And that is pretty much that. Thanks for reading. Bye!
It was, in truth, not a terribly rousing game. Chelsea, though, were plenty good enough and thoroughly deserved their win, over a Bournemouth side that mustered just one shot on target. And Eden Hazard’s goal was marvellously created and beautifully finished, an altogether excellent thing.
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Chelsea’s remaining home games are against Southampton, Middlesbrough, Watford and Sunderland. Win those and they’re pretty much home and hosed, needing at the very most to win one of three away games at Manchester United, Everton and West Brom.
Final score: Bournemouth 1-3 Chelsea
90+4 mins: And that’s it! Chelsea’s lead is back to seven!
90+3 mins: Chelsea win the ball in midfield and briefly have a good chance to break, with plenty of men rushing forwards. Then Costa’s hopeless pass to Willian spoils it. He’s really been utterly dire today, the striker.
90+2 mins: The last substitution wasn’t in fact the final one, because Chelsea are bringing Zouma on for Moses.
90+1 mins: We’re into stoppage time, of which there will be about three minutes.
90 mins: Then Daniels does cross, and instead of heading it the unmarked Mousset tries to chest down, which takes significantly more time than he’s got.
89 mins: Gradel gets the ball on the left of the penalty area, and merrily shuffles and lollipops until Chelsea take the ball off him.
87 mins: The final substitution of the day sees Willian come on for Pedro.
85 mins: Costa has a shot and doesn’t mishit it! It’s from the edge of the area, after a little wall pass to Pedro. It’s a pretty poor shot, dribbling harmlessly into Boruc’s arms, but it’s also his best of the day.
84 mins: Meanwhile Max Gradel replaces Fraser for the Cherries.
84 mins: Fabregas finally comes on, for Hazard.
83 mins: In the last minute they have lost the ball twice, and on both occasions won it back within five yards of the spot they lost it, deep inside Bournemouth’s half.
82 mins: The clock is ticking, and Chelsea are in control of possession. Fabregas is ready to come on, but his team-mates have got to stop passing the ball among themselves first.
80 mins: … and Chelsea race down the other end, Moses ghosts past Wilshere, and his blasted shot is saved.
80 mins: Costa wins the ball on the edge of the Bournemouth area, loses it to Francis, wins it back again, and then loses it back again. The referee decides Francis, in doing so, fouled him.
79 mins: King takes the ball off Kante in front of the benches and is allowed to play on, sending Conte absolutely apoplectic. It wasn’t even a foul.
77 mins: Mousset’s first involvement is to run into the area and jink and sway past a few defenders. He is eventually crowded out but still, promising.
76 mins: Another change for Bournemouth, who take Afobe off and put Mousset on.
74 mins: Pedro challenges Arter well after the ball had gone, and though the Bournemouth man leaps out of the way (and onto the turf), Pedro is booked.
72 mins: Chance for a fourth! Hazard lifts the ball into the area, and Alonso heads over at the back stick, with Pedro behind him audibly screaming his request to be allowed to have a go.
71 mins: The first substitution, and Jordan Ibe is replacing Pugh for Bournemouth.
GOAL! Bournemouth 1-3 Chelsea (Alonso, 68 mins)
… and Marcos Alonso curls it over the wall and into the top corner, with Boruc utterly helpless!
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67 mins: Excellent “what me guv?” innocent-face from Steve Cook as he takes out Costa on the edge of the area, conceding a free kick.
65 mins: It was Francis, the first man, who went to ground and the ball did indeed hit his arm. He didn’t know much about it, though.
63 mins: Pedro gets the ball on the left of the penalty area, cuts inside one man, decides not to shoot and tries to cut inside another, but Arter gets the ball. Pedro claimed this was another handball, but if so it too went unspotted.
62 mins: In tonight’s other English league game, Sheffield Wednesday are now a goal up against Newcastle United.
59 mins: We’re seeing the full repertoire of Alonso crosses this half. We’ve had low and hard, low and soft, and now we get high and soft, and Boruc comes out to claim well.
58 mins: Kanté gets booked for running into King, which seems a bit harsh. But then, he should have been booked after five minutes.
57 mins: Then Alonso’s vicious low cross pings about a bit and drops to Costa, who misses it completely and is basically having a stinker.
56 mins: Chelsea pass the ball about for ages and then Hazard gets tired of the easy and ineffectual short balls and chips it towards Moses, but misses.
52 mins: Bournemouth have started the half on the front foot, though without creating a clearer chance than that Fraser shot. Wilshere just scooped the ball towards the running Afobe, but it was overhit and ran out for a goal kick.
50 mins: Ooof! Fraser shoots low and just wide from 25 yards! Meanwhile, Robin Sebastian Fjeldstad has an answer to my half-time question, and the last time a team conceded in nine consecutive league games and still went on to win the title was all of a year ago. “Leicester City conceded in their first 9 league games last season, and won the title,” he notes.
