Rhys James' extra-time free-kick rescued a point for Chelsea after a brilliant 2-2 draw with Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge.
Andoni Iraola's side cruised to a famous victory after second-half goals from Justin Kluivert and Antoine Semenyo canceled out Cole Palmer's early opener.
Bournemouth were heading for fifth, level on points with Chelsea, but James produced a moment of magic in the fifth minute of stoppage time to lift the roof off Stamford Bridge and rescue a point for Enzo Maresca's side, who are now five matches without a win. in the league.
The visitors came into form, unbeaten in a record eight Premier League games. However, Chelsea, who are without a win in four league games, started full of confidence and took the lead with Palmer pulling the strings from the start.
After being mentioned in 10 of the first 14 posts in the Sky Sports' Minute-by-minute commentary Palmer finally got his goal after some great forward play from Nicolas Jackson. The striker picked up the ball before turning his man and playing Palmer through on goal. Faced with Mark Travers, Palmer sold him a dummy, putting the Bournemouth stopper on the deck, before slotting the ball into the net for his 14th league goal in 21 appearances.
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Bournemouth's David Brooks avoided a sending-off following a VAR review of his second-half clash with Chelsea's Marco Cucurella. This was the first time in the Premier League that a referee refused to check a red card on the monitor.
Bournemouth barely managed a shot in the first half but hit back in the second to leave Chelsea, who had missed a host of chances, reeling.
It was breathless as Bournemouth came out with renewed vigor and they were immediately rewarded when Moises Caicedo chipped over Antoine Semenyo in the box. Referee Robert Jones pointed to the spot and Kluivert made no mistake to equalize for the visitors.
Bournemouth's Justin Kluivert celebrates with his teammates after scoring the equalizer (AP Photo/Ian Walton)
Then came the controversial moment of the game.
All Bournemouth's good work could have been undone when David Brooks cynically dispossessed Marco Cucurello. Cucurella did a similar job to Brooks early in the game and the Bournemouth forward recalled the incident. The referee was sent over the screen by VAR, but fortunately Brooks showed a yellow card.
It was the first time in the Premier League that a referee had refused to check a red card on a monitor and it was the first monitor refusal of any kind this season.
Bournemouth took full advantage when Antonie Semenyo headed past goalkeeper Roberto Sanchez to send them on their way to what they thought was a big win, but substitute James had other ideas.
Bournemouth's Antoine Semenyo celebrates after scoring to make it 2-1
Mareska: We deserved more
Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca that TNT Sports:
“I think we deserved much more, especially in the first half. That's football. The negative thing is that we changed the way we played after we received. We gave in.
“Certainly, the most important thing is to create chances. It happened many times in the last four or five games. We don't give a goal and then we concede. Tonight after we conceded the penalty we dropped a bit and we have to improve that.
“The game was completely under our control and that's something we have to improve.
“I'm always worried, even when we're winning. This is the Premier League, when you're not creating chances and scoring goals then you have to be more worried.”
Wasteful Chelsea worries about Maresca
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Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca and Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola had differing opinions on the incident between David Brooks and Marco Cucurello during their 2-2 Premier League draw.
Analysis from Sky Sports' Oliver Yew at Stamford Bridge:
Straight out of the blocks, it was the Cole Palmer show – the Chelsea show – against Bournemouth.
Palmer was at his magical best, his dummy and finish giving the Blues a deserved lead. They were extremely dominant with 13 shots, five of which were on target. However, the key statistic was that they only had one goal at half time.
Nicolas Jackson is waiting for the goal. He was lively against Cherries but lacked edge. Three of his seven tackles were drawn by the Mark Travers defence.
He wasn't the only one to blame as the profligacy proved costly as Bournemouth clawed their way back into the game, with Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca admitting his second-half slump was a concern.
Chelsea were eventually booked to get out of jail with James' stoppage-time free-kick, but Enzo Maresca's side are now five games without a win in the league.
It is not a critical result in terms of their Champions League qualification hopes, but they will need to find some ruthlessness in front of goal if they are to stay in the top four.
Iraola: We are very lacking in numbers | 'The club is working on it'
Bournemouth head coach Andoni forever could not hide his concern after the game as his injury list grew with the withdrawal of defender James Hill with a hamstring injury in the first half.
“I don't think we deserved to win today and Chelsea were better than us in the first half. We were better in the second half. It was fairer.
“I'm angry about their equaliser. The VAR has to check the free kick and the contact point. Today we played 15 extra minutes. I'm not complaining about that. I don't think we deserved to win today. They were slow with the ball and we wanted to play too safe. In in the second half we were very good.
“We are very stretched. We will lose James Hill because he felt something in his hamstring. We are in a period where we are short of numbers. We continue to win points. I think the club is working on it. Unlucky personally and from a sporting point of view.”