In 2012, Chelsea made the trip to the West Midlands to face Wolverhampton Wanderers on the back of four matches without a win, which had resulted in the Blues dropping out of a top-four position in the Premier League table.

Wolves had endured a similar run of five fixtures without success, but they had claimed a morale-boosting draw at the Emirates Stadium against Arsenal less than a week before hosting Chelsea.

Andre Villas-Boas made three alterations to the lineup that began against Aston Villa on New Year's Eve, which included a recall for midfielder Frank Lampard, while Wolves boss Mick McCarthy dropped first-choice strike duo Steven Fletcher and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake to the bench.

Despite their exclusion, Wolves almost stunned their more illustrious opponents inside the opening 60 seconds when David Edwards capitalised on a weak pass from Chelsea full-back Jose Bosingwa, but he couldn't fully connect with his effort.

That near miss sparked Chelsea into life, and they enjoyed a prolonged period of dominance throughout the opening 20 minutes, with goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey doing superbly to block Juan Mata's attempt after the Spaniard had been set up by Fernando Torres.

Torres, who had been drafted into the side in place of the injured Didier Drogba, was displaying the kind of confidence that had been missing from his play throughout the first half of the campaign, but he overstepped the mark with an audacious effort from 60 yards which came close to striking the corner flag.

It appeared inevitable that Chelsea would nick an opener, but a studs-up challenge from Lampard on Adam Hammill revitalised the home side, and they should have taken the lead through either Roger Johnson or Stephen Ward, but both failed to hit the back of the net with headed opportunities.

Those misses proved costly, and nine minutes into the second half, Chelsea edged in front when Ramires reacted fastest from a Mata corner to fire the ball into the roof of Hennessey's net.

The Blues sensed that now was the time to capitalise on their advantage, and Ramires nearly added his second after a blistering run down the right, while Torres almost created an opportunity for himself in Wolves' final third.

But the score remained at 1-0 and as the clock ticked closer to full time, Wolves began to press forward and with six minutes left, Molineux erupted after their team found an equaliser that their endeavour and industry had deserved.

Matt Jarvis delivered a testing cross to the back post for the awaiting Fletcher, who had been introduced after Chelsea's opener, and the Scot headed back across goal for Ward to convert from close range.

However, the home side were dealt a sucker punch in the final minute of normal time when Lampard, who could have been shown a red card in the first half, met an Ashley Cole cross to the find the back of the net with a volley.

Kevin Doyle almost salvaged an unlikely point for Wolves in added-on time, but defeat here saw the Molineux outfit remain in 16th position, while Chelsea replaced Arsenal in fourth place.

Chelsea followed up their victory at Molineux with a 1-0 triumph over Sunderland, but less than two months later, Villas-Boas was removed from his position at Stamford Bridge after losing to Wolves' Black Country rivals West Bromwich Albion.

Wolves were also quick to make a managerial change by sacking McCarthy after being humiliated by the Baggies at Molineux, but that decision proved to be a disastrous one as Wolves failed to win in their final 13 games under caretaker boss Terry Connor and as a result, were relegated to the Championship.