Chelsea continued their title charge with a 3-1 win over Bournemouth at the Vitality stadium. Diego Costa’s scuffed shot deflected off Alan Smith for the first goal while Eden Hazard added another after two minutes to double the lead. Bournemouth pulled one back through Josh King to make it 2-1 at the half time.
Marcus Alonso scored a wonderful free-kick to put it past Artur Boruc to make it difficult for Bournemouth to turn the game around. With this win, Chelsea will be extremely difficult to catch now despite Tottenham winning their last 6 games. Below are Chelsea’s player ratings:
Thibaut Courtois:
Rating:7
The Belgian keeper did well between the sticks despite the difficulty of facing the sun during the first half but was a little culpable for conceding the first goal.
Marcus Alonso:
Rating:8
Alonso made quite a few runs down the left making some decent crosses. He also scored an amazing free-kick to extend the lead to 3-1.
Cesar Azpiliqueta:
Rating:7.5
Azpiliqueta dealt really well with aerial balls and his overall defending was decent.
David Luiz:
Rating:7.5
His defending was a bit error-prone but his ball-playing was excellent again, orchestrating the direction of play with 50-60 yard diagonals.
Gary Cahill:
Rating:7
Cahill defended quite well but wandered out of position on a couple of occasions.
Victor Moses:
Rating:8
Moses provided both, a decent defensive stability with his ability to track back really well and also provided offensive balance to the attacking players. He also forced the Bournemouth keeper to an excellent save.
N’Golo Kante:
Rating:8
Kante made some vital tackles which often instigated counters. His ball for Hazard for the second goal was marvellous. He was quite disciplined and made some really good interceptions as well.
Nemanja Matic:
Rating:7.5
Matic dictated the tempo of the play from the midfield and often made vital challenges to rob Bournemouth’s midfield of possession.
Eden Hazard:
Rating:8.5
Hazard made quite a lot of runs, dribbling past defenders. He made an excellent run and got an amazing touch to put the goalkeeper out of the equation for Chelsea’s second goal.
Pedro:
Rating:7
Pedro too made a lot of runs, doing everything to get past the defenders but couldn’t finish.
Diego Costa:
Rating:6
Costa ran his lungs out but was a bit lacklustre. He scuffed two shots and his touches in the box were not so good.
Substitutes:
Cesc Fabregas:
Rating: N/A
Fabregas played too little to warrant a rating.
Willian:
Rating: N/A
Willian played too little to warrant a rating.
Kurt Zouma:
Rating: N/A
Zouma played too little to warrant a rating.
