3 positives for Chelsea from home draw, including 21 year old looking like a veteran | OneFootball

Chelsea had a disappointing draw with Bournemouth last night in the end, but amid a lot of gloom around a fifth game without a win, we thought we’d focus on the good stuff from a game that was full of ups and downs for Enzo Maresca’s team.

There was certainly a lot more to like than in other recent games where we’ve not created much at all.

Three things we liked in Bournemouth draw

Reece James celebrates his late free kick against Bournemouth.

Firstly, we shouldn’t let the final result distract us from the fact that the team played really well in that first half. Maresca called it one of the best halves of the season, and there’s no denying that the team ran rampant, exploiting the space left by Bournemouth and creating all sorts of chances. That they didn’t take them is a disappointment, as was the second half, but the Blues looked great for 45 minutes.

Secondly, the returning injured players gave us just the same boost we hoped for. Romeo Lavia was great, and bringing him into the team allowed Malo Gusto to drop out. We had far better control when Lavia was on the pitch, and some would argue that things started to fall apart when he was taken off. As for Reece James his impact in helping earn and then scoring the equalising free kick was obvious.

Thirdly, with Robert Sanchez struggling at times and the rest of his back four looking uncertain, we thought Levi Colwill looked really solid and increasingly like the leader he needs to be in the back line. The goals we conceded were a penalty and a pretty freakish strike on the far side from Levi. He made 3 interceptions and 3 clearances when the game got hairy towards the end. His 52 passes in the game were second only to Enzo Fernandez, and his accuracy rate second only to Moises Caicedo.