Last season Colwill averaged 1.25 fouls per 90 minutes in the Premier League, committing at least one in 15 of his 23 games. Having just adapted to playing at left-back under Pochettino, it looks with Maresca he’ll return to playing as a centre-back.

Most evidence suggests this won’t prevent him from sinning frequently. Although he didn’t commit a foul in their opener against Man City, he slipped up four times in his three previous friendlies, fouling at least once in each.

Against Wolves, he’ll have Cunha to deal with. The Brazilian drew an impressive average of 1.83 fouls per 90 last season and will be a tough test for the young Englishman.

Lemina averaged 1.3 fouls per 90 last season, remarkably sinning in 28 of his 35 league matches for Wolves. An important feature of his role involves breaking up play and when needed, committing tactical fouls.

Last season, he was penalised in each of his first 13 matches and he’s started off strong this year with one against Arsenal.

The selection passed with flying colours in both of Wolves’ clashes with Chelsea last season, as the Gabonese international accumulated five fouls, two at home and three away.

Hwang Hee-Chan well and truly surpassed the one foul mark in his opener, drawing a remarkable five fouls against Man City. That’s particularly impressive given that no side committed fewer fouls than City’s 289 last season. Fulham came the closest but still committed almost 100 more.

On average, he drew 1.36 fouls per game last season, notably including one in his only match against Chelsea.

In fact, the South Korean seemed to particularly excel in the fouls drawn department against the ‘Big 6’, averaging a foul won every 46 minutes.

After coming on as a substitute in the second half against Arsenal, Cunha already looked back to his sharp ways following the injury he sustained in preseason.

The Wolves star was efficient in the shots on target market last season, averaging 1.39 attempts on goal per 90 despite the midfield often failing to supply the forwards with many chances.

Last time out he started the season off quickly, testing the keeper in 17 of his first 24 matches so we can hope for more of the same against Chelsea. The Blues’ defence was far from watertight last season, averaging over 5.0 shots on target against per game which also makes for good reading for Cunha backers.

It didn’t take long to see Chelsea’s defensive vulnerability in their opener against Man City. Robert Sanchez was forced into making three saves while City failed to test the keeper from a few other very good opportunities.

This isn’t a new story for Chelsea fans who watched their leaky defence concede an average of over five shots on target last season with the keeper making 3.4 saves per match. Maresca has no issue committing men forward so the risk of getting caught on the counter, playing an arguably weaker team, remains real.

In goal for Chelsea, Petrovic had to make four stops against Wolves, both at home and at the Molineux last season. In their opener, Chelsea did not provide reason to suggest this won’t be the case again making 1.91 look very generous.

Punters were likely not the only ones pleased to see Cucurella taken out three times against City as that god-awful chant continues to circulate around social media and the heads of Englishmen.

He averaged 1.77 fouls won per 90 last season and, amongst others, will face Hwang Hee-Chan who committed an average of over 1.3 per game last season.

That said, he looked a completely different player during The Euros and was similarly impressive in Chelsea’s league opener. He really turned it up a notch during the competition, drawing 2+ fouls in three of his four knockout matches and averaging 1.98 per match.

If he can keep his form up and continues to be handed sufficient offensive responsibility, backing the Spanish protagonist at 2.5 is very sensible.

Although the Frenchman’s minutes were limited in what was an injury-riddled debut Premier League season, Nkunku committed 1.64 fouls per 90 across the 450 odd minutes he got under his belt.

He started against City last Sunday but came off just before the hour mark with Pedro Neto coming on to replace him. However, in that time, he’d already managed to commit two fouls.

This trend extends beyond the City game; in the four preceding friendlies, he sinned at least once in each, being penalised five times in total.

Having built a deserved reputation for being an entertaining team to watch (for neutrals at least), the over 2.5 goals market was very profitable in Chelsea matches last season.

We witnessed an average of over 3.7 goals in matches involving The Blues whilst in the case of Wolves, this figure was still over the 3.0 mark last year. Similarly, this selection would have won in 27 of Chelsea’s league matches and 24 of Wolves’ in their last campaigns.

By extension, it should come as no surprise that clashes between Chelsea and Wolves have been entertaining affairs recently. In head-to-head matches between the sides, over 2.5 goals have been scored in four of the last five.