Bournemouth vs Chelsea match report: Eden Hazard finally ends goal drought with brace

Bournemouth 1 Chelsea 4

(Getty)

Eden Hazard will surrender his PFA Player of the Year trophy on Sunday but at last he produced a performance to be proud of in an abysmal season personally and for Chelsea.

The Belgian ended a run of 355 days and 29 Barclays Premier League games without a goal with a brace as the West Londoners easily won at Bournemouth.

It was a game that offered glimpses that Chelsea can return to their title-winning best even though it was a largely dead rubber fixture with neither side having much to play for, something that will have seemed inexplicable back in August.

Yet Chelsea supporters were quick to show their frustrations despite a success. The prospect of London rivals Tottenham Hotspur winning the league is unthinkable. Their next game comes against Mauricio Pochettino’s side a week on Monday. “You better beat f***ing Tottenham,” came the cry from the frustrated away fans at Dean Court.

Pedro opened the scoring after five minutes (Getty)

Chelsea are a far better side than the one that were beaten at home by Bournemouth in the dying days of Jose Mourinho’s reign and always in control of this contest.

They took the lead with five minutes on the clock with a free-flowing move involving Hazard, Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas who played in Pedro to convert.

But Bournemouth were arguably the better side in the first half after that as Josh King shot over the bar from a well-worked Charlie Daniels while from another well-thought out delivery Steven Cook also missed the target from six yards.

Lewis Grabban’s shot from an angle was then pushed away by Asmir Begovic while King could only head straight at the Chelsea goalkeeper from Simon Francis’ cross and Grabban then glanced off target from a Junior Stanislas delivery.

But finally Hazard was able to celebrate scoring as he stroke home low from 20 yards after the impressive Fabregas’ flick had fallen straight to him.

John Terry was watching on from the directors box having a managerial work placement and it would be interesting to hear the Chelsea captain’s thoughts as his side conceded less than two minutes later.

Tommy Elphick’s header bounced down and beat Begovic via the post from Francis’ delivery and suddenly the hosts could have levelled before the break as Grabban was denied with a powerful shot before Stanilas’ shot just went over the crossbar after a well-worked move.

Bournemouth though could not build on their promising half and even though Callum Wilson and Benik Afobe came on as substitutes it was Chelsea who took control.

They scored a third on 70 minutes as Willian cleverly converted after Fabregas’ through ball had given the midfielder a third assist of the match.

Hazard was only expected to play a maximum of an hour on his return from a hip injury but ended up playing the whole 90 and scored a second in stoppage time from only yards out after Nemanja Matic had done the hard work to complete an emphatic win.

“We don’t want the season to fade away,” said interim manager Guus Hiddink. “We worked with Eden the last 10 days and we were looking at his movement and he enjoyed it. He was light in his movement. We talked about 45 minutes but in the end he was enjoying it so much he could enjoy the whole game.

“Cesc was enjoying it very much and he was one of the few players who have this vision. He knows he can execute what he is thinking and it was one of his best games.”

“I thought it was an even game, especially in the first half,” said Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe. “The only difference was the way they finished and we learned some harsh lessons.”

Bournemouth (4-2-3-1): Boruc; Francis, Cook, Elphick, Daniels; Gosling, Surman; Stanislas (Ritchie 78), Grabban (Afobe 63), Pugh; King (Wilson 63). Subs: Federici, MacDonald, Wiggins, O’Kane.

Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Begovic; Azpilicueta, Ivanovic, Mikel, Rahman; Matic, Fabregas; Pedro, Willian (Loftus-Cheek 83), Hazard; Costa. Subs: Amelia, Falcao, Pato, Traore, Kenedy, Miazga.

Referee: Roger East

Attendance: 11,365

Man of the Match: Cesc Fabregas

Match rating: 8/10