Burnley v Chelsea – as it happened
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http://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2014/aug/18/-sp-burnley-chelsea-live-mbm Version 0 of 1. 10.01pm BST22:01 A precis Scott Arfield’s excellent goal would perhaps have given Chelsea much greater cause for concern if they hadn’t battled back so quickly, but in the event Diego Costa’s quickfire rebound steadied things within three minutes and, for the rest of the first half, the visitors were superb. We saw glimpses – more than glimpses – of why Mourinho was so keen to get hold of Cesc Fabregas, whose appreciation of space and peerless imagination complemented the movement and pace around him perfectly. This Chelsea side is faster and more direct, when it needs to be, than most of the Arsenal teams he played in and it might just bring out the best in him. His assist for Schurrle’s goal, which came at the end of a team move whose gear changed explosively, should be studied again and again even if you’re a weepy Gooner. If we’re in for much more of that this season, then it’s going to be a pretty luscious nine months. Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of Burnley’s night was Chelsea’s third goal, a soft one for Branislav Ivanovic, and that effectively killed the home side off. Chelsea weren’t interested in doing all that much after the break but Burnley didn’t allow themselves to be bullied either, staying in their faces and creating a half-chance or two. They’ll give teams a good game here this season – we’ll soon see whether that is enough. Next up for them: Swansea away. Next up for Chelsea: Leicester at home. Next up for me: the bus. Thanks for your company and emails – have a good night, see you soon. Updated at 10.10pm BST 9.52pm BST21:52 FULL-TIME! Burnley 1-3 Chelsea The little horse is off and running indeed. 9.51pm BST21:51 92+3 min: Burnley finishing with some nice possession and get the ball wide to Kightly, but he can’t get beyond Ivanovic and they probably won’t see the ball again now. 9.50pm BST21:50 90+2 min: So this has, basically, been like that game where Barry Davies decided to call Paolo Wanchope “Paolo Wanchop-ay”. We’ve all been fooled. Updated at 9.50pm BST 9.49pm BST21:49 90+1 min: Has Raymond J Puzey found the answer? “It is indeed the normal English Trippier, as in “The movie “2001” was trippy, but “Silent Running” is trippier.” We’ll argue about those choices another time. 9.48pm BST21:48 89 min: Nearly the Drogba fairytale! Well, not nearly, but the ball sits up 20 yards out and it’s set for the sort of wondergoal he scored in his pomp. He doesn’t make a clean purchase and it’s a couple of metres wide. Updated at 10.02pm BST 9.47pm BST21:47 88 min: The home PA can, of course, only award Man of the Match to a home player so it is given to Arfield. Hard to argue with, from a Burnley perspective. Not only was his goal beautifully taken, he also came very close to a second and caused consternation with some very clever determined runs from midfield. 9.45pm BST21:45 87 min: And it definitely was the best team goal of the season “so far”. Chances of pace, clever running off the ball, a beautiful disguised pass. Football. Everyone is pining for those days, now, as Sordell clatters Terry and bothers Oliver enough to earn a yellow card. 9.44pm BST21:44 86 min: “They are saying Schurrle has scored the best team goal of the season. Really. Did I hear that?” asks Jason Brimmell. I think, to be fair, they qualified it with a “so far”. Which makes it slightly better. Updated at 9.46pm BST 9.43pm BST21:43 84 min: Drogba is booed, perfunctorily, by Burnley’s fans as he makes his second Chelsea debut in place of Hazard. They won’t really know why; it’s just something to do. Updated at 9.53pm BST 9.41pm BST21:41 82 min: Mikel comes on for Oscar, in the winner of today’s least-exciting-substitution award. Marvin Sordell comes on for Ings meanwhile, and takes his place up front for Burnley. A debut for him. 9.39pm BST21:39 80 min: Burnley are playing quite well. I mean, they haven’t been bad tonight by any means: few would have lived with some of the football Chelsea played in that 20-minute spell during the second half. They’re certainly game and are still trying to force the issue. Succeeding to an extent, too. But Chelsea, even if this is a new team, have done all this before. 9.37pm BST21:37 78 min: A few things have broken down at Mee’s feet today. The Burnley left-back doesn’t look too happy getting forwards and it shows when he gets the ball in advanced positions. Schurrle, meanwhile, is replaced by Willian. You could watch Schurrle’s goal again and again. 