James rescues draw for Chelsea with late free-kick
A stoppage-time free-kick from Reece James rescued a point for Chelsea as it drew 2-2 with Bournemouth, extending its run without a victory in the Premier League to five matches.
Enzo Maresca's side controlled the match early on and went ahead in the first half through Cole Palmer after good work from Nicolas Jackson.
But the visitors got level five minutes into the second half through Justin Kluivert, who converted from the spot after Antoine Semenyo was fouled in the area.
Semenyo then put the Cherries ahead with a brilliant finish in the 68th minute.
They looked to have done enough to claim their first win at Stamford Bridge since 2019, but Reece James scored a superb free-kick in the 95th minute to nick a point for the hosts.
Chelsea stays fourth on the table after the draw, while Bournemouth remains seventh, trailing fifth-placed Newcastle United by just one point.
Despite the disappointment of conceding a late goal, the Cherries extended their longest unbeaten run in the top-flight to nine matches, with five victories and four draws.
Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca believed his side deserved more than just a point.
“I think we deserved much more, especially in the first half,” he said.
"For sure, the most important thing is to create chances. It happened many times in the last four or five games. We don't score and then we concede.
"I think first half we completely deserved to win the game. We should have scored three goals.
“The negative thing is that we changed how we played after conceding. Tonight, after we concede the penalty, we drop a bit, and we need to improve on that."
Maresca also thinks David Brooks should have been sent off after his altercation with Marc Cucurella, with the referee awarding the Welshman a yellow card after looking at the incident on the VAR monitor.
On whether he should have had a red, Maresca said: "I think so. Hopefully, we can be more lucky in the future."
Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola thinks a draw was a fair result, despite his side being minutes away from a first win at Stamford Bridge since 2019.
"I don't think we deserved to win today and Chelsea were better than us in the first half. We were better in the second half. It was more fair," he said.
Nevertheless, Iraola criticised the decision to award the free-kick which led to Chelsea’s second goal, believing that there was minimal contact on Joao Felix.
He said: “I am angry because of their equaliser.”
“VAR has to check the free-kick and the point of contact. We played 15 minutes extra today. I am not complaining because of this. I don't think we deserved to win today.”
