Guus Hiddink’s side returned to winning ways at the Vitality Stadium, producing an impressive attacking display to secure a 4-1 victory against Bournemouth.
Pedro, the returning Eden Hazard and Willian were on target for the Blues, but much of the credit goes to Cesc Fabregas who laid on three of our goals.
Pedro gave us a fifth-minute lead, finishing off a quick break, and Hazard made it 2-0 with a right-footed drive from outside the box.
Bournemouth pulled one back immediately through Tommy Elphick, and while Eddien Howe’s side were well in the game for long spells our third goal, which came 20 minutes from time, put the game out of their reach, and Hazard doubled his own tally late on.
The big news regarding team selection was the availability of Hazard, who started the game having not played since the second leg of our Champions League tie against Paris Saint-Germain over a month ago.
With Thibaut Courtois serving the first of a two-game suspension Asmir Begovic started, and in front of the goalkeeper it was John Mikel Obi chosen to partner captain Branislav Ivanovic. John Terry wasn’t fit enough to be involved while Gary Cahill missed out due to illness.
Elsewhere, Nemanja Matic made his first start since the FA Cup game at Everton and Diego Costa led the line.
It was the home side who started the game on the front foot, threatening down our right-hand side on a couple of occasions, but with our first attack of the game we took the lead with a well-worked goal.
Hazard did well to flick a loose ball on to Diego Costa inside our own half, and the striker in turn played it into the path of Fabregas who was on the move. He picked out Pedro with a brilliant pass and the winger did the rest, bringing the ball under control with his first touch before calmly lifting it over Artur Boruc.
Only five minutes had been played and we had gained a very early advantage. It was Pedro‘s eighth goal of the campaign.
The goal settled us down and we were quickly back on the attack. Willian was put through by a long ball over the top and after holding it up well under pressure he teed up Hazard, whose strike was charged down inside the box.
A well-worked Bournemouth corner almost led to an equaliser when Joshua King, who was afforded far too much time and space, fired over the bar from just inside the penalty area, but as the 25-minute mark approached we were looking relatively comfortable from a defensive perspective.
Andrew Surman was fortunate to escape a caution after clattering Diego Costa from behind 30 yards from goal as the striker collected a pass, and while the free-kick was in a decent position, Ivanovic‘s effort never looked like troubling Boruc.
While Begovic hadn’t been seriously tested he was called into action on a few occasions in quick succession, first palming away a Junior Stanislas cross at the near post and then saving a King header.
Twelve minutes before the break, though, it was 2-0 to Chelsea and the second goal, like the first, owed much to an impressive team move.
Matic played it out wide to Willian, who switched it back inside to Fabregas. The Spaniard produced a brilliant first-time flick into the path of Hazard and the Belgian fired low and hard into the bottom corner, his first Premier League goal of the season.
From looking in complete control of the game, however, our advantage was halved almost immediately as Bournemouth hit back.
It was a simple goal from the home side’s point of view, with Elphick climbing highest to head home from a short corner, and they were almost level a minute later, only for Begovic to deny Lewis Grabban with a great save after he’d been put clean through by Marc Pugh.
It was developing into an entertaining contest with both teams looking dangerous in the final third, and we were unfortunate not to extend our lead just before half-time.
Fabregas found Pedro with a wonderful incisive pass in behind the static Bournemouth defence, but after getting away from two defenders the scorer of our opening goal curled his strike over the bar.
There were no changes to either side at the break and we should have made it 3-1 within five minutes of the restart.
Baba played a neat one-two with Matic and as the left-back fizzed his delivery across the face of goal the sliding Diego Costa was a fraction away from applying the vital touch.
We were enjoying the lion’s share of possession during the early stages of the second half and Fabregas was unlucky to see a long-range effort roll marginally wide having taken a deflection.
Pedro and Hazard by this stage had swapped flanks with both wingers performing well and asking questions of Bournemouth full-backs Simon Francis and Charlie Daniels.
Just after the hour mark the hosts made a double attacking switch with Callum Wilson and Benik Afobe replacing King and Lewis Grabban as they went in search of a leveller, and it almost came when Stanislas got away from Diego Costa 20 yards from goal and curled a right-footed strike inches wide.
At the other end, a glorious opportunity went begging when Hazard latched on to another intelligent Fabregas flick but opted to pass rather than shoot.
It would only be a temporary reprieve for the home side, however, as moments later our two-goal advantage was restored.
Unsurprisingly Fabregas was the instigator once again, threading a delightful ball through to Willian, and the Brazilian produced an exquisite finish, drawing Boruc in before expertly flicking it into the back of the net.
With Bournemouth now throwing men forward in a bid to find a route back into the game spaces were beginning to open up and our attacking players were providing a real threat and playing some delightful football.
Pedro forced a save from Boruc with a clever overhead kick and on a couple of occasions it was just the final ball which let us down.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek replaced Willian late on and Hazard completed the scoring right at the death with a close-range finish from Matic‘s pull-back.
The travelling Chelsea fans, who had been in fine voice all afternoon, spent the closing minutes singing a song urging the players to record another victory in our next fixture, the small matter of a home game against Tottenham.
That, it’s fair to say, would be most welcome.
- Match stats:
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Begovic; Azpilicueta, Mikel, Ivanovic (c), Baba; Matic, Fabregas; Pedro, Willian (Loftus-Cheek), Hazard; Diego Costa.
Unused subs: Amelia, Miazga, Kenedy, Traore, Pato, Falcao
Scorers Pedro 5, Hazard 33 and 90+1, Willian 70
Bournemouth (4-1-4-1): Boruc; Francis, Elphick (c), Cook, Daniels; Surman; Pugh, Gosling, Stanislas (Ritchie 77), Grabban (Afobe 62); King (Wilson 62).
Unused subs: Federici. Wiggins, MacDonald, O’Kane.
Scorer Elphick 36
Referee Roger East
Crowd 11,365
- Match report by chelseafc.com
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