9.34pm BST21:34 76 min: The free-kick is one of those clever ones that’s rolled across the box for one player to leave before the chap behind him leathers it. Unfortunately both Duff and Ings leave it. 9.33pm BST21:33 74 min: Trippi-eh hurls a long throw which is cleared, and then Duff pumps the ball back in and Cahill clears again. Might just be an aerial assault now. Schurrle then slips and fouls Arfield in a good position on the right.... 9.31pm BST21:31 73 min: There seem to be a lot of Arsenal fans on Twitter being rather mawkish about that tragically lush Fabregas assist. 9.30pm BST21:30 72 min: So that’s like for like really, position-wise anyway. Barnes was signed from Brighton last winter and became important when Ings and Vokes picked up injuries. He’s a useful, tall, clever player but not prolific. Kightly we know about: Taylor played well on the whole today but Kightly is far more direct and unpredictable. 9.28pm BST21:28 70 min: A double change from Burnley in a quest to give us something for the last 20 minutes. Ashley Barnes and Michael Kightly come on for Jutkiewicz and Taylor. Updated at 9.44pm BST 9.26pm BST21:26 68 min: Overall though, there really isn’t much going on at the moment. Chelsea have got this. Mourinho has tamed this kind of occasion hundreds of times. They went quick, quick, quick when they needed to and now it’s all slow, slow, slow. Can someone just clear this Trippier thing for us? 9.25pm BST21:25 67 min: Drogba sighting – he’s trotting up and down the touchline and lapping up a bit of applause from Chelsea’s fans. No surprise if we see him soonish. 9.24pm BST21:24 66 min: It’s been quite a clean game but that’s late from Matic on Marney, surely. Michael Oliver lets it go. Taylor then sets Mee off down the left, but he doesn’t really know what to do and sends the ball pointlessly back towards the centre circle where Shackell loses the ball. 9.22pm BST21:22 64 min: Lovely little flick from Hazard to Schurrle, whose drill across the box from the right byline is met by an almost obligatory cry of “handball” by the visiting fans. Which is then met by an almost obligatory mocking echo from the home supporters. Then Trippier gets some space down Burnley’s own right, but his cross is cleared easily. Updated at 9.46pm BST 9.20pm BST21:20 61 min: But now Ivanovic stumbles and Jutkiewicz gets onto a fairly hopeful long ball. His journey towards the box is a meander more than a sprint; his eventual shot stays hit but it’s well wide and also beyond the lurking Ings. 9.19pm BST21:19 60 min: Ivanovic has been very advanced today, which might partly explain why Taylor was the choice above Kightly. Defensively, though, it hasn’t really made much difference. 9.17pm BST21:17 58 min: Pass, pass, pass. Last time Chelsea did this, Hazard upped the ante and it resulted in a goal, but this time they’re happy to ping it around in their own half. Burnley’s early revival has been snuffed. 9.14pm BST21:14 56 min: Chelsea will lock this one down for most of the half and perhaps sneak another. The locking-down has begun. 9.13pm BST21:13 54 min: ....which Schurrle skies over. Fabregas might have been yer man there. Updated at 9.13pm BST 9.12pm BST21:12 53 min: But when they do get out, Hazard dances about again and is fouled 25 yards out by Jones. Free kick.... Updated at 9.12pm BST 9.11pm BST21:11 53 min: Burnley really have started this half well. Chelsea haven’t really got out of their own territory yet and that’s a big credit to Dyche’s side. But they need a goal soonish. 9.09pm BST21:09 51 min: Another good early ball from Taylor, and Jutkiewicz nearly gets ahead of Cahill, who puts it behind. Frustratingly, and for the second time tonight, the corner is meat and drink to the impressive Courtois. 9.08pm BST21:08 49 min: Good save Courtois! Arfield takes a neat touch to bring the ball onto his left foot and curls it towards the ‘keeper’s right. He launches himself and paws the ball behind for a corner. Strong start by Burnley. 9.06pm BST21:06 48 min: “Minutes before kick-off, my 2 and half year old daughter predicted a 4-3 victory for Burnley. Didn’t put a pound on it then, worth it now?” asks Liam Drew. And they say children are more perceptive. Updated at 9.10pm BST 9.05pm BST21:05 46 min: More than we saw from Ings in the first half, as he seizes on a slack touch by Cahill, surges forward and fires wide with his left. Early encouragement there. 