REECE James scored his first Premier League goal since August 2022 to rescue a point for Chelsea in the 95th minute of their 2-2 draw against AFC Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night.
The 25-year-old Blues club captain hit a low free-kick beyond goalkeeper Mark Travers on his first league appearance since November.
Cole Palmer gave Chelsea the lead in the thirteenth minute before the Cherries shocked the hosts after the break when they levelled through Justin Kluivert’s penalty after Moises Caicedo fouled Antoine Semenyo, who then made it 2-1 with a left-footed drive past Robert Sanchez.
Enzo Maresca’s Blues are tenth in the table, ten points behind leaders Liverpool.
“I saw that the free-kick was close to the goal and I thought I saw a gap. I just tried to aim for that corner,” James said. “The goal meant a lot and we’d rather take one point than none, even though we might’ve got three.
“It was disappointing to only take a point from the game. We were dominating most of the game and we should’ve walked away with three points. Collectively as a team we had chances in the first half and sometimes in games when you don’t take the chances, the game goes on and they managed to get two goals.”
“I am so happy for him that he had this moment and the target for him now is to be fit until the end [of the season] and for him to help us in the way we want to play,” Maresca said.
“Reece can compare with Cole in terms of free-kicks because he is very good,. We decided for Reece and he scored and we are all happy because at least we took a point.
“It was probably one of our best first halves of the season. The way we were playing on the ball and off the ball, the way we created so many chances, we had around fifteen shots, and the first half has to finish with a different score because at least 2-0 was what we deserved.
“Then in the second half, after the penalty, we dropped a little bit and we probably need to understand the reason why.
“The feeling is like a little bit of a shame because when you play the way you played in the first half, where we played really, really good, you need to be clinical.”
Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola felt James’s goal should have been ruled out.
He explained: “When they shoot the free-kick, you stop the image and [Marc] Cucurella is touching our wall. It should be one yard, it’s not, we cannot argue if it’s half a yard or three quarters, he’s touching Semenyo like this.
“And I understand the referee live, 94 minutes, the pressure of Stamford Bridge but one guy in the VAR only has to check this free kick, stop the image when he shoots. They are in a legal position, no, they are not. One second, that’s it.
“This is not arguable, this is what it is. And to lose the three points here because of this, for me it’s difficult to accept. Yeah, Cucurella is touching our wall. Semenyo is the last player of the last player of our wall, Cucurella, when you stop it, I’ve just seen it.
“Live, I didn’t realise. And it’s like this touching Semenyo, you know, you have to leave one yard and just, we cannot argue, it is what it is. And it’s not fair or unfair. These are the rules.”
Chelsea were unhappy David Brooks escaped a red card for a tackle on Cucurella that was deemed to only warrant yellow after a VAR review.