Cole Palmer made his first start for Enzo Maresca's side since September, but it was Robert Sanchez who stepped up to the plate at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Had it not been for the Chelsea goalkeeper, Bournemouth would have run riot on the south coast.

Antoine Semenyo - who been linked with a move to Tottenham - broke the deadlock inside the opening minutes, but the Video Assistant Referee intervened and adjudged Evanlison to have been offside in the build-up. The Blues were let off the hook; Sanchez spread his wings and weathered the storm.

The Bournemouth winger had a second, third, and fourth bite of the cherry, but he just couldn't find a way past the Chelsea shot-stopper. Speaking to club media after the game, Sanchez claimed he was aware of Semenyo's threat.

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The Spain international said: "I didn’t have much to do in the first 20 minutes of the second half, but you know, especially with Semenyo, he is going to get a shot in from anywhere at any moment, so I had to be ready, and I was.

"Bournemouth are a great team, they came with a lot of intensity in the first 20 minutes, half an hour. We had to deal with that and make sure we managed on and off the ball well, and then see how the game went.

"We did that well. That’s how we were able to manage the game."

Sanchez, barring his lapse of judgement at Old Trafford, has enjoyed a brilliant start to the season, and he was eager to return to winning ways after a disappointing defeat to Leeds United earlier in the week.

"Of course, there’s a sense of disappointment we couldn’t get the win," continued the 28-year-old. "Coming from a loss in the last game, we wanted to redeem ourselves and get three points and a clean sheet.

"We created chances, I think we played well. We missed that goal, but we kept a clean sheet, and we didn’t lose the game. If you cannot win, try not to lose, and that’s what we did. We will take the point, and we will go to the next game and try to get three."

Chelsea have fallen eight points behind Arsenal in the title race following a couple of disappointing results this week. The Club World Cup winners, however, remain in fourth place.

Sanchez added: "We know what our goal is, we know we have quality, and we want to do as best as we can. So we want to make sure we keep going, try and get as many wins as we can, so we have to keep grinding and get some wins."