Thus far this season, the “map of the mine” against Chelsea is letting us have as much possession as we want while keeping up high lines for as long as possible. With this exact recipe Bournemouth got the better share of chances upfront, with Brazilian striker Evanilson making our defenders sweat a bit.
Once the hosts couldn’t keep up the pressure, Chelsea started to get more space upfront. Still our midfield were not really doing a good enough job in transition, with Enzo Fernández being sorely missed for this task.
This forced the likes of Cole Palmer to drop back to get things going and when he wasn’t being hacked by the opposition, he was responsible for most of our brilliance upfront. Twice Jackson got in a good position to score, but he was offside in the first one and had his shot parried by goalkeeper Mark Travers in the latter.
However Bournemouth almost got what they wanted, with Robert Sánchez taking Evanilson down in the box. The penalty was awarded and the centre-forward did a really bad job with his attempt, making our shot-stopper’s job much easier as he parried his shot out of danger.
In the second half, we got our first glimpse of Jadon Sancho in a Chelsea shirt, replacing Pedro Neto on the left wing. He was almost instantly an upgrade on his Portuguese counterpart, setting up Marc Cucurella for a menacing cross that didn’t meet a Chelsea player and assisting Nicolas Jackson for a shot that went too high up in the box.
But once again it seemed as if Bournemouth had the better output from their offensive forays. Sánchez was again driven to the limelight with his interventions.
Manager Enzo Maresca continued to make changes, trying to find a way towards the winning goal. Sancho had already panned out and we only needed an extra push to get there. And we did get there with Nkunku, finally making good out of several attempted assists from the English winger.
Two midfielders out of contention due to illness.
Renato Veiga takes up Enzo Fernández’s starting eleven spot.
Six yellow cards in the first half.
Really good showing from Jadon Sancho, doing everything he can to show he can be a staple of this Chelsea team under Maresca.
14 yellow cards on the pitch + 2 on the sidelines in 90 minutes — a Premier League record.
Next up: West Ham away in the Premier League.
KTBFFH!
