A Blue Up North reviews Chelsea’s away trip to AFC Bournemouth in the Premier League.
This Wednesday evening saw Chelsea head to the south coast to play against AFC Bournemouth in their Premier League match. After home victories over Tottenham Hotspur and Sheffield Wednesday in the 2 domestic cup competitions, The Blues would have been in a fairly buoyant mood.
New loan signing Gonzalo Higuain made his Premier League debut while Maurizio Sarri reverted his line up to his standard looking first choice side. Mateo Kovacic returned to his more regular spot in midfield alongside N’Golo Kante and in front of Jorginho, while Pedro and Hazard flanked the Argentine striker. However, Emerson Palmieri made his first league start of the season in place of a tired looking, miss firing Marcos Alonso.
Eddie Howe was again without top scorer Callum Wilson in an otherwise strong looking Bournemouth side. Josh King led the attack, supported by Junior Stanilas, Fraser and youngster David Brooks.
The Blues certainly started the match very well. They completely dominated the first half, enjoying over 70% possession, making over 400 successful passes and creating 5 good goal scoring chances.
Unfortunately they came up against a very well organised and resolute defensive line up and a goalkeeper in top form. 38 year old Artur Boruc has become first choice over former Blue Asmir Begovic on merit in recent weeks and for 45 minutes he looked like he could stop everything aimed at his goal.
The second half was a completely different story. Within 2 minutes of the restart, King fired in the opener, which was the home side’s first real opportunity. As The Blues tried and failed to level the scores, The Cherries started to gain confidence.
Goals from the impressive Brooks and King led to the Chelsea players’ heads to drop. After losing their previous 2 away matches without scoring, the team look as mentally defeated as the score line was suggesting. So much so that a fourth goal in the dying seconds hardly came as a surprise. The side were completely deflated and at a loss to how to react to being outplayed by a mid table side who had shown little ambition early on but cut The Blues open at will in the second half.
It was almost a year ago that Bournemouth beat Chelsea 0-3 at Stamford Bridge in an equally embarrassing affair for The Blues. This is not a coincidence.
Eddie Howe stayed after the match that he had told his side to not worry about having minimal ball possession. He believes his side are best suited to remain tight and compact in defence and counter attack with pace when the rare opportunity arises against the better top sides.
Chelsea under both Conte and Sarri at this time of the season are showing similar frailties. They are struggling to break through highly populated defences, while they leave their central defence exposed to very quick players.
Having the pace of King, Stanilas and especially Brooks was more effective than playing with a true striker in Wilson for the hosts.
Meanwhile Higuain did not appear to be fully fit and ready as yet for the more robust and frenetic English game. His movement was very good, especially into the penalty box, but he was rarely being picked out by his teammates. This will come in time and he definitely has the potential to make a very big difference for The Blues. Especially in matches such as this one when Chelsea face a solid looking defensive wall.
Yes, Chelsea did look commanding and in charge for the whole of the first half, but make no mistake, this was a painful defeat. Bournemouth are a team that is set up to deal with and counter sides who retain possession for long periods and executed their plan to perfection.
However, it is the ease with which the Chelsea players’ heads dropped in the second half. There was a clear lack of belief that they could not turn the match around. As a result, the home side were able to make the most of their opportunity.
While Sarri watched on completely unwilling to adjust his side’s set up, style and emphasis on the pitch, the players also looked bemused as to how to stop their thrashing. With some very big, tough matches to come over the coming weeks, this was an extremely worrying sight.
Chelsea return to Stamford Bridge on Saturday to face the team currently bottom of the table and who look like they already have 1 foot down in next season’s Championship. It is now a match that all will expect to see a strong reaction after this humiliation.
The manager’s antics of being alone in the dressing room with his players after the match clearly shows he expects a reaction from his team. But those watching on will also expect to see a reaction from the manager regarding his tactical flexibility. The Blues will certainly need both as they move in to a busy February.
Written by Jon Ellis, home and away season ticket holder. Follow him on Twitter @CltheroeBlue
