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Chelsea host Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge, with the Blues aiming to beef up their home form, while the Cherries are just hoping to find any sort of form.
The Premier League campaign is about to hit the halfway mark but it must feel a lot further on than that for Chelsea's players, whose off-season was massively shortened thanks to the Club World Cup campaign in June and July.
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That summer action saw them crowned world champions but getting their hands on the domestic equivalent already looks as if it will have to wait for another season.
Chelsea are fifth but lie 13 points behind Arsenal, and have six points fewer than they did at this stage of last season.
Home form has been costing them, and the defeat at Stamford Bridge by Aston Villa at the weekend – which came despite them dominating the visitors for the first hour – means Chelsea have already lost three home league games this season, having only lost two in the whole of 2024-25.
In all three, they have gone 1-0 up - a worrying trend for the Blues, who have dropped 11 points from winning positions at home this season, which is more than any other side.
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In fact, it is twice as many as the majority of top-flight clubs. Perhaps most tellingly, the four clubs above them in the table – Arsenal, Manchester City, Aston Villa and Liverpool – have not dropped any.
[BBC]
The Blues will possibly be relieved that Tuesday's visitors are out-of-form Bournemouth, who are winless in their past nine league matches (D4, L5), and without a victory in their past eight games against Chelsea (D4, L4).
To add to the Cherries' current woes is the expected impeding departure of top scorer Antoine Semenyo, who is set to leave the club in the new year. Only two players have scored more goals in the Premier League this season than the Ghana international, who has found the net in his past three matches.
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Semenyo could join an elite group should he score at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday evening.
Only three players have previously scored away at Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea in the same Premier League campaign. Semenyo has already scored at Anfield and Old Trafford in this season's top flight and will match Kevin Nolan (2001-02), Gabriel Agbonlahor (2006-07) and Robin van Persie (2011-12) with a goal at the Bridge that may be his last hurrah for Bournemouth.
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