9.04pm BST21:04 Peep! Second half underway No changes yet... 9.04pm BST21:04 “Apparently Costa has been described as an ‘Authentic street fighter’ by sections of the media,” reveals Dante Danger. “I highly recommend he changes the name on the back of his top to that.” No, that’s this lad: Updated at 9.05pm BST 9.02pm BST21:02 From William Marzouk on our Trippier problem: “Take out one of the ‘p’s and you have ‘tripier’, which the internet tells me is French for ‘tripe butcher’. Maybe his ancestor put the extra p in there to make it a bit, uh, harder or something when he came north of the channel. Less French looking. As a side note it’s always caused me no end of worry that English people say ‘fillet’ (which has an extra L thrown. obviously for hardness, as compared the original French ‘filet’) the English way and Americans say it the French way. Life is already complicated enough.” Interessant. But yeah, tell me about it, nobody knows what I’m on about when I go into McDonald’s for a Filet O’Fish. 9.00pm BST21:00 “Thank you for updates” writes the lovely ‘jaymesnijel’, postponing any existential angst that was creeping in during the half-time hiatus and replacing it with a fuzzy glow. We’re only a couple of minutes from the second half now, anyway, and you wonder what Sean Dyche will do. Worth giving Kightly a run? But where? Taylor’s left-sided delivery has been Burnley’s biggest threat, even if he doesn’t get them up the pitch that quickly. Would it be bold to remove Ings, move Taylor inside and put Kightly wide? May seem counter-intuitive to sub a forward but Burnley have been overrun in the middle since Chelsea’s equaliser and look like conceding more. They need to get a grip somehow. 8.51pm BST20:51 Some half-time sustenance in the form of our Burnley v Chelsea picture gallery 8.49pm BST20:49 Oh but just quickly, Gary P disagrees about the ‘diving’ replay: “So if Burnley scores another goal, you would reverse your position and start talking about it? Mourinho has been right about the referees and a pattern of decisions against Chelsea. That needs to be discussed. At whatever length possible. With as many replays as possible.” Yes, *that* pattern of decisions against Chelsea. And Arsenal. And Manchester United. And....I’m going to have to have a double shot in that.... 8.47pm BST20:47 Half-time: Burnley 1-3 Chelsea And the half is duly played out. Looked as if Chelsea wouldn’t be able to hack a wet and windy night in Burnley for about...well....three minutes, which is how long it took for Costa to equalise Arfield’s superb goal. Since then, the visitors have been a joy, and Fabregas sensational. Perhaps he is indeed the perfect foil for Chelsea’s physique and speed. I’m off for a coffee; Burnley fans might want something stronger. Updated at 9.28pm BST 8.45pm BST20:45 45+1 min: This game is seeing itself out towards half-time. Nothing has really happened for five minutes. 8.43pm BST20:43 44 min: Help needed. The commentary team are pronouncing ‘Trippier’ in what one might term the “French way”. Is that right? Makes sense, but you hear both versions. Arfield, meanwhile, has no such concerns and tries a burst into the box. Wins a throw-in, which is defended comfortably. Updated at 8.44pm BST 8.42pm BST20:42 42 min: The Telly is poring over that Costa “diving” incident. Don’t really get that, there was another goal virtually straight after so it wasn’t of consequence. Can we not look at how a goal could have been prevented? Updated at 8.42pm BST 8.40pm BST20:40 41 min: Chelsea’s fans are being all gloaty with their “shall we sing a song for you?” That’s a rhetorical question, kids, as they’re in full voice and Turf Moor is a shadow of its 25-minutes-ago self. Updated at 8.47pm BST 8.39pm BST20:39 39 min: Now we do see Ings, who feeds Taylor on the left. The joy of playing with Matt Taylor is that you know he’s a fair bet to find you with the cross, and Ings hares into the box to meet what comes in. He manages to, but flicks wide. 8.37pm BST20:37 38 min: William Marzouk has mixed emotions: “As as Arsenal supporter this whole Fabregas thing is difficult. One the one hand I want to say that Ramsey is our man now, and that he and Fabregas are both at their best in that box to box role, so their isn’t enough room for both of them. OTOH I sometimes wonder if Wenger was just too busy playing the role of the once jilted lover to take Fabregas back.” 8.37pm BST20:37 37 min: Don’t like to be glum, but it’s looking like “how many?” for Chelsea now. Schurrle bursts clear again, set free by Fabregas, and has to be denied by a desperate challenge. Fabregas has been quite brilliant so far. His perceptiveness, mixed with the speed, power and trickery of those around him, looks just the ticket. Updated at 8.38pm BST 8.35pm BST20:35 GOAL! Burnley 1-3 Chelsea (Ivanovic 34) Duff snuffed out said bit of picking-apart, conceding a corner that is promptly swung in for Branislav Ivanovic to jab home from a matter of yards. You should