Wolves columnist John Lalley has seen the good and bad sides of hyperbole among supporters as the team stutter through the Premier League season.

Having already dropped 10 points from winning positions this season, the likelihood is that even had Wolves converted any of the early opportunities created on Saturday, Chelsea would have ultimately redressed the balance and restored natural order.

They would have found a way, as Champions invariably do.

But they didn’t need to because Wolves couldn’t score but we may as well take the positives and in truth, there was much to applaud in West London alongside another clutch of selection conundrums for our manager Mick McCarthy.

Of course, there is nothing whatsoever to be gained from indulgent weekly rituals of self-congratulation in the wake of more lost points.

Seeking reassurance by rashly claiming as some have done that we have performed exceptionally well against the likes of Newcastle, Villa and West Ham is delusional.

It’s a fools errand to see only what you want to see and there’s been too much of it at Molineux this season – test your eyesight by staring hard at the league table and the myopia will soon be cured.

But there was cause for guarded optimism after the performance at the Bridge and Wolves will need to front up with similar resolve against a wounded Manchester City at the weekend.

Stephen Hunt’s initial 45 minutes as a Wolves player in such a challenging environment certainly gave cause for encouragement.

It really is asking a lot of any player to make an immediate impact after such a long period of inaction, especially a debutant slotting into a struggling team.

For a player like Hunt whose function is based on a feisty, lung-busting work ethic constantly chipping away at opponents and never taking a backward step, absolute fitness is essential and he needs to be given time to fully attune.

The predictable hostile reception he received seemed to stir his competitive juices from the outset and with time to make up, you get the impression that such a natural scrapper as Hunt won’t need much provoking to be hell bent on making an impression.

His inclusion on our left side gave us a balance in midfield we have lacked all season. The versatility of the outstanding Matt Jarvis on the right flank galvanised Kevin Foley who enjoyed almost a new lease of life at Chelsea.

The right-back was able to put behind him a series of unconvincing outings and operate superbly in tandem with Jarvis both from an attacking and defensive perspective.

His overlapping runs frequently tested the home team and Foley looked more confident and assured than he has all season long.

David Jones orchestrated the midfield showing a really delightful touch and although it would be naive to suggest that Wolves opened up gaping holes in the Chelsea rearguard, at the very least, we offered a whole lot more than we did during that hapless second period against West Ham.

Even so, this latest blank means that we have managed just eight goals in nine matches, a statistic that carries a worrying echo from last season.

Initially, McCarthy expressed the confident view that ‘we have got goals in us.’

At the time of this assertion, his belief appeared to have its foundation in the prospect of a multi-million duel partnership between Kevin Doyle and Steven Fletcher with a seemingly resurgent Sylvan Ebanks-Blake breathing down their necks.

Now, all the manager’s inclinations firmly suggest that the policy of a lone front-runner will have to endure with Doyle as the preferred choice.

With Hunt now in the equation and Karl Henry soon to be available, a player the manager would never exclude from any meaningful fixture, selection becomes even more intriguing.

Michael Mancienne was ineligible against Chelsea, Jelle van Damme played his customary less than 90 minutes whilst Fletcher was consigned to the bench.

Nenad Milijas too made a rare appearance alongside David Edwards, staking his claim for regular action.

You can’t beat competition for places and selection rotation has its uses, but even though Mick seems more at ease utilising a more conservative formation, I’m anything but convinced he himself is entirely sure of his best first choice team.

Had the unfortunate Adlene Guedioura escaped injury, he too would have been thrown into the mix!

In the midst of such a dire run of results, some genuine consistency in selection might just realign our season.

Injuries and suspensions a manager cannot legislate for, but now is surely the time for a more settled policy regarding our starting line-up.

Almost a year on from our last trip to Stamford Bridge, it is illuminating to hear Mick drawing comparisons to the two performances.

With those delightful witticisms that sporadically puncture his usual northern glumster mode, Mick described last year’s thrashing as akin to ‘getting our bellies tickled.’

This time, encouraged by a sterner response against Chelsea, he was keen to stress that Wolves will not finish the season in the relegation places.

This, of course, does not mean that we are not facing a battle to avoid relegation because quite palpably, we are and to think otherwise is both unwise and unrealistic.

But Wolves beat the drop last time and our current barren spell does not mean automatic doom come next May either.

At this stage of a season, no-one can pre-empt anything and to me anyway, it looks a pretty even match.