Reece James’ free-kick in stoppage time allowed Chelsea to salvage a point after a brilliant 2-2 draw with Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge.
Andoni Iraola’s side were heading for a famous victory after second-half goals from Justin Kluivert and Antoine Semenyo canceled out Cole Palmer’s opener.
Bournemouth were heading for fifth place, level on points with Chelsea, but James produced a moment of magic in the fifth minute of added time to raise the roof at Stamford Bridge and salvage a point for Enzo Maresca’s side, who are now five matches without a victory. in the league.
The visitors were the team in form entering the match, unbeaten in a club record eight Premier League matches. However, Chelsea, who had not won in four league matches, started full of confidence and took the lead with Palmer pulling the strings from the start.
After being mentioned in 10 of the first 14 posts of Aerial sports” Minute by minute commentary, Palmer finally got his goal and it came after some brilliant attacking play from Nicolas Jackson. The striker held the ball before turning his man and playing Palmer through on goal. Facing Mark Travers , Palmer sold him a dummy, putting the Bournemouth stopper on the deck, before rolling the ball into the back of the net for his 14th league goal in 21 appearances.
Bournemouth barely had a kick in the first half, but they fought back in the second half to leave Chelsea, who missed numerous chances, reeling.
It was breathless as Bournemouth came out with renewed vigor and they were immediately rewarded when Moises Caicedo burst over Antoine Semenyo in the penalty area. Referee Robert Jones pointed to the point and Kluivert made no mistake to bring the visitors level.
Then came the controversial moment of the game.
All Bournemouth’s good work could have been undone when David Brooks cynically knocked Marc Cucurella off the ball. Cucurella had done the same thing as Brooks at the start of the match, and the Bournemouth striker remembered the incident. The referee was sent to the screen by VAR but fortunately for Brooks, he brandished a yellow card.
It was the first time in the Premier League that a referee had rejected a red card on the monitor and it was the first monitor rejection of any kind this season.
Bournemouth then took full advantage of Antonie Semenyo’s shot which flew past goalkeeper Robert Sanchez to send them on their way to what they thought would be a huge victory, but substitute James had other ideas.
Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo celebrates after scoring to make it 2-1
