Maresca believes Chelsea deserved more from Bournemouth draw

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca felt his side deserved more than just a point after drawing 2-2 at home to AFC Bournemouth to extend their winless run in the Premier League to five games.

The Blues made a perfect start to the match, going ahead through Cole Palmer's fine goal and creating further chances to increase their lead.

But they relinquished the lead shortly after half-time when Justin Kluivert equalized for Bournemouth from the penalty spot before Antoine Semenyo put the Cherries ahead with 20 minutes to go.

Chelsea grabbed the equalizer deep in injury time through a beautiful free kick from Reece James, his first goal in more than two years. But Maresca still believes his side were worth all three points and acknowledges they paid the price for not taking their chances.

“I think we deserved a lot more, especially in the first half,” Maresca told TNT Sports.

“The most important thing is certainly that we create chances. That has happened often in the last four or five games. We don't score and then we concede.”

“I think in the first half we fully deserved to win the game. We should have scored three goals.

“The negative thing is that we changed the way we played after conceding a goal. Tonight, after we got the penalty, we dropped a little bit and we have to improve that.”

It ends completely square at the bridge.#CFC | #CHEBOU pic.twitter.com/5hZULVXJtF

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) January 14, 2025

Maresca also believes David Brooks should have been sent off following his altercation with Marc Cucurella, with the referee showing the Welshman a yellow card after reviewing the incident on the VAR monitor.

On whether he should have been red, Maresca said: “I think so. Hopefully we will have better luck in the future.”

Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola believes a draw is a fair result, despite his side being minutes away from a first win at Stamford Bridge since 2019.

He told TNT Sports: “I don't think we deserved to win today and Chelsea were better than us in the first half. We were better in the second half. It was fairer.”

Nevertheless, Iraola criticized the decision to award the free-kick that led to Chelsea's second goal, believing there was minimal contact with Joao Felix.

He said: “I am angry because of their equalizer.”

“The VAR must check the free kick and the point of contact. Today we played an extra fifteen minutes. So I'm not complaining. I don't think we deserved to win today.”

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