By Paul Lagan at Stamford Bridge
Chelsea v Bournemouth
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Kai Havertz put aside any World Cup hangover with Germany to put in a class display as striker and scored the opener in Chelsea’s 2-0 win over Bournemouth at the Bridge this evening.
The Blues rise to the dizzy heights of eighth in the Premier League as a result.
The other goal came from the right boot of Mason Mount – who put in another assured performance. Chelsea will need to go on a long winning streak if they are to find themselves challenging for a Champions League place.
As it stands, they are out of any European competition for next season.
Early on, both sides produced a lot of huff and puff with the occasional excellent pass, but on 12 minutes, Christian Pulisic thought he had won a penalty when his shirt was grabbed by Adam smith in the Cherries penalty area. But referee Simon Hooper waved away any suggestion of an infringement and VAR did not intervene.
But justice was done on 15 minutes when a quick break on the right saw Raheem Sterling slide the perfect ball across the six-yard box and Havertz was Jonnie-on-the-spot to tuck the ball past Mark Travers to put Chelsea 1-0 up
Number two was not far behind. It looked like Denis Zakaria had fluffed his chance when the ball was tapped to in-running Mason Mount by Havertz who curled the ball from just outside the box with his right boot past Travers on 23 minutes.
Pulisic thought he had netted number three on half-time when the ball fell loose to him and he rammed it home after Havertz and Lewis came together but Hooper opted for a free kick to Bournemouth instead.
Graham Potter made no changes at half-time.
But he was forced into making a change replacing injured Reece James for Cesar Azpilicueta.
The Blues either lost concentration or the ability to carry out Potter’s instructions, but the net result was greater posession for the Cherries and half-chances for a goal.
Potter decided that he would bring on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Connor Gallager – off went Zakaria and Pulisic.
They were quickly followed by Trevoh Chalobah.
It had the desired effort of nullifying Bournemouth’s persistent attacking threat, and the game petered out to the expected three points for the west Londoners.
Teams: Chelsea, Kepa, James, Silva, Koulibaly, Cucurella, Jorginho, Zakaria, Mount, Sterling, Havertz, Pulisic
Subs: Bettinelli, Azpilicueta, Chalobah, Humphrey’s, Chukwuemeka, Gallagher, Hall, Hutchinson, Aubameyang
AFC Bournemouth: Travers, Cook, Kelly, Lehman, Solanke, Smith, Moore, Senesi, Billing, Zemura
Subs, Plain, Stephens, Christie, Marcondes, Rothwell, Lowe, SiriKit, Pearson, Anthony
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