Bournemouth 1-3 Chelsea: Premier League as it happened
Antonio Conte' side looking to make their lead at the top seven points again.
- Chelsea move seven points clear at the summit of the Premier League again after Tottenham briefly shortened the gap to four.
- Blues led by two after 20 minutes after Eden Hazard strike and Adam Smith own goal.
- Josh King pulled one back just before half-time with deflected effort.
- Marcos Alonso settled the game with a superb free-kick after 68 minutes.
Afobe denied by the post! Bournemouth come alive with Wilshere spreading a fine ball wide to Daniels. He lifts in a beauty of a cross which the Cherries striker meets sweetly on the volley. It looks destined for the bottom corner, but it comes off the inside of the post, off the back of Courtois, across the face of goal before it is hoofed away! Incredibly unlucky for the former Arsenal youngster.
Chelsea break the deadlock and Diego Costa has his 50th Premier League goal in Chelsea blue. Luiz is given far too much time on the ball and he easily picks out Moses on the right, who looks inside to find the Spain international. He brings the ball down on the turn but completely miss hits his effort. Luckily for him, it takes a deflection of Adam Smith to take it past Artur Boruc.
Moses miscontrols a pass out on the right and it invites Charlie Daniels to put him under pressure. Moses scurries back to try and get it back under control but slips, leaping over the ball in a pretty blatant attempt to shield it from the Bournemouth full-back. He's shown a yellow card and Bournemouth can swing this into the box.
Kick-off is just a few minutes away; here's another look at the teams before we get started.
Bournemouth team to face Chelsea: Boruc; Smith, Francis (c), Cook, Daniels; Fraser, Arter, Wilshere, Pugh; King, Afobe
Subs: Allsop, Cargill, Ibe, Mousett, Gradel, B.Smith, L.Cook
Chelsea team to face Bournemouth: Courtois; Azpilicueta, David Luiz, Cahill (c); Moses, Kante, Matic, Alonso; Pedro, Diego Costa, Hazard
Subs: Begovic, Terry, Zouma, Chalobah, Fabregas, Willian, Batshuayi
Tonight is the Nathan Ake Derby at Dean Court. Cherries boss Eddie Howe was disappointed to see the young defender recalled by Chelsea in January and while he is still to feature in the Premier League for the Blues, Antonio Conte insists bringing the Dutchman back was the right decision. Even though he isn't even in the squad tonight.
"Yes, I think this was the right decision. For us it was the right decision for him to stay in our squad. Also because, for us, it's important to check our players and then to see the improvement.
"We find a player who is able to stay in the squad, to give him the possibility to show me and the club their capacity, so why not? I'm happy to have Nathan with us. It's not easy when you arrive and you have, before you, five central defenders who are really good.
"But I'm pleased with his commitment and his attitude. He's a good player. It was right to bring him with us in this season."
Nathan Ake was having the best season of his young career on loan at Bournemouth during the first-half of the 2016-17 season, only for Chelsea to cut that deal short during the January transfer window.
Rather predictably, that has changed since his return to Stamford Bridge where he is yet to make a single appearance in the Premier League. Is Eddie Howe still frustrated with it all?
We were of course disappointed to lose him, because he was an integral part of our team. But that's Chelsea's right. [He's] their player, they could recall him.
"I've got no problem with it. But obviously it impacted on us on that time, we've missed him. Not just on the pitch but off the pitch, because he's a great lad and he fitted so well into our team.
Eddie Howe on Dan Gosling and Ryan Fraser
"Gosling is 50/50 probably. It's going to be difficult for him to be involved so soon. But we'll wait and see. We'll obviously give him every chance to declare himself fit.
"He just took a whack to his knee, so we're not quite sure what the damage is. I think he's had a scan, so we'll wait and see.
"Ryan's fit, it was just a case of managing his load on the back of no training and the injury that he had. We just felt it prudent not to play him three times in a week. We'll wait and see on our team selection."
Team news: Bournemouth
Dan Gosling is the Cherries' biggest concern ahead of kick-off. Eddie Howe confirmed in his press conference this week the versatile midfielder is a doubt having missed the midweek draw at Liverpool.
Andrew Surman meanwhile is expected to miss the remainder of the season due to a knee injury – meaning there is room for Jack Wilshere to force his way back into the starting XI and leave an impression before his loan spell expires.
Realistically, we were two minutes away from the Premier League title being wrapped up last Wednesday. Chelsea led 2-1 against Manchester City, Tottenham trailed 1-0 at Swansea City Had those results finished that way, the gap between the London rivals would have been 10 points - enough to end the hopes of even the most optimistic Spurs fan.
Of course, it didn't finish that way. Three goals in six minutes saw Tottenham turn things around. A 4-0 thrashing of Watford early on Saturday afternoon means the gap between first and second is now just four points ahead of kick off tonight. A win for Chelsea of course will extend it once again and take Antonio Conte's another step closer to sealing their crown. But Bournemouth have the chance to open the whole thing up again tonight if they can rock the boat like Crystal Palace did at Stamford Bridge a couple of weeks ago.
Stick around, all your team news is on the way.
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