Burnley vs Chelsea

Turf Moor

4:00pm

Burnley are reborn as they strive to rise from the dead. They’re half awake after going through seven games without a defeat before being brought back to planet earth by a Leicester City that was inspired by their ageless striker Jamie Vardy.

Chelsea lost the EFL Cup final last weekend to Liverpool but they must be proud of their resilience and grit, they’d wish they didn’t change goalkeepers at the death but these things happen in football, they live to fight another day.

The other day came quite soon for Chelsea and despite hiccups here and there, they rallied to beat Luton in the fifth round of the Emirates FA Cup. The Blues were down twice but managed a 3-2 win courtesy of a goal and two assists from the much criticized Timo Werner.

Burnley’s loss to Leicester City came with another cost but from the look of it, a not too heavy one as manager Sean Dyche confirmed that Ben Mee’s injury would be touch and go, the big defender was hauled off in the first half against the Foxes after a bad fall.

Chelsea’s league position suddenly looks threatened, City’s stumbles only offer hope to Liverpool but anything is possible mathematically. With City facing Manchester United and Liverpool hosting the Hammers, Chelsea could close things up against any of these sides.

But same Chelsea could drop points here and become vulnerable. A win for either of United, Arsenal and Westham heaps pressure on the Blues and draw them completely into the top four stories, and with Arsenal having three games in hand, it might be a different ending.

Burnley missed the chance to surge out of the bottom 3 when they played Leicester but they must be proud of how far they have come. Bottom recently but now within a point of Everton in 17^th but interestingly, they’re only three points short of Brentford who are 15^th, the Bees have played two more.

Burnley will set up to defend as always and you can’t blame them, they have players that can hurt you on the break like Maxwell Cornet and the big man upfront needs to prove a point after back to back blanks, that must hurt FPL managers who had him for the double game week.

Chelsea will be without the duo of Cesar Azpilicueta and Tiago Silva but they can welcome back Reece James who played both Cup games without hassles. Timo Werner deserves some playing time after helping Chelsea past Luton.

The last time these two met, Chelsea dominated from start till late on in the game but didn’t really punish Burnley, Kai Havertz wasted chances after chances in that game until Jay Rodriguez made them pay with a late equalizer, Thomas Tuchel will be wary of that here.

Verdict: Chelsea to win