Chelsea sink Bournemouth to give Frank Lampard win at last

SEVENTH TIME LUCKY: Chelsea's Joao Felix celebrates scoring his side's third goal of the game. Pic: Adam Davy/PA Wire.

Bournemouth 1 Chelsea 3

Frank Lampard was unmoved when Conor Gallagher opened the scoring but Chelsea’s interim manager allowed himself the smallest of celebrations when João Félix stroked in Chelsea’s third goal with four minutes of normal time left to play. 

Lampard clenched both fists and his assistant, Joe Edwards, gave him a quick embrace. Moments after the final whistle Lampard walked over to the away supporters who bookended this win by singing his name and offered them a thumbs-up.

It has been a testing few weeks for Lampard, who had been ridiculed after arriving in Dorset on the back of six straight defeats. How this was a welcome victory, their first in 10 attempts, even if it was not exactly convincing. 

Benoit Badiashile poked Chelsea in front on 82 minutes before the substitute Félix completed the scoring on a dank afternoon in Bournemouth.

Changes were inevitable for Chelsea given the manner of their defeat at Arsenal in midweek, with Badiashile one of five players promoted to Lampard’s starting lineup. Wesley Fofana was missing with a hamstring complaint and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang left out altogether. 

Mykhailo Mudryk also started but the £89m signing’s only memorable contribution was a dive that did not impress the referee, John Brooks, who gave the Ukraine forward a yellow card for his theatrics. Kai Havertz was equally ineffective. 

Only Badiashile, Thiago Silva, Noni Madueke and Gallagher, who gave Chelsea the lead with a smart header, truly came out of this game with any credit.

Gallagher’s ninth-minute header was the cue for Chelsea’s supporters to launch into a series of sarcastic chants. “We are staying up,” they sang, before a couple of choruses about scoring and winning away. April was so bleak for Chelsea – they mustered one goal across a run of six defeats in seven – that their in-house goal of the month competition only featured players from their academy and women’s teams. 

At least Lampard was in no mood to sugarcoat things after defeat at the Emirates Stadium, describing his players as passive and, most alarmingly of all, too nice.

If Lampard was unhappy with that display then this was better but not vintage. Mudryk was one of several players to endure another forgettable afternoon. Trevoh Chalobah, who replaced the Chelsea captain César Azpilicueta at right-back, epitomised the visitors’ vulnerability. N’Golo Kanté’s last action before being replaced by Ruben Loftus-Cheek was a wild volley and soon after Badiashile earned a booking after a late tackle on the Bournemouth winger Dango Ouattara.

Bournemouth deservedly levelled through Matias Viña, who curled a right-foot shot past Kepa Arrizabalaga to cap a slick attacking move. Viña, the Roma loanee, started and finished the move, which involved the impressive Ryan Christie and the former Chelsea striker Dominic Solanke. Viña took the ball in his stride with his left foot before wrapping the ball into the far corner with his right. Bournemouth will perhaps wonder how this game got away from them.

At times it appeared Chelsea’s game-plan amounted to Madueke or nothing. The winger kept the Bournemouth defence on their toes throughout the first half but, aside from his pace and direct running, the hosts rarely had cause to fret. Madueke should have done better after shuffling past Vina and shuttling to the byline but he screwed his shot into the Bournemouth side netting. He also saw a shot saved by Neto after seizing on an early Bournemouth defensive mix-up.

A section of Chelsea supporters jeered Lampard’s decision to withdraw Madueke with 75 minutes played. But his replacement, Hakim Ziyech, fashioned Chelsea’s first real chance of the second half and teed up the second goal. 

The unmarked Havertz failed to direct his header on goal from the edge of the six-yard box but with eight minutes of normal time to play Badiashile had no such problem locating the target, feasting on some poor marking to prod in at the back post. Then the substitute Félix put some gloss on the victory, eluding his marker, Jefferson Lerma, to side foot in.

Guardian