**Chelsea**don't have a good record this season when featuring in a traditional Saturday 3pm kick-off, having lost their two previous fixtures when taking to the field during the broadcast blackout.
Dropping a further two points at the Vitality Stadium has seen the Londoners overtaken in the Premier League table by some of their closest rivals over the course of the last week. Here's four things we learnt from the performance against Bournemouth:
Return of Palmer
Star man Cole Palmer returned to the starting line-up for Enzo Maresca for the first time since September but was disappointingly unable to exert much influence over the game in which he played for an hour.
With fixtures coming thick and fast over the busy festive period, his involvement will surely provide a boost to the Chelsea squad, despite it not being the case on this occasion.
Also returning to the eleven was Wesley Fofana, with Benoit Badiashile, Tosin Adarabioyo and Andrey Santos dropping out following a dismal defensive performance against Leeds United in Chelsea's last outing.
The central defensive pairing has been chopped and changed by Maresca over the course of the 2025/26 campaign, with Levi Colwill a long-term absentee, sorely missed. It appears, for the time being, that Fofana being paired with Trevoh Chalobah is the preferred duo.
Cherries on the charge
Bournemouth burst out of the blocks, keen to make an instant impact, and had the ball in Robert Sanchez's net inside the opening five minutes.
However, Antoine Semenyo's strike was eventually ruled out for an offside, following a lengthy VAR review, much to the home crowd's frustration.
This was to be compounded just a few minutes later when referee Michael Oliver awarded the home side a penalty, only for the phase of play in which the foul occurred to again be deemed to be offside by officials.
Delap departs
If Chelsea had benefitted from some earlier luck with the scoreline still in tact, they would have felt it had run out when Liam Delap landed heavily on his shoulder following a clash at a corner with Bournemouth's Marcos Senesi.
The Englishman who had only recently returned from injury and then suspension, was substituted on 30 minutes for the Spanish teenager Marc Guiu.
The role of number nine has continued to be a problem area for the Blues, with Delap and Guiu vying with****Joao Pedro****for the coveted position, which has not yet yielded many goals.
Pedro is the only one of the three to have registered on the scoresheet in the league for Chelsea this season, with Delap and Guiu having netted a singular goal each in the UEFA Champions League.
Firing Blanks
Goals have largely come from the wing via Pedro Neto and new arrival Estevao or central midfielder Enzo Fernandez for Chelsea this season. Prior to this fixture, Chelsea had only failed to score in their opening league game.
Subsequently, they failed to capitalise on Arsenal's loss to Aston Villa. And, in just a week, they have fallen from second to fourth in the table, dropping five points in the time since they faced their London rivals.
The defeat to Leeds was Chelsea's first loss in eight games, and they failed to bounce back against Bournemouth. Maresca will have to turn the tide if Chelsea are to continue to challenge Arsenal for the title and this winter's flurry of fixtures will be make or break for the Blues in that pursuit.
Chelsea face Bournemouth again on December 30th at Stamford Bridge.