not be scoring with your feet from there. Updated at 8.53pm BST 8.33pm BST20:33 33 min: We talk about Burnley’s pressure on the ball and fast approach, but Chelsea have done well to deny them space too. We haven’t seen Ings get any real encouragement at all; they’ve been very quick out to him. As I write, Chelsea pick Burnley apart again and....ahhh..... 8.32pm BST20:32 32 min: A driven cross from the right by Fabregas and Shackell has to snick it away from Costa. At the moment, Chelsea are creating space and situations pretty much at will. 8.31pm BST20:31 31 min: Big penalty shout for Chelsea, with Costa capitalising on a slack backpass by Mee and seeming to nick the ball around Heaton before being caught by the ‘keeper’s left arm. He’s booked, at length, for diving. He didn’t dive. Mourinho has his first friendly little chat with a fourth official of the season. Updated at 8.51pm BST 8.29pm BST20:29 30 min: Burnley haven’t been in this since they took the lead, really, but Taylor puts another ball in for Ings and it has to be put behind for a corner. His left foot is their biggest threat so far. Courtois leaps high into the night sky to claim the set piece. He did look huge there. 8.27pm BST20:27 28 min: Hazard, who you think may have a thing or two to prove this season, take matters into his own hands again and tricks down the right. It’s not really a cross or a shot but Heaton, not so vocal this time, has to tip away. 8.26pm BST20:26 27 min: “‘Twas Tom Heaton, the Burnley keeper, who shouted ‘Get to the Ball’; perhaps the most vocal keeper in the Football League, you can hear him bellowing from the James Hargreaves Upper Tier,” clarifies ‘ccouch0’. That seems like ages ago now. Updated at 8.26pm BST 8.25pm BST20:25 25 min: Oscar curls high and very wide, but Chelsea look very nice now. 8.24pm BST20:24 25 min: Fabregas changed everything for both of those goals. Backheel for the first, and the pass of this very young season for the second. Plaudits for Hazard too for that one: Chelsea were stroking the ball around nicely, seemingly revelling in their equaliser, before he took the initiative, beat a couple of men and pulled Burnley around. 8.22pm BST20:22 GOAL! Burnley 1-2 Chelsea (Schurrle 21) That was brilliant! Chelsea had an extended spell of possesion for the first time of the game, before Eden Hazard sped things up, dancing through a challenge or two to lay off to Ivanovic. He clipped it in for Fabregas, who shaped to volley on the edge of the area but instead weighted a stunning through ball to the alert Schurrle, whose finish was clinical. Updated at 8.42pm BST 8.19pm BST20:19 19 min: It was a well-worked goal, that. Lovely backheel by Fabregas to transform a move that had threatened to break down, and a really clever ball from Ivanovic, skidding upon this wet, quick surface and surprising pretty much everyone except Costa. 8.18pm BST20:18 GOAL! Burnley 1-1 Chelsea (Costa 17) Well that didn’t last long. Chelsea went on the offensive; Fabregas’ backheel found Ivanovic in acres of space on the right and his low, fizzed ball missed everyone before striking the post. Costa didn’t miss the rebound. He is Not A Flop. Updated at 8.36pm BST 8.16pm BST20:16 16 min: Turf Moor is in full voice now. What a goal that was, and what sluggish defending by Chelsea too because Taylor’s first ball in was ordinary and the ball had been cleared far away enough for them to sort themselves out. As it was, the second delivery was superb and the finish was unsaveable. Again, if we’re being picky, nobody really got out to Arfield. 8.14pm BST20:14 GOAL! Burnley 1-0 Chelsea (Arfield 14) Well, well. Taylor clips in a corner that’s really quite poor, but not cleared well. The ball is returned to him and Chelsea just haven’t got out. The debutant gets to the byline and cuts back a fine, lofted cross to Scott Arfield, who takes a touch and lamps it past Courtois, who is motionless. Super finish. Updated at 8.26pm BST 8.12pm BST20:12 12 min: “GET TO THE BALL!” yells someone on the Burnley bench (it’s not Dyche), as it’s switched towards Schurrle on the right. Burnley don’t but, at the second time of asking, he crosses it off the pitch. 8.10pm BST20:10 10 min: Diego Costa, who will probably need to score today to avoid being the Flop Of The Season, turns inside Mee, who slips, but his left-footed shot is pretty tame and repelled by Duff. 8.09pm BST20:09 9 min: Ivanovic reacts well to stab a through ball away from Jutkiewicz. Burnley really are at 100mph here, on and off the ball. Then Fabregas finds Schurrle with a clever spot but the German’s lay-off is snuffed out. 8.08pm BST20:08 8 min: It looks quite windy at Turf Moor. The cameraman likes to show this because it demonstrates that we’re in the remote, inhospitable, hostile north-west. It is raining too though. 