Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca was left disappointed with his players after they dropped more points in the Premier League – this time at Bournemouth.
The Blues took the lead through Cole Palmer, who sold Mark Travers for a dummy before slotting the ball into the back of the net early on.
But the Cherries rallied and won a penalty after Moise Caicedo brought down Antoine Semeneu in the box.
Justin Kluivert stepped up and smashed his effort into the corner, sending Robert Sanchez diving the other way.
Semenho was at it again 18 minutes later, dancing inside the box before smashing an effort into the roof of the net.
Stamford Bridge was silenced, with Chelsea heading for a shock defeat at the ground.
But Rhys James – returning from injury – rescued a point.
The whole block ends at Gefyra.#CFC | #CHEBOU pic.twitter.com/5hZULVXJtF
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) January 14, 2025
The full-back buried a free-kick in the dying minutes to level the scores at 2-2, although it’s still not the result Chelsea would have liked.
Speaking after the game, Maresca said: “I think in the first half we totally deserved to win the game. We should have scored three goals. When we conceded in the second half, we fell. We deserved to win the game when we created so many chances.
“It was one of the best performances of the season in the first half. We were aggressive and created the chances. We are a bit unlucky in scoring goals. We miss it and then we give up. We must continue. The bad thing as I said is that after the penalty we go down and there is no reason to do that.
“The game was completely under our control and it’s something we have to improve on.
“I’m always worried even when we win games. This is the Premier League, when you don’t create chances and you don’t score, then you have to worry more.”
Rhys James spoke on his return in an emotional interview, admitting he had been waiting for his moment and was happy to mark his return with a goal.
He said: “It was great to get the point and we should have taken it in the eye but that’s the way football is. If you don’t risk it, it can come back and hurt you.
“I’m happy and honored to be back representing this team and I’m happy to be back to help the team. It was lonely and frustrating but I’m very happy to be back helping the team.
“When we have played against the top teams we do not hesitate. We take it one game at a time and see where we end up at the end of the season.”
