Eden Hazard breaks Bournemouth’s resistance to send Chelsea into the Carabao Cup semi-finals
Chelsea once again relied on the influence of Eden Hazard to save them as he came on from the bench to score late against Bournemouth and send Maurizio Sarri’s side into the semi-final of the Carabao Cup where they will face Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham.
Sarri, who is yet to win a major trophy in his career, insisted that all competitions are important and named a strong side to face Bournemouth, but had to rely on Pedro, Hazard and David Luiz to come on from the bench to change the game.
It was the Spanish and Belgian wingers that combined in the 84th minute to sink Bournemouth, who had held their own up until the introduction of Chelsea’s superior marksmen.
Perhaps with the fear of penalties on their minds, Bournemouth sunk deeper into their own half after 80 minutes of brave, attacking play in west London. The space on the edge of the area, which Chelsea were forced to use for speculative shots in the early stages, was now freed for players to attack.
Pedro received a one-two from Hazard and attacked the left side of the penalty area before showing awareness to provide a clever back-heel behind him into the path of Emerson. In good judgement, the left-back left the ball for Hazard and the Belgian fired home via a deflection from Charlie Daniels.
Callum Wilson, who is linked with a January move to Chelsea, had limited influence throughout the game, and perhaps his greatest contribution was barging Kepa Arrizabalaga off the ball, prompting the home fans to sing ‘we don’t want you anymore’. However, given Olivier Giroud is their only fit striker, they would surely take him in a heartbeat.
The majority of the Bournemouth chances instead fell to David Brooks and Lys Mousset, the latter forcing Kepa into a stunning first-half save to keep out his powerful effort from the edge of the box.
Chelsea, naturally, started with intent and immediately looked to exploit space behind makeshift wing-backs Jordon Ibe and Diego Rico. Willian, backed up by compatriot Emerson, initially was the preferred route to goal with the Brazilian duo’s movement twice creating space for Willian to force Artur Boruc into saves after the winger drifted in from the left.
As Bournemouth adjusted so did Chelsea, switching the focus to Ruben Loftus-Cheek on the right of the three-pronged attack. Often used in central areas during his rare first-team outings, the English midfielder has been enjoying a good spell of form when used out wide. His equally powerful and purposeful runs helped Ross Barkley take up shooting positions on the edge of the box, a move that brought a good save from Boruc again, but he saved his best for Willian and Chelsea’s best chance of the half.
A tidy combination on the halfway line with Mateo Kovacic set Loftus-Cheek on his way and a perfectly weighted switching pass put Willian through on goal. With his mind made up early, Willian tried to scoop an effort over the on-rushing goalkeeper with his weaker foot but Boruc stayed up for as long as possible to swipe the ball away.
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As the first half wore on Bournemouth took more risks in their attempts to set Wilson and Moussset beyond Chelsea’s high line. Brooks, who performed excellently against an experienced midfield, was the chief architect in threading passes in behind, but it was Ibe’s running from deep that gave Bournemouth their best chance of the game. After beating Emerson he glided past two midfield challenges and directed the ball to Mousset on the opposing flank. The French forward took the ball in his stride before cutting onto his right foot and forcing Kepa to use all 6’1” of his frame to push the ball wide.
Unamused at the regularity that Bournemouth were able to get in behind, Sarri stuck his cigarette end in his mouth before turning to berate his bench.
The half-time instruction from the Chelsea boss was to clearly increase the tempo and aggression given each misplaced pass and failed 50-50 challenge was greeted with greater frustration by the home dugout.
The manager almost got his wish when Loftus-Cheek embarked on another surging run, collected a one-two from Cesar Azpilicueta and struck the outside of the post after finding space to shoot on the edge of the box with a quick piece of footwork to leave the defenders in his wake.
Pedro came on for Willian in perhaps a change for fitness reasons and Hazard began his first touchline warm-up of the match in a sign from Sarri to his forwards that their time to score was running out.
With almost an hour played Sarri had seen enough and Hazard came on, as suddenly Stamford Bridge had the lift and edge that it had been missing for the first 60 minutes of the match.
Sensing there was something in this for them, Bournemouth threw on Josh King and Ryan Fraser and the number of chances began to increase. Wilson, who had grown quiet, had a shot blocked by Cesar Azpilicueta from close-range, which he and the Bournemouth bench argued was via the Spaniard’s arm but the officials agreed it was from too close to be deemed intentional.
With Bournemouth growing in confidence Sarri was ready to play his final card and had N’Golo Kante stripped and ready to come on, but instructed the French midfielder to put his tracksuits back on as he introduced David Luiz, a central defender to nullify the visitors’ increasing attacks and someone to take part in a penalty shootout with 10 minutes left to play.
As the game aged Bournemouth dropped deeper, either through their own admission that penalties were their best chance, or whether Chelsea’s game-changing substitutes were too good not to adapt to.
Whatever the reason, the result meant that Chelsea could get close to the goal rather than continually trying their luck from range. Pedro made best use of this when he drove into the box and flicked the ball back for Hazard to finish via Daniels’ deflection, not that Stamford Bridge or Sarri minded.
Whether the new Chelsea manager feels the pressure to win a trophy in his first season like his predecessor or not is something he will no doubt keep private, but the enthusiastic celebrations at full-time certainly indicated this is one he believes Chelsea should be winning.
