Chelsea vs AFC Bournemouth Timeline & H2H Stats

For a long period of time, AFC Bournemouth played their games in the lower leagues of English football. As a result, they only faced Chelsea in either cup competitions or when the Blues themselves were playing in the lower levels of the English footballing pyramid. In fact, that is where the sides met for the first time, facing one another in the Second Division during the 1988-1989 campaign. It all but finished honours even during that spell, with the Cherries winning the first game 1-0 on the September of 1988 and Chelsea taking a 2-0 win in the March of the following year to mean that the two teams won their home game against the other.

It wasn’t until Bournemouth’s promotion into the Premier League at the start of the 2015-2016 season that the sides began to face one another on a somewhat regular basis. In spite of Chelsea’s overwhelming success in comparison to their South coast counterparts, Bournemouth regularly managed to bloody their nose. Just as the Cherries won the first Second Division tie against the London club, so too did they win that first Premier League clash in 2015. Even more remarkably, the match was played at Stamford Bridge, with Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth team running out 1-0 winners. Chelsea got revenge in the reverse fixture, winning 4-1.

A One-Sided Affair

The fact that Bournemouth have been able to bloody Chelsea’s nose over the years is actually a good indicator of the level of the two sides. That is to say, that the Cherries’ wins have been so noteworthy is proof positive that this has historically been a matchup that the West Londoners have dominated. Bournemouth’s win in the Second Division in that first meeting of the sides was followed by four successive wins for Chelsea, for example, with five wins for the Blues following Bournemouth’s next win in that Premier League encounter. Remarkably, there were no draws in their first 16 meetings.

Of course, the fact that Chelsea were the dominant side when the two clubs met in the past isn’t really all that surprising; Bournemouth spent most of their existence in the lower leagues and when they finally made it to the top-flight the Blues were one of the richest clubs in the world. When the Bournemouth wins did come, they were almost a surprise in their nature. In the December of 2017, for example, Chelsea won their fifth game in succession against the Cherries, that time in the League Cup, but when they faced off in the Premier League less than a month later, it was Bournemouth who walked away with all three points.

Chelsea’s Full Match History Against AFC Bournemouth