Chelsea set new high for first-half passes as Tuchel begins to shape Blues

Thomas Tuchel has already started to mould Chelsea to his liking as they set a new club record for first-half passes in Wednesday’s clash with Wolves.

The German only had one training session with his players before the game after being appointed on Tuesday, but it seems he is already having an impact on their style of play.

Chelsea dominated the first-half proceedings at Stamford Bridge, as they had 78.5 per cent of the ball.

As a result, they completed 433 passes in the first half, which is the most by the Blues in the opening 45 minutes of a Premier League game since Opta began collecting such data in 2003-04.

433 – Chelsea have made 433 successful passes against Wolves so far; their most in the first half of a Premier League game since the start of the 2003-04 season (when we have this data available). Construction. #CHEWOL pic.twitter.com/ZSFDoYMOwd

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) January 27, 2021

Tuchel has previous in overseeing such possessional dominance, though one of his teams has not completed as many passes in the first half of a top-flight game since his Borussia Dortmund side made 503 against Cologne in May 2016.

Nevertheless, that control of the ball did not lead to a first-half breakthrough, as Wolves kept it to 0-0 at the interval.