49 mins: Alonso rides a tackle and runs into space on the left, before crossing into the arms of Boruc. “Smith’s wasn’t the only handball,” writes Gary P. “Bournemouth got away with it five mins earlier too. Technology is available already! Use it!” I’m not sure anyone’s suggesting it be used for that kind of ho-hum run-of-play decision, though. At least, not yet.
46 mins: Peeeep! The players are engaged in more action.
The players are back out and ready for action.
“Re 44 minutes: of course the referee didn’t see it,” writes Jake Lynch, “that was the invisible hand of Adam Smith. Boom-tish!”
That was an economics joke, readers.
Chelsea have now conceded in nine consecutive Premier League games. I wonder when a team last did that on their way to the league title.
Half time: Bournemouth 1-2 Chelsea
45+3 mins: That’s the end of half one. It has featured one absolutely lovely goal, one totally flukey ugly deflected one, and another that sits somewhere between the two.
Most Premier League goals in 2017:
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) April 8, 2017
1️⃣ JOSHUA KING - 11
2️⃣ Romelu Lukaku - 11
3️⃣ Harry Kane - 11
4️⃣ Dele Alli - 10
5️⃣ Sergio Agüero - 6
45+1 mins: Into stoppage time we roll, and there will be two minutes of it.
44 mins: Adam Smith, in winning the ball off Alonso to start the move that ended with Bournemouth’s goal, punched the ball with his hand. It surely would have been a free-kick had the referee been able to see through Smith’s back, which was in his way. Though if he could have seen through his back he probably wouldn’t have been able to see his hand either.
43 mins: Oooh! Wilshere finds King on the right, and his cross seems to be zipping and dipping onto Afobe’s forehead, until Azpilicueta stretches his neck muscles and flicks it away at the last!
GOAL! Bournemouth 1-2 Chelsea (King, 42 mins)
The home side are back in the game! Afobe plays the ball to King, whose shot from the edge of the area hits David Luiz in a turned buttock and flies past Courtois!
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42 mins: Still, it’s sunny.
40 mins: This is going through a rather dreary spell of all-round mediocrity.
38 mins: Then Costa, on the very edge of the pitch inside his own half, is needlessly taken out by Arter, who is booked.
38 mins: Bournemouth have a free-kick which is cleared to Wilshere, whose lovely ball back in finds Pugh, who controls on his chest but is closed down before the ball drops into his hitting zone.
37 mins: Chelsea continue to push, but are now behaving like a team that would quite like to score but doesn’t really need to, with players preferring to tee up team-mates when they might have a pop themselves.
34 mins: They win a second corner, which is sent along the ground to Pedro on the edge of the area, but his low shot is too close to Boruc.
33 mins: Chelsea break, and Hazard sends Costa sprinting through. His shot is again poor, but deflects wide for a corner.
31 mins: Hazard picks out Pedro on the edge of the area, but the Spaniard sends his shot swirling over. Chelsea have scored twice as many goals as they have had shots on target.
29 mins: How did that not go in for Bournemouth? It’s a lovely cross from Daniels on the left, Afobe times his run perfectly to meet it, but his volley hits the post, rebounds out, hits Courtois on the back and rolls not far wide of the other post.
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28 mins: Chelsea find Costa in a troubling amount of space inside Bournemouth’s penalty area. He mishits this shot as well, but heaven help them if he finds his shooting boots.
27 mins: Replays show that Chelsea’s first goal was in fact scored by Adam Smith – Costa’s mishit shot was heading way wide until it hit him in the head.
27 mins: Fraser smashes it into the wall.
26 mins: Wilshere runs across the edge of the area, at least until David Luiz barged into him, conceding a tasty set-piece shooting opportunity.
24 mins: Well so much for all the Tottenham pressure giving Chelsea the wobbles. The only thing wobbling here is the Bournemouth net.
GOAL! Bournemouth 0-2 Chelsea (Hazard, 20 mins)
That was a fabulous pass from Kanté, over the defence and picking out Hazard, running clear, who took the ball past the keeper and sidefooted into an empty net.
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18 mins: The build-up was decent, mind. David Luiz pinged the ball to Moses, whose little pause allowed the nearest Bournemouth player to run straight past him, giving him time to look up and assess his options. He duly passed inside to Costa, in way too much space, and he spun and swung a boot.
GOAL! Bournemouth 0-1 Chelsea (Costa, 17 mins)
That was a total miskick, an absolutely hopeless finish. And then it deflected off Smith. No wonder Boruc was befuddled.
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16 mins: Bournemouth break, and Wilshere finds Fraser bursting into Chelsea’s half and running at Luiz. On and on and on he goes, until, upon reaching the edge of the penalty area, he spears a left-foot shot way wide.
