Andoni Iraola believes Bournemouth's slide down the Premier League table has been down to a lack of energy from players absent from his squad.
Iraola watched on as his team were beaten by Everton 1-0 at Vitality Stadium on Tuesday, with Jack Grealish's deflected goal in the 78th minute doing the damage.
Bournemouth were without suspended trio Lewis Cook, Marcos Senesi and David Brooks for that defeat, while Ben Gannon Doak and Ryan Christie are both out injured.
And after making a promising start to their season, the Cherries now sit 14th in the table ahead of welcoming fourth-placed Chelsea to the south coast this weekend.
"A lot of reasons. The other day, we lost a game that we had a lot in our favour, and we also lost five very important players to us," Iraola said of Bournemouth's recent form.
"In the middle, we lacked energy, Christie, Cook, we missed players that give us that energy.
"I think we will recover some of the players, but we still have not recovered some players with the five yellow cards, so we will have to think of other players to give us energy.
"[Everton] has been a bad result, but we have to stay together, analyse, and we have to use this loss to try to do a reset and think properly about things we need to do better."
Full-time at Vitality Stadium. pic.twitter.com/ipvnSCbaem
— AFC Bournemouth (@afcbournemouth) December 2, 2025
Chelsea, meanwhile, saw their Premier League title charge derailed by Leeds United, who downed the Blues 3-1 in front of a raucous Elland Road crowd on Wednesday.
Jaka Bijol and Ao Tanaka scored in the first half, and though Pedro Neto's goal after the break threatened a comeback, Dominic Calvert-Lewin sealed the win late on.
Enzo Maresca opted to hand talented teenager Estevao just his sixth Premier League start after a string of impressive performances, most notably in the Blues' Champions League triumph over Barcelona.
However, the Brazilian struggled in the hostile environment and was brandished a yellow card six minutes before half-time for a poorly timed challenge on Gabriel Gudmundsson.
Estevao was replaced at the break by Neto, and when asked if the change was to protect him from a red card, Maresca said: "I think the feeling with Estevao was a little bit: 'Welcome to the Premier League, welcome to Leeds'.
"The impact on him was probably huge. The reason we changed him was because he already had a yellow card.
"Sometimes, when you are 18, you struggle to manage your emotions, so it was better to change him and avoid any red cards."
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Bournemouth – Antoine Semenyo
It is no coincidence that Bournemouth's downturn in results has coincided with Antoine Semenyo's drop-off in form after a fine start to the campaign.
The Cherries' talisman has now failed to score or assist a goal in any of his last six top-flight appearances.
After the first seven match rounds this season, he was second only to Manchester City's Erling Haaland (10) for goal involvements (nine – six goals, three assists).
Chelsea – Pedro Neto
No Chelsea player has either scored (five) or been involved in (seven) more Premier League goals than Pedro Neto this season.
The Portuguese has also been involved in six goals in his last seven appearances in the competition (four goals, two assists), and he will be keen to make an impression here.
