Reece James’ stoppage-time free-kick rescued a point for Chelsea after a scintillating 2-2 draw against Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge.
Andoni Iraola’s side cruised to a famous victory after second-half goals from Justin Kluivert and Antoine Semeny canceled out Cole Palmer’s opener.
Bournemouth were heading for fifth place, level on points with Chelsea, but James produced a moment of magic in the fifth minute of stoppage time to lift the roof off Stamford Bridge and rescue a point for Enzo Maresca’s side, who are now five games without a win in the league.
The visitors were in form going into the game, unbeaten in a club-record eight Premier League games. However, Chelsea, who are without a win in four league games, started full of confidence and took the lead, with Palmer pulling the strings from the start.
After being mentioned in 10 of the first 14 posts in the Sky Sports‘ minute-by-minute comment, Palmer finally achieved his goal after a brilliant forward play from Nicolas Jackson. The striker picked up the ball before turning his player and playing past Palmer in goal. Faced with Mark Travers, Palmer sold him a dummy, putting the Bournemouth stopper on the deck, before rolling the ball into the net for his 14th league goal in 21 appearances.
Bournemouth barely managed a shot in the first half but hit back in the second to leave Chelsea, who missed a host of chances, hanging on.
It was breathless as Bournemouth came out with renewed vigor and were immediately rewarded when Moises Caicedo ran over Antoine Semeny in the penalty area. Referee Robert Jones pointed to the spot, and Kluivert made no mistake and brought the guests into the tie.
Then came the controversial moment of the match.
All Bournemouth’s good work could have been undone when Marco Cucurella was cynically taken off the ball by David Brooks. Cucurella did similar to Brooks early in the game and the Bournemouth striker recalled the incident. The referee was sent over the screen by VAR, but luckily for Brooks, he got a yellow card.
It was the first time in the Premier League that a referee had refused a red card review on a monitor and it was the first refusal of any kind this season.
Bournemouth took full advantage as Antonio Semenya’s rocket went past goalkeeper Roberto Sanchez to send them on their way to what they thought would be a big win, but substitute James had other ideas.
More to come…
The story of the match in statistics
What’s up in the Premier League?
