AFC Bournemouth 4-0 Chelsea, Premier League: Post-match reaction

Chelsea started the game well, with drive and motivation and pace and invention and impetus, but after about the first 20 minutes, the levels dropped and the Blues could never quite recover from that.

Kovacic hit the crossbar — a league leading 17th for Chelsea as a team! — and Boruc made a couple good saves, but the sight of Chelsea dominating possession and not getting any proper reward was as unwelcome as it was familiar.

That first-half story quickly changed in the second-half, with Josh King scoring inside of 90 seconds. Chelsea looked to respond, but grew increasingly sloppy and desperate. A giveaway gifted the chance for a second goal (Brooks) as well as the third (King again).

So that was bad.

The Cherries completed the humiliation with a goal in stoppage time.

• After a bit of rotation for the weekend, Sarri went with basically the same lineup as against Spurs — only Kovacic (instead of Barkley) and Higuain (instead of Giroud) were different. The performance was night and day.
• Willian for Pedro, Giroud for Higuain, RLC for Kovacic the like-for-like subs.
• Chelsea lose 3-0 to Bournemouth in late January for the second straight season. LOL, no, it was even worse this time!
• Third away match in a row without scoring for Chelsea
• Chelsea now ahead of Arsenal only on goal difference, and that down to just 1 as well (from 5 at the start of this midweek round). The fourth goal means that Chelsea drop into fifth, even with Arsenal on points and goal difference, but behind on Arsenal in goals scored.
• Next up: (Bottom of the league) Huddersfield at home on Sunday. Maybe we’ll score then.
• KTBFFH

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