The early Saturday kick-off, especially after an international break, is rarely the game that gifts us flowing, entertaining football, and that was certainly the case here, especially early on. Chelsea
could hardly string together a couple passes or hit an accurate long ball, let alone pose any danger on the opposition goal.
Burnley weren’t much better either, but they did create some threat with speed and balls over the top. Trevoh Chalobah, Marc Cucurella, and Andrey Santos put in critical blocks in 1-v-1 defending.
Eventually, after about 30 minutes of that, Chelsea decided to produce a bit of quality, and Pedro Neto’s diving header finished off an excellent move to open the scoring.
Chelsea started the second half brightly, but our passing in the final third was leaving a bit to be desired, especially when open options and runs down the center were ignored by players in wide positions. Neto did almost double Chelsea’s lead, and his own tally just past the hour-mark, but his right-footed effort struck the foot of the post.
The Blues were looking comfortable, but the lead was just one, and that’s never truly comfortable.
As the clock ticked into the final ten minutes, the home side, and the home fans, were starting to smell a chance to spoil our weekend … but thankfully a great play by Guiu set up Enzo to smash in our second in the final minutes of regulation to seal the deal.
Carefree.
- Not quite a full first-choice eleven, with Tosin, Gittens, and Santos called upon to set up the rotation for the rest of the week
- Reece James taken off at the half — workload management? No word on any injury and he was all smiles coming back out of the dressing room
- Gusto deployed in midfield initially, replacing Delap on 66 minutes: Santos and Gusto sitting behind Enzo
- Neto’s fourth league goal of the season, matching his total from last season already
- Enzo’s fifth of the season, in all competitions, to lead the team
- Back-to-back clean sheets, and third straight in league play!
- Chelsea move up to second, at least for now, ahead of Manchester City, who play later today, away to Newcastle
- Next up: Barcelona at home on Tuesday in the Champions League
- KTBFFH
