Chelsea 0-1 AFC Bournemouth: 3 reasons why the Blues lost at home | Premier League 2019-20

1. Lack of invention in the Bournemouth half

Chelsea's Willian put forth another lacklustre staging at Stamford Bridge

Chelsea picked more passes, got more involved as the game went on, but were largely flat-footed in terms of their penetration and transition. They lacked the burst of acceleration to go out and hurt Bournemouth on the break, for starters. It looked very rusty whenever the Blues tried to play out and leave the opponents behind.

They played a lot of balls from one end of the pitch to the other in the form of diagonals, but the visitors were well-equipped to handle that one-dimensional attacking framework. The likes of N'Golo Kante were sparingly used, apart from a couple of breaks. Fraser's defensive work aided Gosling and Lerma in intercepting and reading more passes.

Willian and Pulisic remained absent from the game's proceedings, failing to engineer a pin-point cross or any effort on goal. The latter was significantly out of the game as he rued for space and a possible interplay with Emerson.

Willian meanwhile, was simply horrendous with his corners and crossing. His decision-making was a major letdown, with the failure to deliver first-time crosses tantamount to the absence of a creative outlet.

Chelsea should have probed further and played with a bit more patience. Way too often, they tried to cut open the Bournemouth defence with a 15-20 yard passes, or with a diagonal. The momentum, as a result, continued to move in a stop-start fashion as Bournemouth had the last laugh.