Full-time: Burnley 1-2 Chelsea
The referee’s final whistle confirms a resounding victory for Chelsea, who were superior from start to finish. For a moment it looked like a fortunate goal by Ashley Barnes would punish the visitors for not adding sooner to Kevin Long’s early own goal. But that feeling last only four minutes because Victor Moses put Chelsea back in front. Antonio Conte’s thus keep their slim top four hopes alive, as they draw to within five points of Spurs. Burnley’s hopes of leapfrogging Arsenal in sixth take a hit.
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90+2 min: Another wicked cross by Moses, snatched by Pope.
90 min: There will be at least four more minutes.
89 min: Kante overhits pass to Zappacosta, forcing the Italian wide and sparing Burnley, who briefly looked in trouble after Kante intercepted Ward’s stray pass.
Burnley substitution: Wells on, Lennon off.
86 min: Chelsea are in total control. You sense that if Burnley are to get level again, they are going to require another dose of the luck that Barnes got for their first one.
Chelsea substitution: Zappacosta on, Emerson off after a fine first Premier League start.
82 min: hazard nips a cute ball through to Giroud, whose shot is deflected behind by Tarkowski.
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80 min: Lowton clumps in to Emerson, conceding a freekick wide on the left. Emerson rolls it to Hazard, who has been the life of the Chelsea’s party since joining it. But this time his trickery doesn’t take him very far. Burnley clear. But Chelsea will be back again soon, you can count on that. They’re dominant.
79 min: Hazard slips in Moses, who’s got in down the right again. His low ball across the face of goal is turned away.
78 min: Cork has a pot shot from 25 yards. It goes many yards wide and will never be spoken of again by anyone, anywhere. A moment in time.
77 min: Hazar, Pedro and Giroud try to tipt-toe through the entire Burnley defence. They almost succeed, too, but eventually strength of numbers saved Burnley.
75 min: Hazard and Bakayoko try to brew up a little magic in the Burnley box, but Tarkowski puts a stop to their plotting.
73 min: Gudmundsson delivers an outswinging corner. Vokes meets it - his first touch - and directs the ball towards goal from eight yards. But not with enough power to worry Courtois, who makes a comfortable save.
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Burnley substitution: Vokes on, Wood off
Chelsea substitution: Hazard on, Morata off.
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GOAL! Burnley 1-2 Chelsea (Moses 69)
Emerson delivers a cross from the left. Giroud attempts to repriese his famous scorpion kick but missed the ball entirely. What a clever ruse! It flummoxed the Burnley defence, who watched the ball run to Moses. He took a touch and lashed a low shot into the net from 12 yards. Chelsea’s top four hopes are restored!
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67 min: Moses curls in a cross from the right. It’s cleared to the edge of the box, where Chelsea work it wide to Emerson on the other side. Emerson has a blast from 20 yards. Pope bats it away.
65 min: Chelsea players protested to the referee, Bobby Madeley, that Barnes was offside when he deviated that ball. But they’re wrong.
GOAL! Burnley 1-1 Chelsea (Barnes 64)
Gudmundsson lets fly with a hopeful left-foot shot from over 20 yards. It deflects off Barnes and wrongfoots Courtois, who can only watch as the ball rolls into the net at the far corner of the goal! A stroke of luck for the home side brings them level and leaves Chelsea ruing missed chances even more!
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62 min: Moses sprints forward to the edge of the Burnley box. Rather than race past Ward, he just jinks to the right to create space for a shot and then bangs the ball straight at Pope.
60 min: Takowski and Giroud jump for a high ball. Tarkowski’s elbow brushes against the side of the striker’s head. Giroud crumples to the ground and requires treatment. That looked like understandable, innocent contact but was probably quite sore.
58 min: Nice interplay between Morata and Pedro, who runs with the ball for 30 yards before reaching the edge of the Burnley area and being dispossessed by Tarkowsi.
56 min: Kante intercepts a slack pass by Lowton and immediately releases Morata. The striker bears down on goal. Pope edges out to meet him. And Morata sidefoots a low shot past the keeper ... and a yard wide!
