Chelsea 3 v 0 Burnley (Barclays Premier League)
Burnley arrived at Stamford Bridge to take on Chelsea full of confidence following an excellent win against Liverpool at Turf Moor last Saturday. The Clarets where beaten in midweek by Accrington Stanley in the EFL Cup after Dyche made ten changes.
After a slow start in the opening five minutes, Ivanovic fires a shot just over Heaton’s crossbar from distance on his 200th Premier League appearance.
Chelsea take the lead on nine minutes when Eden Hazard collects the ball midway inside the Burnley half, he drives forward before cutting inside and shooting low from outside the box, curling the ball into the bottom corner to make it 1-0.
Eden Hazard is on fire at the moment, on twelve minutes he went close after bursting forward with the ball he squeezes a shot at the near post, which is cleared off the line by Ben Mee for a corner.
On twenty-six minutes, Hazard in the thick of things as he puts Cesar Azpilicueta through on the left. The defender tries to find Diego Costa with a low pass inside the area, but it is just behind the striker.
Two miuntes later, Chelsea have a corner, it’s whipped in and John Terry finds space to jump and meet the ball, directing a header towards the far corner but Tom Heaton saves.
Eden Hazard sells Oscar a little short with a pass and the midfielder tries to get there ahead of Sam Vokes by diving in two footed. He crunches Vokes and Mark Clattenburg blows his whistle and immediately reaches for a yellow card.
On thirty-seven minutes, Oscar cuts the ball back which opens up the Burnley defence as he picks out Diego Costa in the middle of the area. The striker shoots first time from no more than eight yards, but Tom Heaton makes an excellent save.
Chelsea grab a second just before half time through Willian, who cut inside Matt Lowton before flashing a low shot across Tom Heaton and into the far corner to make it 2-0.
On forty-two minutes, Burnley almost respond immediately as Andre Gray finds Scott Arfield and the midfielder cuts inside the area before sending a low shot across goal that goes inches wide, to leave the half-time score 2-0.
Chelsea started the second half on top and were much the stronger side, just four minutes after the restart Diego Costa ran clear of the Clarets defence only for Michael Keane to pull him down, Keane then received a yellow card from referee Clattenburg.
Willian took the resulting free-kick from twenty yards out but his effort went high over Heaton’s crossbar. Next it was the turn of Hazard and Matic’s to link up before again finding Costa free in the Clarets area, but his effort when straight at Tom Heaton.
On sixty-two minutes, Chelsea should have extended their lead when Heaton made an excellent save from a hazard effort only for the ball to run free across the six yard area, Ben Mee makes a vital last ditch challenge to stop Diego Costa tapping home.
Burnley the had a short spell of pressure on the Chelsea back four, when Andre Gray battled with John Terry before breaking into the area, as Terry recovered to conseed a corner for the Clarets.
From the resulting corner Michael Keane had a clear header from six yards, but the ball defelcted off the head of Ivanovic and went out for another corner to the Clarets.
On seventy-five minutes, Andre Gray again caused issues for the Chelsea back four as he out paced former Claret Gary Cahill before hitting a great effort from the egde of the area, his shot however was well saved by Chelsea keeper Courtois.
Michy Batshuayi had a chance to increase the lead on eighty-six minutes, but his right footed shot from the centre of the box went over Tom Heaton’s crossbar following an excellent pass from César Azpilicueta.
Chelsea extended their lead on eighty-nine minutes as Pedro ran down the wing before crossing the ball into the middle of the area to find Victor Moses, his right footed shot from the centre of the box found the net to make the full-time score 3-0.
Speaking after the match manager Sean Dyche said, “They had far too much for us today there is a massive gulf between where they are as a football club and us, both on and off the pitch and it was on show today.
We gave the ball away far too often today and there were too many sloppy passes. The decision making from us was poor, we had a very poor first half which is not like us and if you play like that you have no chance of winning the game.
I was really pleased with the changes and for Aiden to be on a Premier League pitch aged just eighteen is fantastic. He is a young man with a fantastic future, as long as he keeps working hard and keeps himself grounded, which I think he will.
In the end, we stuck at it and tried to get something from the game but it was always going to be difficult. We come away knowing you have to come to places like Chelsea with real belief and I thought we were lacking that today in particular in the first half.”
Match Details
Chelsea – Courtois, Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta, Kante, Willian, Oscar, Matic, Hazard, Costa (Subs) Begovic, Fabregas, Pedro, Loftus-Cheek, Moses, Batshuayi, Aina
Burnley – Heaton, Lowton, Ward, Keane, Mee, Marney, Defour, Arfield, Boyd, Vokes, Gray (Subs) Robinson, Kightly, Jutkiewicz, Gudmundsson, Tarkowski, Darikwa, O’Neill
Goals – (Chelsea) Hazard (9), Willian (41), Moses (89)
Attendance – 41,607
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