Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe hailed his players for putting Chelsea to the sword during Wednesday night’s 4-0 win. The Cherries blew Chelsea away with four second-half goals as a Joshua King brace and efforts from David Brooks and Charlie Daniels saw the Blues fall to their heaviest Premier League defeat in 23 years.
Howe was still enjoying the moment when asked where the result stands in his history as manager – but was pleased with how his players brushed Chelsea aside in the second half. “It is up there,” he said of the result. “I don’t know quite where it ranks at the moment, just like to enjoy the brief feeling you get from winning. The first half was a real examination of us defensively and I think we stood up to that. “The (half-time) message was ‘if we don’t have the ball, don’t worry’ we were never going to dominate the possession of the game. We scored some great goals in the transition and showed our quality. “The clean sheet is something we had to improve and change, the whole team defended so well tonight and if you saw that you wouldn’t think that is where we have struggled this season.”
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The emphatic nature of Bournemouth’s win was all the more surprising given main striker and reported Chelsea target Callum Wilson was missing after undergoing minor knee surgery which Howe feels will sideline the England international for three weeks.