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55 min: Gudmundsson overhits an outswinging corner from the left.
53 min: Barnes flicks on a long ball from the back. Cahill slips and it looks for a moment that Wood will be able to nick the ball and run into the box. But Cahill recovers and regains possession before the striker can pounce.
51 min: Chelsea are penning Burnley deep inside their own territory and probing for an opening.
48 min: Gudmundsson knocks a bouncing ball past Azpilicueta down the left and chases after it. But Moses rumbles his game.
47 min: Kante lofts a loose crossfield pass about 30 yards from his own goal. Gudmundsson collects it and tries to pick out Wood with a quick ball into the centre. But he’s too hasty and doesn’t muster the required accuracy. Cahill clears.
46 min: Off we go again. Neither team made any substitutions during the break.
Half-time: Burnley 0-1 Chelsea
Chelsea have played well and been by far the superior side but it took mucky defending for them to score. Pope was not decisive enough in dealing with a cross by Moses and pushed it on to Long, who could not help nudging it into his own goal from close range. Giroud and Morata have been very good up front for Chelsea, Pedro has thrived in a free role and Cahill has been stout at the back. What can Dyche do to wring an improvement from his men in the second half?
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42 min: The hack did not just go back and correct an embarrassing typo made in the 32nd minute. The hack did not just go back and correct an embarrassing typo made in the 32nd minute. The hack did not just go back and correct an embarrassing typo made in the 32nd minute. The hack did not just go back and correct an embarrassing typo made in the 32nd minute.
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41 min: Cahill stoops to head clear a cross into the box by Lowton. He gets a boot in the face from Barnes, but there was no evil intent and no lasting harm is done. Cahill gets up and shakes the pain away like a trooper.
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39 min: Kante collects a pass from Bakayoko mid-way inside the Burnley half, then he goes on a little burst forward and tries to curl a shot into the top corner from just outside the D. It goes over by about three yards.
37 min: Conte is jumping up and down on the sideline like a man who has wandered on the the hard shoulder of a motorway to try to flag down passing motorists. It’s not precisely clear what message he is trying to get across so I’ll have to guess that he’s stressing the importance of his team scoring again while they’re on top. Their dominance so far should really be reflected in a wider margin on the scoreboard.
34 min: Chelsea are slowing the play down a tad, just to reassert their control after a flurry of Burnley pressure.
32 min: Giroud slides a nice pass through to Morata - the duo combining to good effect again - but Pope charges off his line to close down the shot quickly.
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30 min: A sniff for Burnley! Lowton played a dangerous first-time cross from the right into the area. Barnes threw himself at it but failed to connect by inches. Moments later Burnley come knocking again. But this time the cross from the left was just beyond Wood.
28 min: Morata shows a velvet touch to take down a pass and then dodge past Tarkowski, who pulls him back to concede a freekick at the edge of the area - near the left-hand corner of it, to be exact. Tarkowski also gets booked. Will Pedro apply further punishment from the freekick? No, he curls it a couple of yards wide of the near post.
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25 min: The sun is still shining in Burnley, and Chelsea are beginning to cruise. They’re looking a class above the industrious home side.
23 min: This two-up-front lark is working for Chelsea. Morata and Giroud seem to have a good understanding with each other and also a knack for making runs that catch out the Burnley defence.
21 min: It was not quite a howler but Pope’s role in that goal does nothing to enhance his England credentials.
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GOAL! Burnley 0-1 Chelsea (Long og 20)
What an uncharacteristically messy goal for Burnley to concede! Cahill started the move with a raking pass from deep that should not have caught out the Burnley defence but did. Moses got the run on Ward and raced into the box before crossing from the right. Pope failed to cut it out, palming it on to Long, who could do little to stop the ball bouncing off him and into the net from two yards out.
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16 min: Burnley have pestered Chelsea well so far and kept them at bay. But they haven’t been able to get anything going in an attacking sense when they’ve won the ball. They usually wind up giving it back to Chelsea quite quickly.
