News

Chelsea’s Top Four Quest Continues Against Burnley

It’s been a busy weekend of Easter action in the Premier League already, and it seems as if we’re far from done. In addition to the Sunday games that we’re being treated to today, we’re also going to be seeing another edition of Monday Night Football as the season continues to hurtle towards a climax. Playing on Monday nights is more of a novelty than anything else, it seems, but there’s always the risk of it being a nuisance. Either way, though, we’re pretty confident in saying that we’re going to see a really fun encounter tomorrow night in London.

The game in question is Chelsea vs Burnley, which matches up two teams who are in incredibly different positions in the Premier League table. It’s not quite the David vs Goliath encounter that you’d probably expect, especially at this point in the campaign, but that doesn’t matter. In the Premier League, there could be absolutely no stakes whatsoever up for grabs and we’d still have an entertaining game on our hands. That’s just how it works, and at the risk of sounding incredibly ridiculous, we are living for it (yes, we know that’s the worst statement in the world, but it’s warranted).

The Blues are still in with a chance of capturing a place in the top four, but they’re going to have to work for it – as you’d expect. They’re currently balancing their priorities between the Premier League and the Europa League, and it’ll be interesting to see what kind of performances they put out between now and the end of the campaign. In many ways, the future of the club could depend on what happens in the next few weeks, because there’s no certainty whatsoever regarding the status of Maurizio Sarri and whether he’ll stay at the club.

Burnley, on the other hand, seem to be pretty safe when it comes to the relegation battle. It looked like they could be in a spot of bother just a matter of weeks ago, but they’ve really stepped their game up when it matters the most. The Clarets know how to get the best out of their squad, and whilst they may have been a little bit inconsistent along the way, they always seem to survive or make the best of whatever situation they’re in. Still, confirming survival 100% is going to be the priority, and they can’t afford to be complacent.

Chelsea’s last six game stretch has been pretty decent, but to be honest, it needed to be after some of the results they’ve picked up this season. They began with a 2-1 win over Cardiff City, before then seeing off their relegation rivals Brighton & Hove Albion. They put in a great performance against West Ham to make it three wins on the bounce, before a narrow 1-0 triumph over Slavia Prague in the Europa League. They won the second leg 4-3 to confirm their passage into the semi finals, but sandwiched in-between that was a disappointing 2-0 defeat at the hands of title contenders Liverpool.

Burnley have had a bit of a ‘lightbulb turning on’ moment in recent weeks it seems, which came off the back of three straight losses to Crystal Palace, Liverpool and Leicester City. They got back on track with a somewhat surprising win over high-flying Wolverhampton Wanderers, before registering a nice 3-1 win over Bournemouth. In their last outing, you could argue that they all but confirmed their presence in the Premier League next season, with a nice 2-0 win over Cardiff. Is it enough, though? It would certainly seem as if it will be.

Interestingly enough, in the overall head to head standings between the two teams, Burnley have the 38-36 advantage with 23 draws. Oh, fun fact: in 1956, they drew four FA Cup games in a row before eventually settling on a winner in the 4th replay. In terms of their last meeting, though, Chelsea were the ones who came out with the victory with a 4-0 triumph back in October. Burnley will be out for revenge just six months on from that, with a team that seems to be functioning much better these days after a fresh change of pace was installed by manager Sean Dyche.

Maurizio Sarri has confirmed that Eden Hazard’s injury isn’t actually all that serious after all, meaning that he should be available to start this game. On the flip side of that, though, Antonio Rudiger will definitely be missing out after sustaining a knee injury – with Marcos Alonso being a doubt. Pedro is being tipped to get the nod in the starting XI ahead of Callum Hudson-Odoi and Willian, although you’d have to think that CHO has at the very least earned the right to be in the conversation. After all, he’s been arguably the most impressive breakout star of the season up to this point.

There are no fresh injury problems for Sean Dyche and Burnley, although there are a few question marks over the fitness of Phil Bardsley. It’s starting to feel like they want to go in search of a mid-table place which, ironically enough, would make it look like they’ve had a pretty decent season. We do think that they deserve to be applauded for the manner in which they’ve been able to steer themselves clear of the danger zone, but even so, fans and pundits alike shouldn’t forget about how dangerous things were looking just a few short weeks ago.

Chelsea vs Burnley Betting Prediction

Burnley are a tricky side to face because you never know which version of them you’re going to get on a week to week basis. You could argue that Chelsea should be anticipating a tough game based on their opponents’ recent run of good form, but either way, they shouldn’t even be able to come close to giving the home side any substantial trouble. This is going to be a one sided beatdown in our estimation, and the man who is going to be leading the way will be none other than Belgian mastermind Eden Hazard.

We can see the Blues running out as winners by a good three or four goals, and that’s no exaggeration. Burnley will be well aware of the fact that they’re almost over the finish line, and it’d take an absolute miracle for them to drop down into the Championship. They might have a few bright moments here and there but Chelsea have the ability to tear through any team in the division when they want to. With a place in the top four being at stake, you can expect the very best from Sarri’s men as he continues to try and save his job.