Chelsea vs Burnley. Premier League.
Stamford BridgeAttendance40,396.
Report and free match highlights as Burnley lose their fourth successive Premier League game
Saturday 11 January 2020 21:23, UK
Chelsea breezed past Burnley with a convincing 3-0 victory at Stamford Bridge, ending a run of two home Premier League games without a goal.
Frank Lampard's side had been beaten by Bournemouth and Southampton in their recent home league encounters, but never looked like losing this time around, even when Jeff Hendrick nodded home in the 18th minute, which was correctly ruled out for offside by the linesman and VAR.
Jorginho (27) converted from the spot not long after, with Tammy Abraham (38) doubling the lead before half-time. Callum Hudson-Odoi (49) swept home the third for his first Premier League goal, which was given after a brief check from VAR.
Chelsea remain in fourth after their victory, five points ahead of Manchester United, while Burnley have lost their fourth successive Premier League game and are four points above the relegation places in 15th, although a number of teams below them are still to play this weekend.
Chelsea began the game well - with Ben Mee and Charlie Taylor throwing their bodies in the way of a couple of Willian efforts in the opening exchanges - but it was Burnley who had the ball in the net first. Mee nodded a free-kick across the face of goal, which Hendrick headed home, but the linesman's flag was instantly raised for offside. VAR checked the decision and concurred, with the goal remaining disallowed.
Just before the half an hour mark, and Chelsea finally took advantage of their first-half pressure. They were awarded a penalty as Willian was hacked down in the area by Matt Lowton, who instantly had his hand raised after in apology as referee Kevin Friend pointed to the spot. It was a cool conversion from Jorginho too, who sent goalkeeper Nick Pope the wrong way.
Chelsea doubled their lead in the 38th minute with another well-taken goal. Reece James fired a cross into the area from the right-hand side and Abraham rose above his two markers to power a header past the outstretched hands of Pope.
It took just four minutes for the hosts to add their third after the break. Cesar Azpilcueta fizzed a sensational ball through the area, which just grazed over the head of Abraham in the middle. But Hudson-Odoi was lurking towards the back post - well ahead of his defender - to hook the ball home before wheeling away to celebrate.
However, VAR intervened with a suspicion of offside, which hinged on whether Abraham had touched the ball in the build-up as Hudson-Odoi would have been offside if he had. After a short review though, VAR judged Abraham to have missed Azpilicueta's delivery and the goal stood.
Chelsea continued to push for a fourth in the second half and had three glorious chances in under ten minutes. Firstly, Abraham sent a shot into the body of Pope at the near post with Willian skying the rebound. Abraham was involved again minutes later in a carbon copy of his first-half goal, but this time he could only send his header well past the upright.
James then sent a fizzing ball in from the right, but it just missed the outstretched foot of Abraham before Willian once again sent the loose ball flashing into the stands. But Chelsea never looked troubled at the other end as they saw out the game professionally to claim their first three points in two Stamford Bridge games.
In a complete Chelsea performance, it was difficult to choose just one man of the match. But Abraham continues to impress, and arguably just edges it with his well-taken goal in the first half.
In the summer, much was made about a lack of striking options for Chelsea, but it turns out those worries were unfounded with Abraham continuing to show he has what it takes to be the main man up front - no wonder Olivier Giroud is looking for a move elsewhere.
He turned home a wonderful James cross, easily beating his defenders, and continued to create for Chelsea throughout the second half, although a lack of finishing cost him a hat-trick. He also won 75 per cent of his aerial duels - the most in the team - and will be looking forward to a fruitful second half of the season.
Chelsea manager Frank Lampard: "It was one of our best [performances] at home this season for sure - it had everything other than more goals.
"Some of the football we played was great against a Burnley team who are notoriously difficult to play against when they want to be but we made it hard for them. We were positive with our play from the first minutes of the game.
"I'm not getting carried away, but it feels good. It feels nice to smile in a game, enjoy what you're watching - really positive football, great movement of the ball, getting combinations down the sides, getting crosses in the box a lot, looking like we're going to score - and that's what excites the fans."
Burnley manager Sean Dyche: "Overall, they were too strong for us today and that can happen at grounds like this.
"It is a penalty, our defender has tried to pull out, but it is a penalty and I'm a little bit aggrieved with the second one. I keep seeing these minor touches with people going down in the box and getting penalties, but if there's a minor touch on our centre half that puts him off his footing and their player then gets a clean header, you'd like to think that VAR can see that. But our 'keeper should still deal with it and he knows that, and then it's 2-0 and tough after that.
"That's our norm [to be in a relegation battle] bar one season. I'm surprised by your surprise and that we should be miles up the table because that's probably not going to happen every season at Burnley. We have to fight for everything, we always have had to apart from that one season.
"It's a normal thing to be fighting, it's a normal thing to have to earn the right to get any points you can and then it's about freeing the lads up a bit. The confidence gets sucked out of players when they're not winning, even against good teams like this, so it's trying to revive that."
Both teams are live on Sky Sports next weekend. Chelsea will travel to Newcastle on Saturday (kick-off 5.30pm) while Burnley welcome Leicester on Renault Super Sunday (kick-off 2pm).
