Bournemouth 1-4 Chelsea: Cesc Fabregas in master act as Eden Hazard returns with a brace

Cesc Fabregas and Eden Hazard inspired Chelsea to a comfortable victory at Bournemouth.

Fabregas set Chelsea’s first three goals and Hazard scored twice as the Blues cruised to a 4-1 win at the Vitality Stadium.

Bournemouth, who stunned Chelsea 1-0 at Stamford Bridge in December, started well.

But they fell behind after five minutes when Pedro finished off swift Chelsea counter-attack involving Eden Hazard, Diego Costa and Fabregas.

Fabregas then teed up Hazard to fire in Chelsea’s second from 20 yards on 34 minutes with a clever back-heel.

Bournemouth hit back with an instant reply two minutes later when Tommy Elphick headed in Simon Francis’s cross to make it 2-1.

But Willian, from another Fabregas pass, and Hazard, from Nemanja Matic’s cross, wrapped up Chelsea’s win with second half goals..

Here are 5 things we learned: Fabulous Fabregas
Cesc Fabregas has remembered how to play football again after admitting this week that he forgot in the final months of Jose Mourinho’s reign.

He put on a midfield masterclass against Bournemouth. His passing was excellent and he set up three of Chelsea’s four goals.

His return to form has come too late for Chelsea as their season is over but is good news for Spain ahead of the Euros.

Reuters / Peter Nicholls

If Asmir Begovic has two games to prove he could replace Thibaut Courtois if the Belgian leaves, as has been suggested, this was not a good start.

The Bosnian – in for the banned Courtois – looked shaky all afternoon, especially with his kicking, and having made a meal of dealing with Marc Pugh’s cross was then too slow to react and deal with Tommy Elphick’s header which crept in off the post.

Action Images via Reuters / Paul Childs

Eden Hazard marked his return from injury with a goal. Incredibly it was his first in the league all season, a stat that sums up the 2014/15 double player of the year’s rapid decline.

Not only that, it was his first in open play for Chelsea for over a year.

His only other two Chelsea goals this season were a penalty at MK Dons and free-kick against Manchester City, both in the FA Cup.

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Action Images via Reuters / Paul Childs

Jon Obi Mikel was an attacking midfielder in his early years before developing into a defensive midfielder in his senior career.

And he showed his versatility again by filling in as a centre-back against Bournemouth, filling in for the ill Gary Cahill.

He had a few awkward moments against tricky customers Joshua King and Lewis Grabban but some good ones too.

AFP/Getty

They are almost safe but Eddie Howe won’t be satisfied a job very well done is done until it is mathematically confirmed.

After this defeat they are 11 points clear of the drop zone with three games to play.

They could still be caught by Sunderland who have five games to play.

It is unlikely but Howe won’t be happy until survival is clinched and nor will he be by his side’s form. This was a fourth defeat in five matches.

Action Images via Reuters / Paul Childs

Bournemouth : Boruc 6; Francis 6, Elphick 7, Cook 7, Daniels 6; Surman 6, Gosling 6; Stanislas 6 (Ritchie 78, 6), Grabban 5 (Afobe 63, 6), Pugh 6; King 7 (Wilson 63, 5).

Unused : Federici, MacDonald, Wiggins, O’Kane.

Chelsea : Begovic 5; Azpilicueta 6, Ivanovic 6, Mikel 6, Rahman 5; Fabregas MOTM 9, Matic 6; Pedro 7, Willian 7 (Loftus-Cheek 83, 5), Hazard 7; Costa 6.

Unused : Amelia, Miazga, Kenedy, Traore, Pato, Falcao.

Will John Terry manage Chelsea in the future?

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English Barclays Premier League

Pos	Logo &Team	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Leicester City	34	21	10	3	59	33	26	73
2	Tottenham Hotspur	34	19	11	4	64	25	39	68
3	Manchester City	35	19	7	9	66	34	32	64
4	Arsenal	34	18	9	7	58	34	24	63
5	Manchester United	34	17	8	9	42	30	12	59
6	West Ham United	34	14	14	6	57	43	14	56
7	Liverpool	34	15	10	9	58	45	13	55
8	Southampton	35	15	9	11	49	37	12	54
9	Chelsea	34	12	11	11	53	46	7	47
10	Stoke City	35	13	8	14	37	51	-14	47
11	Everton	34	9	14	11	53	48	5	41
12	Watford	34	11	8	15	33	40	-7	41
13	Bournemouth	35	11	8	16	42	61	-19	41
14	Swansea City	34	10	10	14	34	45	-11	40
15	West Bromwich Albion	34	10	10	14	31	42	-11	40
16	Crystal Palace	35	10	9	16	36	45	-9	39
17	Norwich City	34	8	7	19	35	60	-25	31
18	Sunderland	33	7	9	17	39	57	-18	30
19	Newcastle United	35	7	9	19	38	64	-26	30
20	Aston Villa	35	3	7	25	25	69	-44	16

Match Stats — Team Stats

• Attack
• General Play
• Distribution
• Defence & Discipline

• Attack

  Goals

  Bournemouth	Comparison	Chelsea
  1	20%80%	4

  Total Shots (including blocked shots)

  Bournemouth	Comparison	Chelsea
  13	44.8%55.2%	16

  Shots On Target

  Bournemouth	Comparison	Chelsea
  4	50%50%	4

  Blocked Shots

  Bournemouth	Comparison	Chelsea
  3	27.3%72.7%	8

  Shots from outside the box

  Bournemouth	Comparison	Chelsea
  6	50%50%	6

  Shots from inside the box

  Bournemouth	Comparison	Chelsea
  7	41.2%58.8%	10

  Shot Accuracy (excluding blocked shots)

  Bournemouth	Comparison	Chelsea
  40%	44.4%55.6%	50%

  Bournemouth
  

  • 1A. Boruc
  • 11C. Daniels
  • 5T. Elphick
  • 2S. Francis
  • 3S. Cook
  • 7M. Pugh
  • 6A. Surman
  • 19J. Stanislas
  • 4D. Gosling
  • 28L. Grabban
  • 17J. King

  Substitutes

  • 13C. Wilson
  • 20B. Afobe
  • 16S. MacDonald
  • 30M. Ritchie
  • 32E. O’Kane
  • 23A. Federici
  • 29R. Wiggins

  Coach Eddie Howe
  Chelsea
  

  • 1A. Begovic
  • 12J. Mikel
  • 2B. Ivanovic
  • 28C. Azpilicueta
  • 6Baba Rahman
  • 10E. Hazard
  • 22Willian
  • 17Pedro
  • 21N. Matic
  • 4C. Fàbregas
  • 19Diego Costa

  Substitutes

  • 11Alexandre Pato
  • 9Falcao
  • 14B. Traore
  • 36R. Loftus-Cheek
  • 32M. Amelia
  • 20M. Miazga
  • 16Kenedy

  Coach Guus Hiddink
  Starting formation
  

  	Bournemouth	Chelsea
  	4 – 4 – 2	4 – 2 – 3 – 1

  • A. Boruc1
  • C. Daniels11
  • T. Elphick5
  • S. Francis2
  • S. Cook3
  • M. Pugh7
  • A. Surman6
  • J. Stanislas19
  • D. Gosling4
  • L. Grabban28
  • J. King17

  • 1A. Begovic
  • 12J. Mikel
  • 2B. Ivanovic
  • 28C. Azpilicueta
  • 6Baba Rahman
  • 10E. Hazard
  • 22Willian
  • 17Pedro
  • 21N. Matic
  • 4C. Fàbregas
  • 19Diego Costa