An insipid 1-0 defeat against Bournemouth means Frank Lampard's Chelsea have now won just once in their last five Premier League games.
Match Report
Chelsea's form in the Premier League continued to deteriorate as they suffered a 1-0 defeat to Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
A dire display against Eddie Howe's men shattered any Chelsea hopes that progression to the Champions League last 16 – secured by a midweek win over Lille – would rejuvenate a team who had lost three of their previous four domestic league games.
The Cherries' winner six minutes from time was initially ruled out for offside, but a VAR review showed Dan Gosling was onside before he superbly hooked over Kepa Arrizabalaga.
The Blues' gap over fifth place could be reduced to two points on Sunday if Manchester United overcome Everton or Wolves beat Tottenham. Bournemouth, for their part, celebrated bringing a halt to a run of five consecutive top-flight defeats.
EPL Standings
Match Events
45' MISS! Abraham's header wide out
Kante carries the ball forward down the inside-right and succeeds in winning Chelsea another corner. Willian crosses in and Abraham nods over.
52' CLOSE! King misses a good chance
King races onto a throughball and manages to get time and space in the penalty area to shoot but delays.
Zouma sticks a foot in the way and there's no one else in Bournemouth colours to follow up.
65' AGAIN! Gosling misses a golden chance
Bournemouth fluff a glorious opportunity to take the lead! King beats Rudiger and draws Kepa towards him before squaring to Gosling.
Gosling's on the penalty spot and only has to tap in but instead he slips and the chance is gone!
71' CHANCE! Emerson's header saved
Abraham holds the ball up well on the penalty spot and Bournemouth's defence is in disarray.
Emerson has a free header and frankly should score but it's straight at Ramsdale! Bournemouth survive for the time being.
84' GOAL! Chelsea 0-1 Bournemouth (Gosling)
Gosling's lovely goal stands. The midfielder was just onside as the ball was played and Chelsea's defenders switched off, thinking they were safe.
Bournemouth have a shock lead!
Evamoore
1905
Lampard giving Christmas bonus, rush and grab your own!
Kg4991
1764
The biggest comedy is Chelsea have only lost to a Red Jersey side in EPL. Red is their Kryptonite.
sartorious
1121
Things we learnt today; 1.Everybody was awful except zouma 2.We lacked creativity no accuracy in movement at all 3.We need players in jan bournemouth going to christmas with 3 points like
ejim4752thomas
1027
I can only blame FIFA for lifting Chelsea ban, please give Chelsea another ban. [Crylaugh][Crylaugh]
Kkrexuke
895
Young players suffers dip in form and is normal. It is lampard 's job to play and guide the team to better result. Chelsea has enough good senior players to help stable the ship. Kante, jorginho, kovacic, willian, Pedro..probably Abraham has lost some spark in recent games. Might need a striker to help share the burden.
RoverSanil
875
Only players I can see who has effort of doing something for this club is Kovacic and Jorginho, and other players are wanking.😑😑😑
vuobdln
670
Another terrible performance by Chelsea. Objects seen in the mirror are closer than they appear. ( United, Arsenal, Spurs, ..). I don’t even know where to start. NOTHING was done right today. Three points from five games!! I believe we got carried away by our youth fantasy. It is time to wake up and realize that Hodson-Odoi, Mount and James are just “good” and need time to be a starter. Why have we given up on Pedro and giroud? Hodson-Odoi is a great talent but he is far far from being a reliable winger. Why change Willian and not Mount? I am scratching head.
RoverSanil
550
No matter how hard Lampard try's but this shitty Chelsea players always puts him down. A disgraceful Performance. Lots of improvement needed. Buy a world class scoring attacker A Defender who can read the Game and looking at Abraham's performance, my God what the hell is wrong with him, his tall but cant even head the ball 😡😡
Edmunder
374
You can find every gif of nice goals here: http://bit.ly/38CI7zH
Cypher100
353
The funny part is Chelsea has Spurs next[Crylaugh][Crylaugh][Crylaugh]
liaikuz
221
chelsea attacking problem.counter attack slow and no strategy.weak passes and throw the ball..hope lampard changes game next vs totth.they must put mount left or right winger then willian play ATT MID.Then kante ,kovasic and jorginho play mid.chelsea need buy def and striker..chelsea game and player commitment today like 50-50..not enjoy ,if they not really want to play,they future will be finish if chelsea sacked lampard..no more coach want to rebuild team with younger players.they will be sold or out of loan . i m not blame lampard,the problem is players..3 game chelsea playing..the bad is,they run just half 100m..like tired and not eating that day.
Nesaiknruy_Legend
131
Youd think I'm lying but I genuinely saw this coming and said at the beginning of the season that we will have our bad period. It's good that it's happening early so that we can work around it. I even said an opponent 3ith nothing to lose is scarier than one with everything to lose. Also now people can see just Rudiger coming in wont turn our defence into a title contending one. Defence itself wasnt even bad today rather the attack was bland. I did say in the preview post that this team suffer from fatigue. We need to learn how to manage games on the bounce without gassing out and to get more clinical. We cant depend on Abraham for every chance....