Alonso saves Chelsea after quick double boosts Bournemouth
It could have gone either way – and both managers could claim it very nearly did – but in the end a swashbuckling draw was just about what Bournemouth and Chelsea deserved. Both teams lost leads, both clawed themselves back into contention and both contributed to a game of high thrills and enough twists and turns to keep fans of Simone Biles enthralled.
A point satisfied nobody. Chelsea’s season may end in Champions League or Europa League qualification, but Bournemouth’s best-case scenario is just staying in the Premier League.
“I’ve no idea how many games we need to win,” shrugged Eddie Howe, the Bournemouth manager, “so we’ll just have to try to win each one.
“Returning players have given us a stronger squad and we’re in a better place than a few weeks ago. We’re creating chances and scoring goals from open play. Obviously if we can’t win a game it’s better to draw it, but we just couldn’t see the game out.”
In the wake of Tuesday’s humiliation by Bayern Munich, Chelsea head coach Frank Lampard chose not to tamper with deploying three at the back, preferring to rotate his defensive trio. Out went Antonio Rudiger, in came Fikayo Tomori, but from the early moment the England youngster sloppily let Philip Billing through, the experiment brought only uncertainty.
“If you have 73 per cent possession, 23 shots and you don’t win, there are question marks in both boxes, without a doubt,” Lampard admitted. “When my left-back is the one scoring the two goals and we are creating so many chances in between, you have to question why we’re not finishing them.”
Bournemouth have won just two league games since taking three points from Stamford Bridge in mid-December and alarm bells are clanging across Dorset. Four changes from last week’s VAR-assisted Burnley debacle suggested, if not panic, then something more pressing than mild concern.
All the same, they almost swept ahead after just three minutes. Joshua King linked with Ryan Fraser to set free Jack Stacey whose low cross was met first time by Billing, only for Willy Caballero to block expertly.
Indeed, for all that Bournemouth have much to fear over the next few weeks, they were brimming with elan and panache as Fraser on the right and King on the left stretched Chelsea’s rearguard and concomitantly stymied Marcos Alonso and Reece James’s keenness to power forwards.
For all Pedro’s bustle, Chelsea struggled to make inroads until they scored with their first meaningful attack. Undeterred by an early, suspension-triggering yellow card, Jorginho sprayed the ball wide for James, who crossed first time. Nipping in ahead of Nathan Ake, Olivier Giroud’s deft flick cannoned off the bar and Alonso smashed his second Premier League goal in a week into the unguarded goal.
It could have been two shortly after the break when Mateo Kovacic threaded a delicate ball to Alonso whose cross was scuffed wide by Giroud from six yards. Extraordinarily, Bournemouth then scored twice in three minutes. First Jefferson Lerma outjumped Kovacic to head his first goal since 2018 from Fraser’s corner.
Then Fraser and Billing linked again to find Stacey whose low first-time cross eluded everyone until the unmarked King tapped in at the back post. But for Caballero’s intervention, Callum Wilson would have soon made it three.
Three rapid substitutions later, Chelsea were once again on top as, exhausted by their three minutes of wonder, Bournemouth wilted. A flurry of corners came to nothing, until the 85th minute when Cesar Azpilicueta found Pedro 15 yards out. The Spaniard’s shot was turned aside by Aaron Ramsdale, but only into the path of Alonso, who nodded home, the denouement to a contest that asked many more questions than it answered.