Chelsea 6 Wolves 0:JOHN TERRY will have enjoyed this brief respite. His had been a traumatic few days, a tumultuous period scarred by the "heartbreak" of taking leave of international football after nine years and 78 caps, and tinged with fury that his position had apparently been rendered "untenable" by the charges brought against him by the Football Association. Off the field of play, he finds himself embroiled yet again in an on-going fight to clear his name.

Yet, for an hour and a half spent with the majority in this arena frequently chorusing his name with gusto, and pitted against fragile lower league opponents whose priorities understandably lie elsewhere, the turmoil of his week to date could be forgotten. All the distractions could go ignored with football instead fixing his focus.

The defender, now solely of Chelsea and only formerly of England, would always have been eager to feature here, though his inclusion still felt eye-catching. After all, he had spent the previous two days a frustrated figure in the bowels of the national stadium in front of a Football Association independent regulatory commission – his attendance amounted to six hours on Monday, and another five on Tuesday morning – as he confronts that charge of racially abusing Queens Park Rangers’ Anton Ferdinand in a west London derby that took place 11 months ago.

The 31-year-old had trained with a few of his team-mates on Sunday, his involvement against Stoke the previous day having been limited to a few minutes as a substitute. Wolves hardly offered much of a challenge to Terry and his team-mates, and the resistance put up by what was effectively a reserve selection picked by the Championship club - only Slawomir Peszko had started the weekend win at Peterborough – was brushed aside ruthlessly in the opening few exchanges. Yet to have featured at all still felt like a show of strength from Terry. In that respect, it was familiar: where his retirement from international football had been startling in the context of a career that has invariably seen challenges confronted head on, this was a return to the old routine.

The crowd, inevitably, had lauded his involvement, the chorus of “One England captain” bellowed from all sides prior to kick-off to prompt an acknowledgement, as if of thanks for continued support, from the defender wearing the armband. The reassuring thwack of a trademark second minute headed clearance must have confirmed to the Wolves forward Bjorn Sigurdarson that a daunting evening that lay ahead. The real surprise was that it was Gary Cahill, and not Terry, who clambered above Richard Stearman at the far post to thump a header from Juan Mata’s free-kick through Dorus de Vries. That was a veering from the prescribed script.

Regardless, Wolves had been breached with the game barely four minutes old. They wilted thereafter. Ryan Bertrand, fed by Lucas Piazon’s precise pull-back, and then Mata, added to the plunder. The Spaniard’s goal had been the culmination of a slick move that cut through the Wolves defence, the playmaker running riot against back-pedalling opponents. He was a class apart in this company, though Chelsea’s three full debutants – Piazon, Victor Moses and Cesar Azpilicueta – all revelled in the simplicity of their task.

The winger secured from Wigan was clattered by De Vries after the interval, the calls for Fernando Torres to take the resultant penalty ignored and his compatriot, Oriol Romeu, converting with ease instead. Torres’ own reward came soon afterwards, an unmarked near-post header from Mata’s corner, with Moses subsequently guiding home a first Chelsea goal from Oscar’s delivery.

The hosts’ only discomfort had been endured when Peszko bustled into space, yet the Pole’s aim was off. Terry would have been annoyed to have seen the home side breached, but it would hardly have mattered. His own far more significant battle will resume today.

CHELSEA: Turnbull, Azpilicueta, Cahill, Terry, Bertrand, Ramires, Romeu, Piazon, Mata, Torres, Moses. Subs: Hilario, Luiz, Oscar, Mikel, Hazard, Ferreira, Marin.

WOLVERHAMPTON: De Vries, Stearman, Margreitter, Batth, Zubar, Peszko, Edwards, Davis, Hunt, Boukari, Sigurdarson. Subs: Ikeme, Nouble, Jonsson, Forde, Foley, Price, Ismail.

Referee: Neil Swarbrick (Lancashire)