Our Scout Notes from Tuesday’s games continue, as we focus on the 2-2 draw between Chelsea and Bournemouth.
CAICEDO BAN – GOOD NEWS FOR HAALAND & CO?
The game sparked into life early, with Chelsea midfielder Moisés Caicedo (£5.7m) picking up a booking for a foul just four minutes in.
The booking marked the Ecuador international’s fifth yellow card of the Premier League season, triggering an automatic one-match suspension. He will serve the ban on Sunday, when Chelsea travel to the Etihad Stadium to face title contenders Manchester City in Gameweek 20.
From the 20th league match onwards, the yellow-card suspension threshold rises to ten. That made the clash with Bournemouth the final opportunity for Caicedo to reach five bookings and incur a ban at this stage of the campaign.
Enzo Maresca skipped his post-match interviews after the game due to illness, with assistant Willy Caballero addressing the media instead. The former goalkeeper had this to say:
“”We are very frustrated because it was the first foul of the game and it was close to us. We looked at the foul more than once and it doesn’t look like a yellow. But it’s done now so we’re going to miss a very important player. We will need to start to think who will be the player that replaces Moi and, of course it’s a big loss, but it’s the same as when we miss Cole, when we miss Liam (Delap), when we miss any player, because all of them are very important for us.” – Willy Caballero
A Caicedo ban isn’t good news for Chelsea but his absence could bolster the appeal for those thinking about captaining Manchester City striker Erling Haaland (£15.1m).
FIFTH STRAIGHT START – BUT MORE MANAGED MINUTES – FOR PALMER
Just under ten minutes after the contentious booking, Bournemouth midfielder David Brooks (£5.0m) pounced on a rebound to open the scoring.
Chelsea responded quickly. Estêvão (£6.4m) drove into the box and won a penalty on his first Premier League start since Gameweek 14.
Cole Palmer (£10.3m) calmly slotted the penalty past former team Đorđe Petrović (£4.5m), who got a hand to the ball, but couldn’t stop Palmer from levelling the score.
That was Palmer’s fifth consecutive Premier League start since returning from injury, although they’ve only averaged 65 minutes in length. His 62nd-minute substitute here was met with boos.
‘‘Of course, any supporter wants to have their best players on the pitch and we want to have the best players on the pitch as well. But Cole is coming from a long injury so in this case, we need to find the right substitutions to go for the game and also to take care of the health of our players, because we want to have them for the long period and for the rest of the season in every single game.” – Willy Caballero on Cole Palmer’s withdrawal
Eight minutes after Cole Palmer’s goal, Alejandro Garnacho (£6.4m) slipped a pass through to Enzo Fernández (£6.4m), who fired into the top-right corner to put Chelsea 2–1 ahead.
FIXTURE SWING IMMINENT – BUT ROTATION GOES ON
FPL managers may have been looking on at Chelsea with interest, due to upcoming fixtures:
The Blues’ Gameweek 20 trip to Manchester City doesn’t look like the ideal entry point, but the run that follows is far more appealing.
Fixtures against Fulham, Brentford, West Ham, and Wolves offer plenty of opportunity. All four sides have struggled to find defensive consistency this season, which should put Chelsea firmly on the radar.
As a result, many managers will likely focus on both Gameweek 19 goalscorers as the safest routes in, given their recent minutes.
But not many Chelsea players will escape a benching of some form in the weeks ahead; the hope will be that those breathers come in the FA Cup, EFL Cup semis or the Champions League.
João Pedro (£7.2m), Pedro Neto (£7.3m) and Reece James (£5.7m) were all on the bench here, just to illustrate the point.
Trevoh Chalobah (£5.6m) at least kept up his record of starting in every league game he’s been available for in 2025/26.
NOT SEMENYO’S LAST BOURNEMOUTH GAME?
There was some doubt over whether Antoine Semenyo (£7.7m) would start the game, due to his rumoured move to Manchester City.
That uncertainty prompted thousands of FPL managers to sell him ahead of the Gameweek 19 deadline.
However, his long throw played a key role in Bournemouth’s equaliser. A deflection helped Justin Kluivert (£7.0m) turn it in for his second goal of the season.
The FPL assist still went down in Semenyo’s name, lifting his season total to nine goals and five assists.
Attention now turns to Semenyo’s minutes going forward. Scenes at full time suggested the Ghanaian may have been saying his goodbyes. However, manager Andoni Iraola expects to have him for Gameweek 20.
“This one at Stamford Bridge was not Semenyo’s last game.
“I think he will play vs Arsenal, yes. He needs to recover because we play Arsenal at home in another three days, against top of the league”.
OTHER NOTES
The draw leaves Bournemouth without a league win in their last 10 matches. With Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Brighton, and Liverpool up next, that run could stretch even further.
Chelsea also continue to labour. Maresca’s side have managed just one win across their last seven games. They conceded six big chances to the Cherries in this game, three to David Brooks (£5.0m).
A kinder run of fixtures does follow, though, which offers a chance to steady the ship.
Gameweek 19 saw Bournemouth defender Marcos Senesi (£4.9m) collect defensive contribution points for a sixth straight match. That consistency keeps him clear at the top of the DefCon standings among all defenders in the game.
