Chelsea will look to continue the strong push towards the 2016-17 Premier League title with a trip north to Burnley who have a better home record than any of their northern neighbors like Manchester City, Manchester United, or Liverpool. In fact, only Chelsea and Spurs have a better home record than the Clarets, which is a rather bizarre statistic considering that Burnley have taken exactly one point from their eleven league matches away from home. Burnley are the new Stoke and Chelsea will have to be on top form.
It's not all doom and gloom and bad omens of course. Chelsea have the best away record in the league and have won 15 of 16 games against teams outside the top six (Swansea draw the one exception), but something will have to give.
Chelsea play second-to-last of all the top teams this weekend, so by the time kick-off arrives, the lead at the top might be down to just six points, though Spurs will have to beat Liverpool for that to be true. Either way, as Conte said in his pre-match press conference, we're only worrying about ourselves at the moment. Chelsea are in full control of their destiny at this point and just need to keep concentrating and keep winning.
Forza!
Date / Time: Sunday, February 12, 2017, 13:30 GMT; 8:30am EST; 7pm IST
Venue: Turf Moor, Burnley, England
Referee: Kevin Friend — it's been over a year since Mr. Friend officiated a Chelsea match, the Blues winning 3-0 away to Palace in January 2016.
Forecast: Bitterly cold
On TV: Sky Sports 1 (UK); NBCSN, Telemundo (USA); Star Sports Select HD1 (India); elsewhere
Streaming online: Sky Go (UK); NBC Sports Live Extra, Telemundo Deportes En Vivo (USA); Star Sports (India)
Burnley team news: Given a few injury issues in midfield, Burnley are expected to give new signings Ashley Westwood and Robbie Brady their first starts for the club. Others lining up from the start should include easily unlikable Joey Barton, easily unlikable Ashley Barnes, and the easily identifiable George Boyd (it's the hair).
Burnley don't score a lot and they concede a fair few, but the bizarre home/away split applies here, too: 21 of their 26 goals have come at Turf Moor, conceding just 11 in those 13 games in the meantime. This split isn't a new phenomenon either; they've lost just 5 games at home in the last two seasons (Reading, Preston, Swansea, Arsenal, Manchester City).
Chelsea team news: As has been the case for the vast majority of the season, Chelsea are without any notable injuries, suspensions, or any other squad issues. The Blues have however won just one of our last three away games, thanks in part to a rather tough run of games away from the Bridge (Spurs, Leicester, Liverpool, and now Burnley).
So, hopefully all that adjusted expectations a little bit. I doubt this will be easy. Nothing worthwhile ever is, right?
Previously: Here's a thing that happened last time Chelsea were at Turf Moor.