8.06pm BST20:06 6 min: And not too far off by Jutkiewicz. Marney is chopped over by the halfway line but play continues and Burnley, as they do, work the ball across the pitch in an orderly manner. Taylor finds the big striker, who cuts inside and trickles one wide of Courtois’ near post. 8.05pm BST20:05 4 min: Schurrle lets one go from the edge of the area and it is deflected just, just wide of the post. Heaton had committed the other way. Burnley struggle to clear the resulting corner, but eventually do. 8.03pm BST20:03 3 min: Diego Costa gives away a foul, trying to bully Shackell – who is not easily bullied - off the ball. Shackell, actually, is typical of the kind of player whose career has been totally revitalised here. Championship journeymen made very good indeed. 8.01pm BST20:01 12 seconds: Jutkiewicz, who is a curious player and a little more than your meat and drink target man, tries a very ambitious volley from 25 yards and it goes far over. 8.00pm BST20:00 Peeeeeeep! Burnley get us underway. It’s real. They’re back in the top flight. 7.57pm BST19:57 Michael Hunt writes: “Thank you for that nice little reminiscence there. That match there was my first match as a Chelsea supporter, having been won over by the World Cup to the idea of football generally, and searching for a London team that people at my school didn’t already support so I was at least slightly different as far as glory hunters went, and assured that this here was a World Cup winning defence I chose me a Chelsea. But then taming Ronaldo, Rivaldo et al is simple compared to late 90s Huckerby I guess. My plastic fan credentials I feel are strengthened by the fact that in the intervening 16 years I have been to Stamford Bridge once, and that was to an Australian wine tasting. Which was very good as it happens. And as I understand it that’s what being a football supporter is all about.” Updated at 7.59pm BST 7.56pm BST19:56 The teams are in the tunnel. Danny Ings has just fiddled with one of his socks, Gary Cahill is jumping up and down, Turf Moor sounds very loud.....and out they come! Updated at 7.56pm BST 7.49pm BST19:49 “Mou knows what he’s doing, Cesc is the key player!” says John McEnerney. “He has everything Jose wants in a midfielder. CFC will be battling on all fronts MCFC won’t. CFC have the knowhow!” 7.49pm BST19:49 I mentioned Kieran Trippier earlier, and it’s worth mentioning him again because he is very, very good. Comfortably the Championship’s best right-back last season and, if he does well this, it seems perfectly feasible that he could push for international honours. Baby steps, though. Oh, Sky have just started on him now as well....yes, 14 assists from him last season. He gets forward superbly and is the kind of player Manchester City would have been desperate to keep in years gone by. 7.44pm BST19:44 This is what happened that fateful day in ‘98 though, if you’re interested. Are Jutkiewicz and Ings the next Dublin and Huckerby? 7.42pm BST19:42 The key stat being draped around this fixture is that Chelsea haven’t lost an opening day fixture since 1998. We will hear this a few more times in the next few hours and prepared our stunned – stunned – faces when they flunk this one. 7.40pm BST19:40 Meanwhile Sean Dyche has just called Chelsea “one of the market leaders”, but is yet to mention Barclays. Sacked in the morning... 7.39pm BST19:39 Dean Marney and David Jones have never had a TV show. But Burnley’s midfielders, both jettisoned by bigger clubs in the past, have grown into excellent players. Marney started at Spurs, was OK at Hull for a few years, was OK at Burnley for a few more and then, last season, was one of the best all-round footballers in the second tier. Jones began at Manchester United, did moderately at Derby, Wolves and Wigan, and ended up at Turf Moor a year ago. He is technically a very nice player. And I’ve just seen that he is 29, which genuinely stunned me. 7.34pm BST19:34 I watched Cesc Fabregas’ TV show, way back when, and never ever got that hour back: 7.28pm BST19:28 To add insult to Petr Cech’s non-injury, today’s matchday programme spelt his name ‘Chech’. 