A new week, and a new game and this time around, the London club Chelsea will be welcoming the all confident newly promoted Premier League side, Burnley at the Stamford Bridge. The Blues recently secured a narrow 3-2 win against Bristol Rovers and to build on that, their manager, Antonio Conte, will be hoping to continue the same form in the next fixture.
The Stamford Bridge outfit, who ended their previous season on a very low note, started their new Premier League campaign in a stylish fashion. The narrow victory of 2 goals to 1 against the likes of West Ham United and Watford gave them the perfect start.
On the other hand, the visitors will be arriving at the Bridge with a bag full of confidence as they recently out-witted the Anfield outfield Liverpool with a thumping scoreline of two goals to nil. But Sean Dyche’s men failed to replicate the same result as they were eliminated in the second round of the League cup against a lowly Accrington Stanley.
Chelsea vs Burnley Team News:
The major concern for the Italian gaffer will be the possible absence of their star man Willian, who missed the last two encounters after suffering a calf injury. The Brazilian did post an update on his Instagram account, but his participation is looking highly unlikely.
While on the other hand, Kurt Zouma and Marco Van Ginkel are still on the injury list. Furthermore, the players like Hazard, Costa, John Terry, N’Golo Kante and Oscar will be looking forward to return to the starting spot as they were rested in the last game by the manager. Besides that, the involvement of Cesc Fabregas will be a sheer mystery. The Spanish international is yet to start a Premier League game for the Blues and if the conditions are favourable, he might mark his return.
The visiting side does not really have many concerns regarding the fitness, but they will surely miss Ashley Barnes. The new summer signing Steven Defour is also expected to start the game alongside Dean Marney.
Predicted Lineup:
Chelsea:
Courtois
Ivanovic; Cahill; Terry; Azpilicueta
Kante; Matic
Pedro; Fabregas; Hazard
Costa
Burnley:
Heaton
Lowton; Keane; Mee; Ward
Arfield; Defour; Marney; Boyd
Vokes; Gray
Stats (taken from FourFourTwo)-
- Chelsea are unbeaten in their four Premier League meetings with Burnley, winning three and drawing one.
- Burnley have found the back of the net in all but one of their last eight clashes with the Blues in all competitions (a 3-0 top-flight defeat to Chelsea in August 2009).
- Branislav Ivanovic scored in both league meetings in 2014/15, the last season the two sides met.
- Chelsea have won the Premier League title in both of the previous seasons Burnley were in the division.
- Burnley have conceded just one goal in their last five Premier League matches (three of which were in May 2015, the other two in August 2016).
- The Blues have lost just one of their last 45 Premier League home games against newly-promoted opposition, but this came last season versus Bournemouth (0-1).
- Diego Costa has scored seven goals in nine Premier League appearances for Chelsea in the month of August.
- Costa is one of 38 different players to have scored 10+ goals for Chelsea in the Premier League, but he has the best minutes per goal ratio of all these players; netting a goal every 137 minutes on average.
- Burnley have picked up just two points from 11 previous visits to London in the Premier League (W0 D2 L9), scoring six times and conceding 28 goals.
- Antonio Conte is currently unbeaten in 29 successive league home matches as a club manager (W27 D2 L0), last suffering a home defeat in January 2013 (Juventus 1-2 Sampdoria).
- George Boyd has run the furthest (24.9km) and made the most sprints (166) in the Premier League so far this season.
Prediction:
Well, this is no secret that despite Burnley are coming to the game with full confidence, Chelse does have an upper hand in the game. Conte has brought the winning spirit back to the Blues and that will actually help the side to conquer the Clarets at the Stamford Bridge.
2-0 Chelsea