Enzo Maresca may still be striving for more ‘control’ over games and yearns for a new No.9 to lead the attacking line, but the Premier League has been reminded of just how much attacking power the Italian already has at his disposal.

A frenetic affair at Molineux saw Chelsea’s new head coach secure a first win in the top flight, a commanding victory that was punctuated by a 14th-minute second-half hat-trick from Noni Madueke. The winger, public enemy number one in the Black Country after his pre-match social media posts incensed locals, was untouchable after the break as the visitors ran amok.

This was a glorious frenzy of a match. Nicolas Jackson put Maresca’s side ahead inside the first two minutes with Cole Palmer, who would assist all three of Madueke’s goals, scoring with a superb lob before half-time. Yet Chelsea struggled to contain Wolves in the opening period with Matheus Cunha and Jorgen Strand Larsen forcing the hosts level twice.

Then came Madueke’s masterpiece, with a magnificent first win in the top division for Maresca, crowned by substitutes Pedro Neto and Joao Felix who together recorded their sixth victory.

Liam Twomey analyses the key talking points from a frantic match.

How did Madueke initiate this competition?

It took less than a minute for the Wolves fans at Molineux to let Madueke know exactly what they thought of his pre-match Instagram claim that “everything about this place sucks”.

Chelsea fired a high ball from kick-off towards Madueke on the right flank and as he rose to receive the ball, boos poured in — quickly followed by loud shouts of “w*****”.

Madueke flashed a quick smile and seemed to use the vitriol as fuel. He was aggressive with the ball at every opportunity and posed a major threat when isolated from Rayan Ait-Nouri. He also tested Jose Sa with a series of fierce shots in a fierce opening phase.

Madueke impressed on and off the field (David Rogers/Getty Images)

Perhaps self-motivation was the intention behind the original Instagram post. There’s no doubt that it needlessly raised the temperature for his team-mates in a stadium where Chelsea hadn’t tasted victory since September 2019. Jackson snapped back at the home fans shortly after leading his team into the lead, seemingly in response to Madueke’s abuse.

The result was a hellish racket from the start, which only increased Wolves’ pressure, made their tackling more violent and added to the chaos in the game.

At times Chelsea threatened to overwhelm in a breathless first half, but in the second Madueke was there to emphatically solve the problem of his own making. Three times Palmer gave him space down the right – no Chelsea player had provided three assists in a Premier League game since Cesc Fabregas in 2016 – and three times he beat Sa, once with the help of a deflection off the outstretched leg of the troubled Ait-Nouri.

What could have been a humiliating response to the over-the-top online excitement instead turned out to be the kind of day that could have made Tammy Abraham a star here five years ago.

Madueke claims his match ball (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

Anyone up for some chaos?

After the expected loss to Manchester City and the expected win over Servette for the qualification for the Europa Conference League, this felt like a good start to Chelsea’s season. Maresca could not afford to fall further behind in the battle for the top four of the Premier League, especially considering the poor start that proved fatal for Mauricio Pochettino’s team last season.

His players performed superbly, outperforming Wolves by overcoming a number of first-half setbacks while also showing some promising signs that the Italian’s ideas are starting to work.

We were told that Marescaball was all about control, and perhaps in time that will be true. There were plenty of examples of the new head coach’s work in some of Chelsea’s better attacking sequences, while in other ways it was an extension of the chaos that defined this team for better or worse under Pochettino last season.

Jose Sa grabs air as Palmer puts Chelsea back ahead (Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)

Maresca’s midfield selection, with Palmer being selected as a No. 8 on the right in the absence of Romeo Lavia (who was sidelined with a minor hamstring injury), left Chelsea with what could best be described as fragile creativity in the first half. Wolves were opened up with crisp possession, but there were also regularly alarmingly large gaps left to exploit on the counter.

This meant that the first half was almost entirely dominated by rapid transitions, with both teams taking turns appearing threatening and vulnerable.

Fortunately for Chelsea, Palmer thrives on chaos and provided what was arguably the visitors’ most important moment of the game, with a brilliant long pass from Robert Sanchez (the ball was thought to have moved as it was touched by the keeper) and a clever flick from Jackson with a sublime one-touch lob.

Palmer celebrates his goal before switching to assist mode (David Rogers/Getty Images)

In the second half, it was Chelsea’s ruthlessness that saw them take control, taking advantage of Wolves’ complete lack of structural discipline amid a barrage of goals from Madueke and substitute Joao Felix.

Enzo Fernandez and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall still threw enough tricky moments from the back to emphasise that this is a work in progress, but Maresca was also pleased at the end of his first competitive week at Chelsea.

1.92 – Wolves today had a higher expected goals average (1.92) than opponents Chelsea (1.56) and lost 6-2. Puzzling. photo.twitter.com/EzrHXcmUPw

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) August 25, 2024

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Chelsea’s sixth goal, worth £96 million ($126.8 million), came in the 80th minute, which was probably what Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly were most pleased with.

Neto created a counter-chance out of nowhere with a lightning-quick pass over the halfway line on the left, Palmer set him up with a measured pass and the rest felt strangely inevitable: the inviting pass to Joao Felix, who fired a shot into the top corner without hesitation.

Neto and Joao Felix celebrate Chelsea’s sixth (Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)

Chelsea’s two most recent signings were both given ample opportunity to capitalise on Wolves’ second-half defeat at Molineux, but the impression their contributions gave was that Maresca had considerably more attacking firepower at his disposal than Pochettino did this time last year – regardless of whether Victor Osimhen arrives before the transfer deadline or not.

Jackson has already found his scoring touch, Madueke looks determined to make himself indispensable to this team and Palmer is as effortlessly efficient as ever. Christopher Nkunku, Chelsea’s best player in pre-season, hasn’t even started this game and has yet to produce the performance that many predicted in these early weeks, while Mykhailo Mudryk still looks lost.

Under different circumstances, it would have been a bigger story if the Ukrainian had withdrawn after another anonymous 45 minutes. Chelsea had Neto, Joao Felix and Nkunku in reserve and while Maresca’s side will face far stiffer defensive resistance than Wolves mustered here, they look better equipped to deal with the challenges ahead.

What did Maresca say?

Speaking about the team’s presentation, he told the BBC: “I thought the intention in the first half was good, but we lost four or five easy balls from set pieces and counter-attacks. The second half was completely different and we didn’t lose any balls and were in control of the game. The tactical plan in the second half was the same, but we were a bit more precise and didn’t give away easy balls.”

About Madueke’s performance: “In the first 10 minutes he had two chances and in general he was very good. The only thing I didn’t like about Noni was the free kick he gave away before half-time (from which Larsen equalised) and we can avoid that. Especially against a team that is good from set-pieces.”

Maresca celebrates fantastic first Premier League win (Chris Lee – Chelsea FC/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)

What’s next for Chelsea?

Thursday August 29: Servette (away), Conference League Playoff Game 2, 7:30 p.m. UK, 2:30 p.m. ET

Chelsea are 2-0 up from last week’s home game at Stamford Bridge as they look to progress to the group stage.

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(Top photo: Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)