7.27pm BST19:27 You can’t but like Dyche. There’ll probably be plenty of memes relating to his rasping chords during the season so we’ll skip that and say he just seems a jolly decent bloke and a fine manager. Jettisoned by Watford in 2012 after a decent enough start there, he’s shown that you don’t need three teams’ squads to choose from in order to make a success of a modest Championship club. 7.21pm BST19:21 Sean Dyche growls at stranger down mobile telephone: 7.18pm BST19:18 Kick-off, I should clarify, is at 8pm. I kept getting that wrong last season for MNFs and warming up the telly for 7.45pm. Anyway, that means we’ve got a while so if you’ve any burning issues ahead of this one then holler, email, tweet, anything. Updated at 7.19pm BST 7.15pm BST19:15 Looks like Fabregas alongside Matic in that deep midfield pairing for Chelsea. On paper that’s quite attractive: Matic is all drive, purpose, get-you-up-the-field power and physique; Fabregas a player of rare nuance who will cajole his team-mates into dangerous areas. It will be interesting to see if it works in the long term, though. Fabregas knows that position well enough but it remains to be seen if his talents are best deployed further back; he doesn’t really have the pace or explosiveness that Mourinho likes in his attack-minded players (does he, Juan Mata?). Updated at 7.46pm BST 7.11pm BST19:11 And, of course, Didier Drogba is on the bench for Chelsea. Those injury fears from last week were unfounded. Debut number two is possible. 7.10pm BST19:10 A lot to digest there. We start, of course, with Courtois’ selection ahead of Cech. You had a little hunch that would happen, no? The Belgian surely can’t be a number two anywhere; it’s now his jersey to lose and we’ll have to see how Cech comes back. Other matters of interest in the Chelsea side include debuts for Fabregas and Costa, while Filipe Luis does not start at left-back; Mourinho repeats last season’s asymmetry by selecting Cesar Azpilicueta on the left. For Burnley, just the two changes really from last season’s all-conquerers. One is enforced, with Jutkiewicz replacing Vokes, and the other sees Matt Taylor come in on the left for Kightly. That feels slightly disappointing but logical: Taylor and his experienced top-flight ilk are horses that will have been brought in for courses like this one. Updated at 7.36pm BST 7.05pm BST19:05 The teams are in Burnley (4-4-2): Heaton; Trippier, Shackell (c), Duff, Mee; Arfield, Jones, Marney, Taylor; Ings, Jutkiewicz. Subs: Gilks, Dummigan, Long, Wallace, Kightly, Sordell, Barnes. Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Courtois; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry (c), Azpilicueta; Fabregas, Matic; Schurrle, Oscar, Hazard; Diego Costa. Subs: Cech, Zouma, Filipe Luis, Mikel, Willian, Torres, Drogba. 7.00pm BST19:00 Preamble The little horses are back. Here’s our first chance to see if they are, in fact, form horses – and also our first chance to thank José Mourinho for his public service in transforming the fortunes of ailing clubs. This does, though feel like a new-ish Chelsea. Gone are Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard, back is Didier Drogba , fresh to the fold are Cesc Fàbregas, Diego Costa and Filipe Luís. Thibaut Courtois is now resident at Stamford Bridge, too, with much of the handwringing over tonight’s team selection centring around Mourinho’s decision between the giant Belgian and Petr Cech. It is a tough one, for sure. With Nemanja Matic (redux) and Mohamed Salah starting their first full seasons in west London, too, it’s fair to assume that Mourinho is getting things as he wants them now. He wants his team to begin like champions; we can certainly state that he has started out on the front foot himself. But Burnley are pretty proactive too. This will be difficult for Chelsea. Turf Moor on a cold, wet winter night given day, with a full house and stands right up by the pitch, is no picnic, and Sean Dyche assembled a superb side last season that sprang from apparent no-marks to promotion in impressive style. Michael Kightly was a man reborn on loan from Stoke, Danny Ings and the currently injured Sam Vokes were brilliant in attack, Kieran Tripper looked at times as if he could become the best right back in the country over the next couple of years and may well stick one back to former club Manchester City before long. Burnley work very, very hard but go beyond the cliche, too: they play good, positive football, use the wings well and give their front men plenty of service. One of them may be Lukas Jutkiewicz, their biggest summer signing, from Middlesbrough. They have also added experience in Steven Reid, Matt Taylor and Stephen Ward. They’ll need it, but tonight feels like a night when their exuberant approach could catch Chelsea napping – just as it did Manchester United in their first home game in 2009, last time they were promoted to the top flight. If the excellent Dyche doesn’t do an Owen Coyle, they might just do better this time around. 7.00pm BST19:00 Nick will be here shortly. In the meantime, have a listen to Football Weekly … |