Burnley 0-3 Chelsea, Premier League: Post-match reaction

An early chance from Burnley generated an egregious miss by Ashley Barnes, who could have made things much worse for the Blues. After that scare, it was almost “cruise mode” for Chelsea as they dominated ball retention and attacking opportunities over an overly conservative (by their own standards) Burnley side at Turf Moor.

Interventions by goalkeeper Nick Pope, as well as a penalty call on Ben Chilwell dismissed by referee Anthony Taylor, would stop Chelsea from getting an opener in the first 15 minutes of the match. But Pope would not be able to anticipate, nor intervene in the shot that turned into our first goal of the match, with Hakim Ziyech getting himself a second consecutive goal in his second consecutive start as a Chelsea player.

Getting behind in the scoreline made Burnley open up a bit. But their pressure did not last for long as the habit of creating chances from long balls over the top is not as profitable as taking time with the ball on the ground to do it.

At the beginning, it seemed as if the second-half would not be as strong of a display from the Blues. Burnley were the bigger threat in the first 15 minutes after half-time, getting more chances at goal out of moving their lines further up the pitch.

All to no avail. A corner taken by Mason Mount was well met in the box by Kurt Zouma, with a powerful header to score yet another goal for the Blues this season.

Spirits on Burnley’s side were further downed a few minutes later. A pass from Hakim Ziyech to Timo Werner, infiltrating the penalty box from the left flank of the pitch, turned into our third goal today.

The lead could have been made much larger. Chances for the visitors continued to pour until the very last minute of the match, with Burnley struggling to contain the best Chelsea we have seen thus far this season.

Carefree!

• A pretty strong lineup to start against Burnley, with Reece James, Thiago Silva, Mason Mount, N’Golo Kanté and Tammy Abraham back in the selected eleven. Striker Timo Werner was supposed to get a rest today, but Christian Pulisic’s injury during warm-up took that opportunity away from the German international.
• Substitutes are Callum Hudson-Odoi for Hakim Ziyech, Olivier Giroud for Tammy Abraham and Jorginho for Kai Havertz.
• Although it seemed Zouma was getting targeted by Burnley in their long passes — and he did falter in a few occasions when trying to defend them — the defender made up for it with his third goal in six league matches this season. Good one, Kurt!
• Despite Barnes’ early chance, that was a great first-half overall for Chelsea in both defence and attack. Scoring more than just one goal would have made it almost perfect.
• Next up: Rennes at Stamford Bridge for the Champions League’s group stage.
• KTBFFH!

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