BURNLEY — This week could reveal a lot about what is realistic for Chelsea this season. In the next seven days, both Barcelona and Arsenal visit Stamford Bridge for games which will either showcase their ability to go head-to-head with the best in the world or highlight the flaws of a team which are still a work in progress.
In that sense, an early Saturday kickoff against Burnley in the first Premier League fixture back after an international break was one to navigate safely rather than make a statement.
It wasn’t pretty, but they did what they had to. Goals from Pedro Neto and Enzo Fernández secured a 2-0 win and quietly — for a few hours at least — Enzo Maresca’s team moved up to second in the Premier League table.
Whether they can last the pace with Arsenal and Manchester City will be revealed when they face Mikel Arteta’s leaders next Sunday. That said, any team with even vague title ambitions must win tough away games against newly promoted sides and it was a test Chelsea were able to overcome.
“It was a tough game for many reasons,” Maresca, who was taking charge of Chelsea in the Premier League for the 50th time, said afterwards. “It’s tough after the international break, 12:30 p.m., Burnley away, it’s always a tough game. But the way we competed I am very happy. To come here and not concede is very difficult.”
It was a day which didn’t reveal much about Chelsea that we didn’t already know. They missed key defensive midfielder Moisés Caicedo, who was named on the bench due to lengthy travel for Ecuador last week, and in his absence Burnley started the game well.
This moment of friendly fire was almost disastrous for Chelsea. 😅 pic.twitter.com/93jYwCj76C
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The most notable thing Chelsea did in the opening 30 minutes was a comical period of play which saw goalkeeper Robert Sánchez arrow a kick out of his hands straight onto the back of Fernandez’s head. But even when the football isn’t flowing, the individual quality is still there — and that’s without Cole Palmer.
Marc Cucurella tucking into midfield from left back caused Burnley problems all afternoon and it was his run from deep which led to the opening goal. The ball was worked back to winger Jamie Gittens, who had been quiet until that point, and his pinpoint cross towards the back post was headed in by Neto.
It was the seventh headed goal scored by Chelsea this season, the joint most with Arsenal, and only West Ham and Manchester United have conceded more headed goals than Burnley’s five. Burnley boss Scott Parker doesn’t need any reminders about how tough life is in the Premier League, but it was another lesson in how difficult it is at this level.
“Overall, the feeling is that I’m very pleased with the performance,” Parker said after a third-straight defeat. “First half, I thought we were brilliant. Maybe one of those half chances needs to go in because the momentum changed a bit in the second half.
“Overall I’m pleased, but I say that lightly because obviously we’re disappointed. You’re playing against high quality players and for most of it we managed it really well. They were clinical.”
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Burnley played well and created enough opportunities to score at least once; Parker was left to rue one particular sight of goal which fell to Zian Flemming. And as he left his postmatch news conference, the Burnley boss revealed that his Saturday night would be spent at home in front of a lap-top trying to work out where it went wrong.
Chelsea, simply, made more of their chances.
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With the game at 1-0 and the Turf Moor crowd becoming more involved, a frantic finish was dashed when Fernandez made it 2-0 two minutes from time. It was reward for an industrious performance from the Argentina international, who had his hands full without Caicedo alongside him.
The move started with a risky pass out from Sanchez, but there was no surprise that it also involved Neto, Chelsea’s best player on the day.
“It was very important to keep the momentum from before the international break,” Maresca said. “Now we’ll recover our energy and move on to Tuesday [against Barcelona]. We are confident. We are confident because we are doing well. Today we could have done many, many things better, that’s for sure. We’ll prepare well for Tuesday and Sunday.”
In many ways it was the perfect start to an important week. A win and a clean sheet; Caicedo well rested; Reece James’ fitness managed with 45 minutes before a pre-planned substitution; Neto stepping up as the creative hub in place of Palmer.
After beating Burnley, games against Barcelona and Arsenal offer a platform for Chelsea to show that they’re serious this season.
On a run of one defeat in 10 games in all competitions, Maresca insists there’s room for improvement and more to come. We might be about to find out whether he’s right.
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