14 min: After more probing by Chelsea, Emerson fizzes a low pass in to Giroud at the edge of the home box. Giroud tries to lay the ball back to the incoming Pedro but puts an unhelpful amount of height on his pace, forcing Pedro to improvise an acrobatic volley. The shot veers way of target.
12 min: Chelsea are dominating possession.
10 min: Giroud flicks a pass from Azpilicueta through to Morata - that’s lovely link-up play between the two strikers! Morata canters into the right-hand side of the box and let fly with a low shot from five yards. Pope saves with his feet. Morata probably took a touch too much there: if he’d shot sooner he’d have had a better angle.
7 min: After solid work at the back by Cahill, Chelsea build an attack. Azpilicueta threads a lovely low pass from deep towards Giroud just inside the area. With Pope running out and Long closing in, the Frenchman gets a touch on it but is off balance and goes down following contact with Long’s shoulder.
6 min: A hefty touch by Morata in the centre circle nearly presents the ball to Burnley. But Kanté tidies up. Chelsea recycle and eventually work it wide to Emerson, who produces a good cross from the left to the back post. Tarkowski heads it away.
5 min: After patient Burnley passing, Westwood prods the ball forward into the right-hand channel. Wood gives chase but Courtois runs out of his box to boot clear.
3 min: Burnley appear intent on pressing Chelsea high up the pitch, forcing the visitors to play long or very intricate. They’ve tried long so far and it’s bearing no fruit.
1 min: Chelsea kick off, with Giroud starting together for the first time. When the ball is worked back to Courtois he punts it long for one or other of the strikers. But that’s meat and drink to Tarkowski and Long, who gobble it up easily.
Here come the teams into the bright Lancashire sun. Burnley are resplendent in their usual claret gear, while Chelsea are decked out all in white.
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This is Conte’s 100th match in charge of Chelsea. How many more do you think he’ll have? It would be a real shame if he is lost to the Premier League because, although he has made mistakes this season, he is an outstanding manager.
Teams
Isn’t it a heck of thing that no Burnley defenders made it into the PFA team of the season that was relesed this week? Chelsea’s Marco Alonso did: but we’ll not get a chance to make a direct comparison between him and Stephen Ward today because the Spaniard is suspended after suffering a Shane Long-induced meltdown last weekend. And that’s not the only change to Chelsea’s usual lineup: Hazard is on the bench, perhaps Conte has an eye on Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final.
Burnley: Pope; Lowton, Long, Tarkowski, Ward; Lennon, Cork, Westwood, Gudmundsson; Wood, Barnes
Subs: Heaton, Taylor, Marney, Vokes, Hendrick, Wells, Bardsley
Chelsea: Courtois, Azpilicueta, Cahill, Rudiger, Moses, Kante, Bakayoko, Emerson, Pedro, Morata, Giroud.
Subs: Caballero, Christensen, Zappacosta, Fabregas, Barkley, Willian, Hazard.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to what looks to be the pivotal clash in the battle for fifth place in the Premier League. A win for Burnley would haul them above sixth-place Arsenal and within touching distance of Chelsea – a feat that even Antonio Conte would recognise as much more impressive than just avoiding relegation. Even if Dyche’s team do not overtake Chelsea, qualifying for Europe would already be a wonderful achievement, particularly if they do so by ending up above Arsenal. Sixth place would represent Burnley’s best top-flight finish since 1974, a seemingly ancient season in which Don Revie left Leeds United as champions while Manchester United were relegated. Expect Jose Mourinho to mention that in a forthcoming sequel to his football heritage lecture.
There’s no mistaking which side goes into today’s game in better form. Burnley are on a five-game winning streak and, of course, can draw further confidence from the memory of their 3-2 victory at Stamford Bridge on the opening day of the season. Chelsea, meanwhile, have only won two of their last six league matches and needed to come from two goals down to overcome Southampton last Saturday. Their hopes of reaching the top four are thinner than the smile on Conte’s face when asked about his rebuilding plans for next season. Dyche for Chelsea, anyone?
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