Five Talking Points From Chelsea’s Eighth Loss in EPL

An eight loss in the Premier League has left Chelsea in 14^th place, 14 points from a top four place. Jose Mourinho’s team dominated the game, but they couldn’t kill off a Bournemouth side that just scored in the 81^st minute thanks to Murray, a substitute, from a corner.

Chelsea tried to get back but couldn’t get the game-tying goal. They did have a great penalty shout turned down and also the goal was offside, but the fact of the matter is Chelsea are just three points above the relegation zone and Jose still believes they can make it to the top six.

With Chelsea struggling to perform, we look back at this game and provide the five talking points from the game.

Chelsea dominate but can’t score

The Blues had 63% of possession and 19 shots on goal but couldn’t turn that into a goal. Chelsea might rue their luck as they had the best chances but for some reason or another – mostly Bournemouth’s great defending – they couldn’t find a breakthrough. The Cherries were doing their best to hold on and with all the attacking talent of Chelsea; it was a disappointment for them not to score at home.

Two decisions changed the game

Jose Mourinho might have a lot of legitimate complaints about this game, the first would be when Diego Costa crossed the ball and it hit the hand of a Bournemouth defender and that was a clear cut penalty. The second was when Glenn Murray scored to give Bournemouth the lead; he was offside from the madness of the corner. Chelsea should have won the game nevertheless, but these decisions did affect the game overall.

Bournemouth were great in defence

Bournemouth knew they didn’t really have much chance of winning the game, but they did their best in defending. The away team were well drilled and disciplined and were rarely caught out by Chelsea. Eddie Howe set them up to be difficult to defeat and that was exactly what Chelsea got, a tough team who were playing well on the break. This was as good an away performance for Bournemouth all season and they should build on this.

A turning point for Howe

Eddie Howe hasn’t had the best of luck this season with his team, but this win over Chelsea could well be a turning point of the season for them. The Cherries were in the bottom three at the start of the weekend, but this victory has pushed them out of the zone and places them just a couple of points behind Chelsea. They still have a lot of work to do if they want to stay safe this season, but this is a great building block for them.

Costa still looks out of sorts

Diego Costa was brought on in the second half and apart from the penalty shout, he didn’t give much to the Chelsea team. Costa did his bit to get into little fights with the Bournemouth players and could have been sent off for kicking the ball away after it went out of touch. Costa has to do more for Chelsea if he wants to remain at the club but if he keeps on playing like this, he could well be heading out of the club.