goals as we brushed Burnley aside in the second half to make it three wins in a row.
Despite the emphatic – and deserved – margin of victory by the final whistle, it was a shaky start from the Blues as Burnley took an early lead on the counter when Wilson Odobert was given too much space to finish low on the left of our box.
However, we were level by half-time, thanks largely to the impressive Raheem Sterling, although it was Clarets defender Ameen Al Dakhil who got the last touch, deflecting the Blues winger’s dangerous cross over his own goalkeeper.
After half-time there was only one team in it though, and it took just five minutes for us pull into the lead, when Sterling was brought down in the box by Vitinho and Cole Palmer tucked away the spot kick to get his first Premier League goal from 12 yards.
- Things got even better from there, as Sterling dispatched
perfect pass for a well-deserved goal, before substitute Nicolas Jackson put the icing on the cake with a lovely bit of skill to score our fourth of the day at Turf Moor.
There was clearly an area the Blues had identified to target early on, with both Armando Broja and Sterling threatening to cause trouble by latching on to long balls over the top of Burnley’s high defensive line.
Although he was thwarted on that occasion, Sterling was only inches away from scoring a fine goal with his next attempt. It was a lovely run to cut in from the left and leave Al Dakhil trailing behind, before curling a right-footed shot from the edge of the box which flew narrowly past the far post.
However, Burnley managed to go straight up the other end and take the lead on the counter. Vitinho broke free down the right to put the Chelsea defence on the back foot. He found Lyle Foster in the centre but when the Blues closed him down he passed possession left to Odobert, who was able to take a touch before finishing low past Robert Sanchez.
The Clarets were certainly causing us problems when they broke forward, using their width to make the pitch big and find space in wide positions, and we had a let-off on the 20-minute mark when Mike Tresor got in front of Levi Colwill at the back post to meet a deep cross, but thankfully he couldn’t get a clean connection on it.
- Chelsea recovered and started to exert more control the closer we got to half-time, but were struggling to carve out a chance from our large share of the possession. The best we came were two occasions when we threatened to get in behind Vitinho in the box, but first Enzo
took too long assessing his options before his shot was charged down, then Sterling couldn’t quite get clear of his marker before goalkeeper James Trafford rushed out to claim the ball.
Raheem went closest yet at the end of a long, patient team move. Enzo was fouled but when the referee played advantage Caicedo chipped the ball out to Sterling. He drove past two defenders before firing low with his left foot from a tight angle, but Trafford was just about able to save with his feet.
That meant when the equaliser did arrive before the break, there was no surprise that Sterling was the source, even if there was a slice of good fortune. There was no luck involved when the winger twisted and turned on the pace to beat Tresor and Vitinho as he charged into the box, but when he smashed a dangerous ball across goal, defender Al Dakhil at the near post could only deflect it up to loop over the keeper and into the back of the net for an own goal.
