Bournemouth slip up against Chelsea

Match Report

AFC Bournemouth 0 v 1 Chelsea

28 October 2017

Dean Court welcomes both teams.

Even before a ball was kicked, Eddie Howe and the Bournemouth fans knew their team would need something special to get a result against Chelsea. This was a Chelsea side that was determined to stay on course in its title challenge and was going to keep knocking at Bournemouth's door with Eden Hazard the general, who was equipped with the movement and guile to exploit any errors that might suddenly appear in Bournemouth's defence. Chelsea had to wait until the second half to take the game from Bournemouth, but Hazard pounced when the Bournemouth defenders around him could not keep their feet and he found the net with relish. While Bournemouth had late chances from Callum Wilson and Steve Cook, they had lost to a side that will perform well in European competition. A 0-1 defeat may have felt disappointing, but it is a measure of how far Eddie Howe's club has come to be disappointed with that.

Bournemouth players before the game.

Bournemouth made two changes with Mousset and Ibe dropped to the bench and Steve Cook and Jermain Defoe making starts. It was a 3-5-1-1 formation with Adam Smith and Charlie Daniels playing as wing backs.

Chelsea prepare for a minute of remembrance.

Natalie and Peter talk about Chelsea's chances before kick off.

More pictures are on Match Day Gallery.

Jake Humphrey doesn't look impressed with something,
while Frank Lampard looks for some one in the crowd.  

Chelsea were quite happy to hold the ball at the back and look for Pedro and Zappacosta on the right side. The first real alarm came on nine minutes when Pedro decided to come in off the wing and hit a shot over the bar. 

Steve Cook and Simon Francis were having to get headers in and make tackles as the centre of Bournemouth's defence was tested. Bournemouth were content to keep their shape and defend in numbers. Aké was soon involved in keeping the stout resistance going with Zappacosta seeing a lot of the ball on Chelsea's right wing.

Bournemouth did get going with some attacking play of their own when Daniels played in Afobe, but Benik did not shoot with his left foot, and while he waited for Daniels and finally got a shot off the angle, it was a much narrower shooting gap and Courtois could make the block.

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Chelsea were soon back in charge and a shot corner that Eden Hazard was involved in ended with him shooting and Begovic making a low save. Bournemouth's offside trap started to catch out Zappacosta, but Chelsea missed a superb chance, on 24 minutes, to open the scoring when Asmir Begovic presented the ball straight to Hazard and the Chelsea playmaker picked out Morata who miss hit his shot from six yards and put the chance wide!

Another corner saw Bakayoko head straight at Begovic, before a further corner was met with a shot from David Luiz and Begovic spilt the ball in front of Morata and Azpilicueta but they were flagged offside.

Andrew Surman was covering a lot of ground just to make it harder for Hazard who was moving from one wing to the other.  A poor attempt at a bicycle kick by Morata got some laughs from the home crowd, but it wasn't long before another good chance fell to him and he looked sure to score, having made a tight turn in the box, but Begovic made himself big and made a point blank save on 34 minutes - Begovic's best work of the day.

Bournemouth managed to get in behind the Chelsea defence briefly when Adam Smith worked a good move with Simon Francis and the centre back whipped in a cross that was hastily cleared from the six yard line.

Chelsea were eager to keep the pressure on and came back with good work from Pedro and Hazard before Fabregas was blocked from just a few yards out to leave the scores 0-0 at half time.

No goals - a good half for AFC Bournemouth .

Bournemouth's subs start warming up and Jordan Ibe gets the call to go on.

Second half

Bournemouth subbed Jermain Defoe who had hardly had a touch in the first half and brought on Jordan Ibe to add numbers in midfield. Bournemouth fell behind though when strong work by Morata on the half way line to keep the ball led to a pass out to Eden Hazard, and as he raced towards goal and Simon Francis lost his footing. It was enough for Hazard to get the space he needed to fire past Begovic at the near post and give Chelsea a 0-1 lead on 51 minutes. Begovic might have done better with that!

Bournemouth were struggling to wrestle the ball from Chelsea and Bakayoko ended up on another Chelsea move which he headed over. A spark of hope came when Zappacosta  and Luiz ran into each other. Stanislas almost capitalised putting Ibe in with a shooting chance, but he hit a rising shot just over on 58 minutes. When will Ibe score?

Adam Smith then found himself in the book having caught Hazard. Worse still Junior Stnislas pulled up with a groin strain and had to go off. Marc Pugh replaced Stanislas on 63 minutes. Ibe was in the mood to have a go and he shot high again from a Luis Cook pass.

Pedro did a bit better at the other end but shot straight at Begovic. Adam Smith then made a good run down the right and his cross was headed well over by Pugh.

Things on the injury front took another bad turn for Bournemouth when Afobe hurt his left knee, so Callum Wilson replaced him on 73 minutes.

Wilson was involved quickly when Ibe played a ball to him in the box and Wilson's found his shot blocked by Azpilicueta, it was so close to a goal - great block. Chelsea subbed Pedro and brought on Drinkwater, while Morata was replaced by Batshuayi on 79 minutes.

Bournemouth started to ask more questions in the last 10 minutes or at least they might have if Pugh had not left a header from a corner with no one running in behind him. Conte put on Willian and removed hazard with six minutes to go. Batshuayi then tried his luck from distance with a wild volley that went wide.

Meanwhile, Simon Francis was given a yellow card for taking out Alonso on another Chelsea attack. With four minutes of added time AFCB still wanted to have a go and they came close with Wilson and Ibe creating space in the box for Surman and then Steve Cook, who shot but straight at Courtois!

Time's up!

Defeat, but not a heavy one.

Summary

Bournemouth found it harder to create clear chances against Chelsea than they did against Spurs and Man City. It would have been a good defensive display had they not made one error and that is how it has been this season. Of great concern are the new injuries and while Bournemouth may have learnt to lose narrowly to the best teams they still have to try and find a little something extra if they are going to start taking points off of these teams.

AFC Bournemouth line up.

 AFCB Subs: Boruc, Arter, Gosling, Mousset, Ibe, Pugh, C Wilson

AFCB Ratings

Begovic 6, A Smith 7, Francis 7, S Cook 7, Aké 7, Daniels 7, L Cook 7, Surman 8, Stanislas 6, Afobe 6, Defoe 5

Referee Watch: Craig Pawson 5/10: A  reasonable performance, he did not miss much and did not give yellow  cards left right and centre for a change.

Chelsea

Courtois, Azpilicueta, Luiz, Rüdiger, Zappacosta, Fàbregas, Bakayoko, Alonso, Pedro (Drinkwater), Hazard (Willian 84), Morata (Batshuayi)

Chlesea Subs
Caballero, Drinkwater, Willian, Batshuayi, Cahill, Christensen, Ampadu