Chelsea substitute Christopher Nkunku scored in the 86th minute to secure a 1-0 victory against Bournemouth on Saturday. Robert Sánchez saved Evanilson’s first-half penalty after Bournemouth hit the woodwork twice.
However, Chelsea put on a strong end to the match, and Nkunku—who entered the game in the 79th minute—scored from close range to give the London team their second straight away victory.
Bournemouth is now in 11th place with five points.While Chelsea has risen to seventh place after four games with seven points.While it was not an entirely convincing display by Enzo Maresca’s team who rode their luck in the first half, there were plenty of positives to take away from the south coast.
They ended a run of 17 Premier League away games without a clean sheet, gave a debut to on-loan Jadon Sancho who impressed as a second-half substitute and showed plenty of resilience.
Maresca said: “First half we struggled, second half we were miles better. We didn’t win many balls in the first half and you need that in this type of stadium against this team.”
Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraila said: “We had more everything, more shots, more corners, but at the end what really matters is to score and they did it at the end,”
The game appeared to be going for an unusual draw full of opportunities and niggly fouls. Then Sancho threaded a pass in to Nkunku, who displayed incredible power to turn quickly and toe-poke a shot past goalkeeper Mark Travers.
Sancho’s contribution to the goal completed an impressive debut for the winger, who finished second in the Champions League final while on loan at Borussia Dortmund the previous year.
“Jadon is a very good player and can help us,” Maresca said. “Now all the noise around him, I don’t care. With us he’s very polite, training well on and off the ball.”
Bournemouth had the better of the first half with Marcus Tavernier thumping a long-range effort against the crossbar in the fourth minute. Travers denied Nicolas Jackson at the other end but Bournemouth looked set to go in front when Brazilian Evanilson was bundled over by Chelsea keeper Sanchez in the 36th minute.
While referee Anthony Taylor’s yellow card had a busy night, most of the bookings were for niggly fouls and for players back-chatting the official.
“It is not a problem for me with this amount of yellow cards. It is what it is. Sometimes the game demands the way you have to behave,” Maresca added.
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