Reece James scored his first Premier League goal since August 2022 to rescue a draw for Chelsea at home to Bournemouth.
Chelsea took the lead on 13 minutes when Nicolas Jackson set up Cole Palmer to continue their fine run of goal combinations only for Justin Kluivert to equalise with a 50th-minute penalty.
David Brooks was fortunate to escape with only a yellow card when he struck Marc Cucurella, with referee Rob Jones opting not to send him off despite a review as he judged it a “reckless action” rather than violent conduct.
David Brooks misses out on a red card despite a lengthy VAR review 👀
Should he have been sent off…? 🤔
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) January 14, 2025
Bournemouth took the lead soon after, with Antoine Semenyo firing past Robert Sanchez before James scored a free kick in the fifth minute of stoppage time to stave off defeat but Chelsea are still without a win in five Premier League games.
The Athletic’s Liam Twomey analyses the key talking points.
How did James remind everyone of his talent?
Chelsea were 2-1 down, deep into added time and well into the realm of prayer when James and Palmer lined up a free kick around 25 yards from goal.
The match had long since descended to that level of exhausted chaos that seems to grip so many Premier League fixtures and even Palmer had been unable to get his foot on the ball and influence proceedings in the manner he so often does. This set piece, however, afforded him one good, and potentially final, opportunity.
It was easy to forget that James was also standing there for a reason but he too is among the best technical footballers in coach Enzo Maresca’s squad, and certainly one of the best dead-ball specialists. The position favoured a right-footer and he stared down at the ball with a stony intent.
Then with an elegant swing of his right foot, James whipped the ball around the wall and in off Mark Travers’ far post to deliver Chelsea from impending crisis. The Stamford Bridge crowd erupted, first in relief, then joy, and finally pride, punctuated by a rousing rendition of, “Reece James! He’s one of our own!”
That song has become all too rare at Chelsea games over the past two years because of his persistent injury issues, but James picked a captain’s moment to remind everyone why the fans sing it.
Why did Chelsea struggle without Lavia?
This was a game of two halves but the point of demarcation was not the half-time break — it was the 56th minute.
Romeo Lavia was already showing signs of feeling the pace, most notably six minutes earlier when the livewire Kluivert ignited a devastating transition attack by jumping him inside his own half, before sliding a pass to Semenyo that drew a desperate foul from Moises Caicedo in his own penalty area.
But the Belgian’s substitution just shy of the hour, predictable though it was as Maresca carefully manages his minutes as he returns from missing a month with a hamstring injury, shattered the delicate balance of Chelsea’s midfield.
James came on for just his second appearance since early November and slotted in at right-back while Caicedo, who started the game in an inverting role on the right of Chelsea’s back four, moved full-time into the middle of the pitch. But there appeared confusion about the new structure and huge gaps appeared that allowed Bournemouth to seize control.
Their second goal followed in the 68th minute. Enzo Fernandez put no pressure on Ryan Christie in the Chelsea half, allowing him to slide an uncontested pass forward in to the feet of Semenyo, who sized up the 18-year-old Josh Acheampong before shifting the ball quickly to his left and lashing an unstoppable shot into the top corner at Sanchez’s near post.
Acheampong was substituted three minutes later, and some will interpret the moment as further evidence that Chelsea need a new centre-back (a return from Crystal Palace for Cobham academy graduate Marc Guehi?) in January. But the far bigger problem is in midfield.
Caicedo has simply too many fires to fight by himself and if Lavia cannot remain on the pitch alongside him, Chelsea’s resistance out of possession melts away.
Bournemouth are not the first opponents, nor will they be the last, to take advantage of that.
What makes Palmer and Jackson an elite combination?
When all else fails, often the best policy is to go back to what you know.
Chelsea’s attack has been in something of a funk for much of the past month, labouring against a succession of teams well set up to deny them space and stifle their creativity. Bournemouth’s hyper-aggressive pressing style tonight was always likely to make for a very different game, and the home side exploited it in the first half with the combination that lies at the heart of much of their best play in the final third.
Palmer and Jackson share a special chemistry. Going into this game, they had combined for 11 Premier League goals, more than any other pair of players in the division, since the start of last season. Their 12th duly played out in the 13th minute, and showcased the best qualities of both of them.
Jackson’s finishing may wax and wane, but his ability to receive the ball under pressure, retain it and turn defence into attack with quick feet in tight spaces is truly elite. In this instance, he took three Bournemouth players out of the game before leading a break, giving Illia Zabarnyi the eyes and sliding Palmer through on goal with a perfect pass.
Once there, Palmer did what Palmer does: find a clinical finish while somehow also retaining the presence of mind to inject his swaggering nonchalance into the moment. He made sure to sit down Travers before passing the ball into the bottom corner.
The near-constant discussion about whether Chelsea need a new No 9 not only neglects Jackson’s less heralded qualities. It also overlooks the rare understanding he and Palmer have managed to build in little more than 18 months playing together. It was in evidence again when a brilliant Palmer in-swinger found Jackson’s head unmarked at the back post, but he couldn’t apply the finish.
Maresca has plenty of problems to solve, but the Palmer-Jackson axis is not among them.
What did Enzo Maresca say?
On the Brooks challenge, Maresca said: “I said already many times, to be honest, that for me when there is no intention to take the ball, it’s red. They have to explain. So if they give yellow, that means that there is something that happened.
“So how they can judge that was not dangerous? Because you cannot judge that it’s not dangerous. The intention is just to go against Marc Cucurella. So in my opinion, it’s red. But hopefully we can be more lucky with the referee in the future.”
What next for Chelsea?
Monday, January 20: Wolves (H), Premier League, 8pm GMT, 3pm ET
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(Top photo: Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)
