Chelsea Flag Graphic
Chelsea Flag Graphic
Following a lengthy three-week international window, where Thomas Tuchel’s England side, including AFC Bournemouth midfielder Alex Scott, had put in some impressive performances in the UEFA Nations League, the Premier League was back.
The Cherries, minus Scott, who was injured on international duty, travelled to London to face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea are on a bit of a rebuild this season; new manager Xabi Alonso has potentially the Premier League’s most exciting attacking side and, without European competitions to contend with, are many media pundits’ selections for a top four finish this season.
AFC Bournemouth, without a win in the league this season, have impressed in their performances but haven’t picked up results under new head coach Marco Rose.
This match saw whatever the game plan ahead of kick-off, ripped up and thrown away after three minutes as Chelsea demolished the Cherries defence to be 2-0 up inside 3 minutes.
The game would go on to end 5-1 to the home side. This was AFC Bournemouth’s biggest defeat since the 4-0 to Aston Villa 11 months ago and the first time the side had conceded five or more, since the 6-1 defeat to Manchester City in November 2023.
After the match, AFC Bournemouth head coach Marco Rose told Sky Sports…
“We played not good. We knew Chelsea is a team that starts well and score many goals at beginnings of games. It is our responsibility we didn’t react the right way on this information.
“The last games we mostly had good performances and struggled in some situations and got punished. Today we struggled for long periods in the game.
“We were not ready, we were not sharp enough. Even our pressing was not Bournemouth-like in many situations. It can happen. We need to face the reality – three points after six games. But we’re going to stick together. We knew it was going to be a demanding season and we have many games where we can show up, do it better and get on a run.”
Man of the Match against Chelsea
Evanilson
Truffert
Christie
Hill
Someone else
Someone else
NWCherries98
Two poor performances in a row. Nothing unlucky about today, but luck has played a part in the other games. Like I said a few weeks ago, only poor teams complain about luck, though.
Can’t really criticise the manager for the players consistently not scoring goals from good chances or making defensive mess-ups. Also can’t be too critical of his subs, when there’s barely anything of substance on the bench to bring on.
The money we’ve spent this season other than on Silva has been appalling. Objectively. Rodriguez would probably look good as a project signing for a better team, but we need him to be good now. And he’s not. Juanlu has a good profile, but it hasn’t worked. Silva is decent, but he hasn’t been as good as Senesi so far, and we have more games to play. We needed more.
I think some of our fans are in denial about how good this current iteration of our squad is. It’s really not good at all. If we’re being generous with Adli and calling him a good player, plus Kluivert, Scott, and Kroupi, and you have all of our firepower missing. It’s ridiculous. I think with everyone fully fit, we have a perfectly capable squad, but our matchday squad right now is not equipped to battle for 90 minutes
Rose has to take the blame for how we started the two halves today, but that’s not exactly new either. I don’t think he’s great, and he’s not a particularly convincing personality, but he has been let down by the window a bit. We need a better squad to play the football he wants us to play over 90 minutes. Iraola didn’t — but that’s why he’s at Liverpool now.
I think we just need to move on and try and get a good performance and result out of Sturm Graz. And avoid more injuries.
Greg98
We’ve lost to Man City, Liverpool and Chelsea. Everton: a draw with a 90+ minute equaliser from them; Newcastle away: a near enough 90th minute equaliser. Brentford: we completely dominated, and Petrovic messed up. It’s hardly not contesting. We are competing at the highest level. This is the first game we’ve been turned over massively, and even then we looked bright in parts. The scoreline reflects them being so clinical. Every shot they took on target went in. Jordan freakin Henderson was banging in 30-yard free kicks. Even the City game we dominated for parts and were leading till the 80+ minute. It’s hardly like we are not competing, and these are TOP TOP teams.
ForHeavensSake
Well, that was a hard watch. A bit of a worry following on from the poor performance against Liverpool. Passing accuracy needs sharpening up. Midfield looked very vulnerable. Center of defense suspect.
Vlad The Impaler
I’m concerned about us staying up. We had a really poor transfer window considering Europe to contend with.
Chelsea haven’t even played well today and have scored for fun.
Calamity of mistakes all around, and some players are looking Championship-level.
Not been impressed with Rose so far; subs make no difference, and we look weaker in all areas compared to last season. – To join the conversation, please click here.