James saves Chelsea a point with a free kick in the 95th minute.

After a thrilling 2-2 draw with Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea salvaged a point thanks to a stoppage-time free kick from Reece James.

Cole Palmer's early goal had been wiped out by goals from Justin Kluivert and Antoine Semenyo in the second half, and Andoni Iraola's team was on their way to a historic victory.

James' magical feat in the fifth minute of stoppage time lifted the roof off Stamford Bridge and saved a point for Enzo Maresca's team, who are currently five games without a league victory. Bournemouth was on track to finish fifth, tied with Chelsea on points.

Prior to the match, the visitors were in top form, having gone undefeated in an unprecedented eight Premier League games. But with Palmer at the helm, Chelsea, who hadn't won in four league games, got out to a confident start and took the lead right away.

Palmer eventually got his goal, which followed some outstanding forward play by Nicolas Jackson, after being referenced in ten of the first fourteen posts in Sky Sports' minute-by-minute commentary. Prior to turning his man and playing Palmer in on goal, the striker kept the ball up. Palmer placed the Bournemouth goalkeeper on the deck after selling him a deception when he saw Mark Travers, then rolled the ball into the net for his 14th league goal in 21 games.

Despite having hardly a kick in the first half, Bournemouth stormed back in the second half to leave Chelsea reeling as they squandered numerous opportunities.

Bournemouth came out with newfound vim, and they were immediately rewarded as Moises Caicedo blasted over Antoine Semenyo in the penalty area. It was breathless stuff. Kluivert made no mistake in bringing the visitors level after referee Robert Jones indicated the spot.

Then came the contentious part of the game.

The unscrupulous removal of Marc Cucurella from the ball by David Brooks could have undone all of Bournemouth's hard work. The Bournemouth forward recalled that Cucurella had done something similar to Brooks early in the game. VAR sent the referee over the screen, but fortunately for Brooks, he waved a yellow card.

It was the first monitor refusal of any kind this season and the first time a referee in the Premier League had turned down a red-card review at the monitor.

Substitute James had other plans. Bournemouth then took full advantage as Antonie Semenyo's rocket of a shot whizzed past goalie Robert Sanchez to send them on their way to what they believed would be a massive triumph.

Maresca: We were entitled to more
Enzo Maresca, Chelsea manager, to TNT Sports:

"Especially in the first half, I believe we deserved a lot more. Football is that. The drawback is that after giving up, we altered our style of play. We retreated.

"Creating opportunities is undoubtedly the most crucial factor. In the previous four or five games, it occurred numerous times. We fail to score and then give up. We need to do better because we faltered a little tonight after giving up the penalty.

"We need to make improvements because we have total control over the game.

"Even when we are winning games, I am constantly worried. You need to be more worried when you don't create chances and score in the Premier League.

Iraola: "The club is working on it," she said, "but we are really short on numbers."

After the game, Bournemouth's head coach Andoni Iraola was unable to conceal his worry as his injury list swelled following the first-half departure of defender James Hill due to a hamstring injury.

"Chelsea outperformed us in the first half, and I don't think we deserved to win today. In the second half, we performed better. It was more equitable.

After the game, Bournemouth's head coach Andoni Iraola was unable to conceal his worry as his injury list swelled following the first-half departure of defender James Hill due to a hamstring injury.

"Chelsea outperformed us in the first half, and I don't think we deserved to win today. In the second half, we performed better. It was more equitable.

"Their equaliser has me furious. The point of contact and the free kick must be examined by VAR. Today, we played an additional fifteen minutes. This is not the reason I am complaining. We didn't deserve to win today, in my opinion. We wanted to play too safe and were slow to the ball. We weren't the cohesive group we usually are. We had a great second half effort and came very close to winning.

"We are overextended. James Hill noticed something in his hamstring, so we will lose him. We are currently experiencing a severe shortage of personnel. We continue to score points. The club is working on it, I believe. Both individually and in terms of sports, we are unlucky.