Reece James’ stoppage-time free-kick rescued a point for Chelsea after a scintillating 2-2 draw with Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge.
Andoni Iraola’s side were heading for a famous victory after second-half goals from Justin Kluivert and Antoine Semenyo had cancelled out Cole Palmer’s early opener.
Bournemouth were heading for fifth, level on points with Chelsea, but James produced a moment of magic in the fifth minute of stoppage time to lift the roof off Stamford Bridge and rescue a point for Enzo Maresca’s side, who are now five matches without a win in the league.
The visitors were the form side coming into the game, unbeaten in a club-record eight Premier League games. However, Chelsea, who hadn’t won in four matches in the league, started full of confidence and took the lead with Palmer pulling the strings from the off.
After being mentioned in 10 of the first 14 posts in Sky Sports‘ minute-by-minute commentary, Palmer finally had his goal and it came after some brilliant forward play from Nicolas Jackson. The striker held the ball up before turning his man and playing Palmer in on goal. Faced with Mark Travers, Palmer sold him a dummy, putting the Bournemouth stopper on the deck, before rolling the ball into the net for his 14th league goal in 21 appearances.
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Bournemouth’s David Brooks avoided being sent off after a VAR review of his second-half clash with Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella. This was the first time in the Premier League that a referee has rejected a red-card review at the monitor.
Bournemouth barely had a kick in the first half but they roared back in the second to leave Chelsea, who missed a host of chances, reeling.
It was breathless stuff as Bournemouth came out with renewed vigour and they were rewarded straight away when Moises Caicedo barged over Antoine Semenyo in the penalty area. Referee Robert Jones pointed to the spot and Kluivert made no mistake to bring the visitors level.
Bournemouth’s Justin Kluivert celebrates with his team-mates after scoring their equaliser (AP Photo/Ian Walton)
Then came the game’s controversial moment.
All Bournemouth’s good work could have been undone when David Brooks cynically took out Marc Cucurella off the ball. Cucurella had done similar to Brooks in the early stages of the game, and the Bournemouth forward remembered the incident. The referee was sent over the screen by VAR but luckily for Brooks, he brandished a yellow card.
It was the first time in the Premier League that a referee has rejected a red-card review at the monitor and it was the first monitor rejection of any kind this season.
Bournemouth went on to take full advantage as Antonie Semenyo’s rocket of a shot flashed past goalkeeper Robert Sanchez to send them on their way to what they thought was going to be a huge win, but substitute James had other ideas.
Antoine Semenyo of Bournemouth celebrates after scoring to make it 2-1
Maresca: We deserved more
Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca to TNT Sports:
“I think we deserved much more, especially in the first half. That’s football. The negative thing is that we changed how we played after conceding. We dropped back.
“For sure, the most important thing is to create chances. It happened many times in the last four or five games. We don’t score and then we concede. Tonight after we concede the penalty, we drop a bit and we need to improve on that.
“The game was completely in our control and it’s something we need to improve.
“I have concerns always even when we are winning matches. This is the Premier League, when you don’t create chances and don’t score then you have to be more concerned.”
Wasteful Chelsea a concern for Maresca
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Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca and Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola had differing opinions on the incident between David Brooks and Marc Cucurella during their 2-2 draw in the Premier League.
Analysis from Sky Sports’ Oliver Yew at Stamford Bridge:
Straight out of the blocks, it was the Cole Palmer show – the Chelsea show – against Bournemouth.
Palmer was at his magical best, his dummy and finish giving the Blues a deserved lead. They were utterly dominant with 13 shots, five of them on target. However, the crucial stat was that they only one goal to show for it at the break.
Nicolas Jackson’s wait for a goal goes on. He was lively against the Cherries but lacked cutting edge. Three of his seven attempts drew saves from Mark Travers.
He wasn’t the only culprit as wastefulness proved costly with Bournemouth roaring back into the game, and Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca admitted his side’s second-half drop-off was a concern.
Chelsea were eventually handed a get out of jail card by James’ stoppage-time free-kick, but Enzo Maresca’s side are now five games without a win in the league.
It’s not a critical result in terms of their hopes of Champions League qualification but they will have to find a ruthlessness in front of goal if they want to stay in the top four.
Iraola: We are very short on numbers | ‘The club are working on it’
Bournemouth head coach Andoni Iraola couldn’t hide his concern after the game as his injury list grew with the withdrawal of defender James Hill with a hamstring injury in the first half.
“I don’t think we deserved to win today and Chelsea were better than us in the first half. We were better in the second half. It was more fair.
“I am angry because of their equaliser. VAR has to check the free-kick and the point of contact. We played 15 minutes extra today. I am not complaining because of this. I don’t think we deserved to win today. We were slow to the ball and wanted to play too safe. We were not the team that we normally are. The performance in the second half was very good and we almost won it.
“We are very stretched. We are going to lose James Hill because he felt something in the hamstring. We are in a period where we are very short of numbers. We keep taking points. I think the club is working on it. We are unlucky personally and on the sporting side.”