16 mins: It’s been a bit scrappy thus far, with so many players compressed into the central area of the field that all they can do is hit the ball into each other. Now Chelsea find Moses in space out wide, and he … cuts inside, and hits the ball into someone.
15 mins: Harry Arter executes a perfect sliding tackle on Hazard, but the referee doesn’t like it.
11 mins: Now the visitors curl a lovely ball into the area, and Hazard, who would surely have preferred the ball to arrive at kicking height, heads over.
10 mins: Now Moses attacks, and his cross from the right is flicked on in the middle and runs to Alonso, whose drive is well blocked.
8 mins: Victor Moses stumbles and falls, and instead of letting Charlie Daniels run free down the left he grabs the ball, and is thus booked. He probably wouldn’t have stumbled had Daniels not pushed him in the back, but the referee didn’t spot that.
7 mins: Chelsea have the ball, about 30 yards from goal, but with an entire Bournemouth team standing between it and the byline. They pass backwards.
5 mins: Bournemouth soak up some pressue and then try to break, which lasts until Fraser is unceremoniously taken out by Kanté. Any time outside the first few minutes that would have been a booking.
2 mins: Great save from Courtois! What an own-goal that would have been from David Luiz! It’s a cross from the right and Luiz, with the sun in his eyes, swings his left leg and violently shanks the ball goalwards.
1 min: Chelsea, all in white, get the game under way.
1 min: The players are playing football.
The players are now ready to play football. Apologies for any premature excitement.
Oh no, some of them are in a huddle.
The players are ready to play football.
The players have shaken hands.
The players have exited the tunnel.
This is encouraging. King has been excellent when I’ve seen him of late.
Josh King has been directly involved in five goals in his last five PL appearances at the Vitality Stadium (four goals, one assist). Streak.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) April 8, 2017
And now Eddie Howe has said his piece:
We knew coming into this run of fixtures it’s going to be a tough examination of us. We started well at Liverpool, the way we came back from a goal down was really impressive. I think the game earlier in the season we were competitive, I don’t think 3-0 does us justice. We were competitive, but they won through.
We have some really good players and it should be a really good game. We have qualities, they have qualities and it’ll be interesting to see how the game goes. We’re looking forward to it. We know it’s going to be a tough test, but why can’t we win?
Antonio Conte has had a chat with BT Sport:
I think Spurs’s win changes nothing. We have to play our game with our football to try to take three points. I am pleased to have Moses back because he is playing a great season for us, he’s an important player. I’m pleased to have the possibility to put him in the starting XI. We must pay attention because Bournemouth are a really good team, really good in set pieces. We must pay great attention. We all know an easy game doesn’t exist in this league.
This chap’s getting a lot of attention today. I wonder if Chelsea could be tempted to let Nathan Aké leave in the summer – he’d be getting a lot of attention then as well, I’d wager.
Two changes for Chelsea: Zouma and Fábregas drop out, and Moses and Matic step in.
The teams
The team sheets have been handed in, and these were the names upon them:
Bournemouth: Boruc, Adam Smith, Francis, Steve Cook, Daniels, Fraser, Arter, Wilshere, Pugh, King, Afobe. Subs: Gradel, Brad Smith, Lewis Cook, Allsop, Mousset, Ibe, Cargill.
Chelsea: Courtois, Azpilicueta, Cahill, Luiz, Alonso, Moses, Matic, Kante, Pedro, Costa, Hazard. Subs: Begovic, Fabregas, Zouma, Willian, Batshuayi, Terry, Chalobah.
Referee: Andre Marriner.
📋
— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) April 8, 2017
One change for the Cherries as they face league leaders @ChelseaFC in the @premierleague.
➡ https://t.co/HQmNvhvTnI#afcb 🍒 pic.twitter.com/F0I3RINUAE
Chelsea team v Bournemouth: Courtois; Azpilicueta, David Luiz, Cahill (c); Moses, Kante, Matic, Alonso; Pedro, Diego Costa, Hazard. #BOUCHE
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) April 8, 2017
Hello world!
So Spurs have done their bit, walloping Watford four-zip at lunchtime. The gap is down to four points. Can Chelsea pull it back out to seven? Or will the Cherries put a cat among the pigeons? There’s only one place to find out, and that’s right here*!
* Or any of a number of other places
Kick-off at Dean Court is at 5.30pm. In the meantime, here’s Dominic Fifield on why all is well in the world of Chelsea boss Antonio Conte.
Early Friday afternoon at a sun-drenched Cobham and all is well in Antonio Conte’s world. That aberration endured at home to Crystal Palace was instantly exorcised by a resilient display in victory over Manchester City, a win to keep Tottenham Hotspur’s pursuit a distant seven points away. Talk of new contracts and player recruitment can wait until the title is claimed. The only issues to unsettle the Chelsea manager are a few lingering doubts over Victor Moses’s fitness and the spiky fall-out from a spat between rival coaching staff in the tunnel in midweek.
