Burnley vs Chelsea. Premier League.
Turf Moor.
Report and free match highlights as Hakim Ziyech opens scoring before Kurt Zouma powers home a header and Timo Werner wraps up the points; Burnley drop to the bottom of the Premier League
Sunday 1 November 2020 09:17, UK
Chelsea kept a fourth clean sheet in a row as Frank Lampard’s side blew away Burnley 3-0 with Hakim Ziyech scoring on his first Premier League start.
The arrival of Edouard Mendy, who has conceded just one goal in six appearances, seems to have settled Lampard's team down defensively, although the goalkeeper was not tested at Turf Moor from the moment Ziyech (26) put the visitors in front.
Kurt Zouma powered home his third goal of the Premier League season (63) from a Mason Mount corner before Timo Werner wrapped up the points with a majestic finish (70) to send Burnley bottom of the league.
Burnley boss Sean Dyche celebrated his eighth season in the job earlier this week but may face his stiffest task to date in trying to keep his team away from the bottom three. From their opening six games, they have taken just one point, scoring just one goal in their last six in all competitions.
Premier League teams in their next match having played a midweek game in Russia have lost nine of the last 13, but Chelsea started full of energy at Turf Moor on their return from playing Krasnodar, pinning Burnley back from the off with Reece James and Ben Chilwell always free down the flanks.
That said, Ashley Barnes had a wonderful opportunity to fire Burnley in front with just five minutes gone but looped his effort unconfidently over the crossbar after being found in behind by Matt Lowton.
Kai Havertz and Tammy Abraham then tested Nick Pope with some soft headers but a more clinical strike was delivered on 26 minutes with Ziyech following up his goal from midweek with another.
Chelsea broke down the right and some nice touches between Ziyech and Werner, who was called into the side just before kick-off after Christian Pulisic had suffered an injury, set up Abraham to feed Ziyech. Despite the effort going quite central, his strike wrong-footed Pope and Chelsea had their lead.
Dyche tried to get Burnley further up the pitch by sending on Jay Rodriguez at half-time and Chelsea were asked more questions. Barnes flew a well-struck effort wide from 25 yards but that was as good as it got for the Clarets.
You sensed Chelsea were still controlling things and made their move just after the hour mark.
Mason Mount delivered a superb corner from the right and Zouma, under no pressure from any Burnley defenders, rose highest and powered a header past Pope that nearly broke the net at Turf Moor.
That was game over in terms of the result as Chelsea turned the final stages into an exhibition match, something Lampard would have been delighted with in order to help with the busy schedule.
They grabbed a third on 70 minutes. A misplaced pass in midfield from Burnley was seized upon by the dangerous James and his pass into Ziyech opened up space for Werner. The Germany forward darted into the box and finished brilliantly into the far corner for his fifth goal in his last seven games.
Chelsea had the worst defence of sides in top half of table last season, conceding 54 goals - it arguably cost them a tilt at the title. It needed sorting and the early signs suggest Lampard has found a solution, largely in part to the acquisition of Mendy between the sticks and Thiago Silva at the heart of the defence. But it would be harsh on Zouma not to shower him with praise after this latest performance to add to his catalogue of impressive showings this season. He kept the threat of Barnes and Chris Wood to an absolute minimum and headed home a quite brilliant second goal at a time when Burnley were growing in stature.
Chelsea boss Frank Lampard: "To come here and play against a Burnley team that make it very difficult for you, it's a difficult place to come. You know you have to defend your box well, you know you have to be strong in first and second balls. But I wanted that to be one focus and I wanted the other focus to be how can we keep developing in the way we're playing on the ball. And that's what really pleased me today, some of the passing and the movement in the team from minute one until the end of the game was very good. It feels like a nice step forward."
Burnley boss Sean Dyche: "It's never been an easy ride since I've been here and I've been down this road before. It's a tough road to be on, but we have to make sense of it and the only way we can do - once players get fit, which is helpful - is to keep the mentality strong, along with the fitness levels and the belief in what we do.
"All those things have to come together to make sure we look after ourselves, but it's tough against these sides.
"Chelsea have invested heavily and teams gel eventually. Sometimes you just have to take the punishment on a day when you are not right at it and they are.
"Of course, we want to win every game and we've shown on occasions that we can compete with these teams on a one-off basis, but equally we have to realise that's not actually the division we are working in; we have to get points from other games."
Burnley will be back in action on Friday night when they travel to Brighton in the Premier League, live on Sky Sports Box Office, kick-off 5.30pm. It's the start of another busy week for Chelsea, firstly facing Rennes at home in the Champions League on Wednesday; kick-off 8pm. It's then Sheffield United at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, live on Sky Sports; kick-off 5.30pm.
