A brilliant winner, an exciting debut from Jadon Sancho and a first away clean sheet in the Premier League for nearly a year.
On the face of it, this 1-0 win at Bournemouth was just about the perfect evening for Chelsea. In reality, it was much more difficult than the outcome suggests.
Having thrashed Wolverhampton Wanderers 6-2 in their last Premier League away game, a second victory of the season pushes Enzo Maresca’s side up to seventh in the table, even if victory looked unlikely for long periods.
Bournemouth ought to have led in the first half but Robert Sanchez saved Evanlison’s penalty, contributing to the club’s first league clean sheet on the road since October 2023.
And the home side were punished late on when Sancho fed fellow substitute Christopher Nkunku and he finished superbly to snatch the win.
This match, though, will likely be best remembered for its place in history – no Premier League match has ever had as many yellow cards as the 14 handed out by referee Anthony Taylor.
Simon Johnson and Liam Twomey analyse the main talking points.
How did Sancho do on his debut?
There was not too much for Chelsea fans to get excited about for long periods of this display but Sancho’s second-half outing on the left wing provided plenty of reason for them to cheer.
Sancho can expect to come under a lot of scrutiny given how his time at Manchester United played out.
The 24-year-old has a task to rebuild his reputation in England, despite being part of the Borussia Dortmund team that reached the Champions League final last season (while on loan from Old Trafford).
Maresca has already been impressed with what he has seen from Sancho, who signed initially on loan from United with an obligation to buy next summer worth £20-25million ($26m-$33m), depending on what he and Chelsea achieve.
Chelsea’s head coach says he has been “perfect” in training and expressed how much he loves him during the pre-match press conference. Maresca will surely appreciate him even more if he continues to play like this.
Replacing the ineffective Pedro Neto at half-time, Sancho provided some much-needed quality into their attack.
Bournemouth struggled to contain him. Encouragingly he already seems to have a good understanding with left-back Marc Cucurella. He played the latter in twice for crosses which could have led to a goal. A neat dribble and timed flick led to Nicolas Jackson curling a shot just over. A sign of his confidence was a first-time flick into a team-mate’s path
The late winner came from his nicely weighted ball into Nkunku. The travelling supporters clearly liked what they saw, singing Sancho’s name as the clock wound down.
Simon Johnson
Do Chelsea have an issue at right-back?
Playing without either of his first-choice right-backs was always going to be a problem for Maresca.
Reece James has not featured since the opening game due to a hamstring problem, while Malo Gusto limped off against Crystal Palace last time out due to a thigh injury.
Options were pretty limited. Moises Caicedo has played there under Maresca but with Enzo Fernandez missing through illness, the Ecuador international had to start in his customary midfield position. Talented academy youngster Josh Acheampong could have been used, but that would have been a risk and he did not even make the bench.
So Maresca went for centre-back Axel Disasi, who has been struggling for form and confidence for some time.
Disasi looked ill at ease from the start, whether he was trying to stop Bournemouth’s attacks or play out from the back.
The Frenchman almost fell over defending one Bournemouth counter. On another he let a ball go behind him because he thought Wesley Fofana was there, when he was not. His first-half display was perhaps best summed up when a pass from a team-mate went under his foot for a throw-in.
Things did not improve for the 26-year-old after the break as Bournemouth continued to press forward. He was not the only Chelsea player to struggle and it was no surprise when Maresca took him off for Tosin Adarabioyo just after the hour mark.
On the eve of the game Maresca said he hoped Gusto would be back for the next game (against West Ham), while James will need a bit longer. Chelsea certainly lack balance without them.
Simon Johnson
How did the fans react to the latest ownership issues?
Behdad Eghbali and Todd Boehly might be the only two people at Chelsea who hope Taylor referees all of their games.
The fractured relationship between the two key figures in Chelsea’s ownership has dominated the discourse around the club for the past week and surely sparked countless animated debates among the travelling supporters on trains and coaches from London to the south coast, but it barely factored at all into the match atmosphere inside the Vitality Stadium.
Part of that might have been due to fans’ understandable desire to focus on supporting the team, but part of it was also undoubtedly to do with Taylor, who has been one of Chelsea’s favourite villains in recent years and has now officiated two of their opening four Premier League games.
Taylor can certainly never be accused of shying away from making decisions that reinforce Chelsea supporters’ paranoia about him. Here he booked six of their players — showing yellow cards to Jackson and Jadon Sancho for dissent — and awarded a penalty to the home side when Evanilson smartly clattered into the leg of Sanchez.
All of which was soundtracked by the Chelsea supporters singing their favourite song telling Taylor exactly what they think of him — an explicit chant that was spectacularly retrofitted midway through the first half to the tune of Liverpool’s iconic anthem You’ll Never Walk Alone.
Unlike during last season’s 2-2 draw with Brentford, there were no audible songs levelling the same insult at Boehly, while Eghbali’s name was never uttered at all.
Chelsea’s owners cannot expect to escape being the targets of supporter fury forever, particularly if performances do not trend markedly upward from what their team produced against Bournemouth — but Taylor was a convenient lightning rod this time, and Nkunku’s late goal even gave them a win to celebrate.
Liam Twomey
What did Maresca say?
We will bring you this after he has spoken at the post-match press conference.
What next for Chelsea?
Saturday, September 21: West Ham (A), Premier League, 12.30pm BST, 7.30am ET
Recommended reading
- Chelsea’s ownership structure explained: Who owns what at Stamford Bridge?
- Chelsea fan survey results: Where supporters stand on ownership crisis
- Chelsea are learning the hard way that co-owners rarely work in football
- How top footballers have turned two Surrey villages into the ‘Beverly Hills of Britain’
(Top photo: Ryan Hiscott/Getty Images)
