Halford believes Chelsea are the best

Greg Halford of Wolves Wolves utility man Greg Halford believes Chelsea are the complete team after being beaten 4-0 at Stamford Bridge.

Mick McCarthy’s side were no match for the Premier League leaders, who completed their 10th consecutive clean sheet home win of the season, as well as a year unbeaten on their own patch.

And Halford, who played as a right wing-back in a new 3-5-2 formation, was left impressed by their opponents.

He said: “Chelsea have got a bit of everything. If they need to beat teams up they can do it, if they need to pass round teams they can do it.

“They’re the top club in the country at the minute and it was tough going.”

Wolves were 3-0 down inside 21 minutes and Halford joked: “We went with a game-plan – to concede as few as we could!

“But it didn’t work. We should have gone 1-0 up in the first five minutes, but if you don’t put away those chances, teams like Chelsea will punish you and that’s what they did.”

But Halford was deadly serious about his disappointment in Wolves’ defending, after leaking from another set-piece when Michael Essien rose unchallenged to head home the second goal.

The 24-year-old said: “We’ve been concentrating on set-pieces, because we’ve conceded a lot this season. We’ve been working on them, so it was disappointing to concede one like that.

“We tried to keep a solid shape and be patient, because obviously they were going to have a lot of the ball. But when we get the ball we have to keep hold of it, and we didn’t do that on Saturday.”

Chelsea’s starting line-up on Saturday was worth over £200million, while Wolves’ first XI cost under £12million.

While not making excuses, McCarthy believes fans looking at the magnitude of the defeat should appreciate the difference in the budgets of the clubs.

He said: “They’re top quality and have got one or two players that cost as much as our entire squad. So let’s put everything in perspective.

“They’ve spent hundreds of millions on players over the last few years, so for me to justify our performance is a little bit hollow against one of the top teams in the world.”

But Halford still believes that Wolves will battle to safety this season.

He said: “This is the best squad that I’ve been a part of in the Premier League. We’ve got depth, a big squad where anyone can come in and do a good job.

“We’ve been creating a lot of chances but we just need that killer instinct.”

Second bottom Wolves face Birmingham in a crunch six-pointer this Sunday, the first of back to back games at Molineux, with fellow strugglers Bolton there the following Saturday.

Wolves have won just one game in front of their own fans this season – against Fulham on September 20 – and Halford admits home form is crucial.

He said: “Our home form hasn’t been great, but if we can do anything like what Stoke did last time we’ll be fine – there’s no reason why we can’t, because the fans at Molineux are great.

“Games against Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool aren’t going to make or break our season.

“Playing against teams like Birmingham, Portsmouth and the teams around us, that’s where we have to be picking up points.”

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