Clarets suffer heavy defeat after crazy few minutes
Burnley suffered a second successive home defeat in four days yesterday, a 4-0 defeat against Chelsea following the 2-0 loss against Leicester City last Tuesday.
The Leicester loss came about through two late goals when it looked as though we were set to earn a point; yesterday’s was almost farcical after what had been an outstanding first half from us In those crazy few minutes, early in the second half, we conceded three times and that was it, you don’t come from three behind to get anything against Chelsea team who added a fourth for good measure.
We are having some run at home against the perceived top six. Manchester United, Liverpool, Spurs and Chelsea have been here in the last five home games with the promise of Manchester City to come. We’ve done OK though, we played well in the second half against United and throughout the Liverpool and Spurs games so, despite our horrendous home record against Chelsea, I was more than hopeful that we could get something from the game.
I have to mention the weather. At the last afternoon home game, members of Boundary Clarets and North Manchester Clarets took a real drenching while manning the ‘Clarets for Foodbanks’ bins. Yesterday it was the turn of London Clarets. They had a more fortunate time with no wind, no rain and even some soon. Some of them were even able to meet Jordan North who had just finished a remarkable week of rowing for Comic Relief.
Our opponents Chelsea were making what’s almost become a rare appearance in the Premier League. Only one of their previous six games had been in the league as they’ve played FA Cup, League Cup, Champions League and Club World Cup fixtures.
Yesterday, they became the first away team this season to emerge from the corner between the cricket field and Longside stands. All season the away team have been using the offices above the club shop for changing with showers in a temporary building downstairs, but, with the away dressing room re-opened, they came out alongside the Burnley team, something we’ve just got used to not happening.
Ahead of kick off, as planned, there was, as described by the Premier League, a moment of reflection and solidarity with fans joining players, managers, match officials and club staff in support of Ukraine.
I’ve no intention of using a match report to discuss the current situation in Ukraine but I will use this report to congratulate Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel for his immediate condemnation of the travelling fans. Tuchel said: “We take the knee together, if a person from our club dies we show respect. It’s not a moment to give other messages.”
He added: “We also do this because of what we are as a club. We show respect, and we need our fans to commit to this minute of applause in the moment. We do it for the people of Ukraine and there is no second opinion about the situation. They have our thoughts and our support and we should stand together as a club.”
The Chelsea fans repeated the chant as the goals went in, no surprise there. As for Tuchel, I don’t know where he stood in my estimation, but he’s most definitely gone up.
Right at the end of the half, Connor Roberts got in a great block as Jorginho’s shot looked to be going in. It won them their first corner from which they got a second in the one minute added on. I did query why a minute had been added on at the time but more on that later.
But for the Roberts’ block, we could have gone in a goal behind but I truth we should have been making our way back to the dressing room with a lead. We very definitely had our chances with the first falling to Wout Weghorst following a ball in from the once again impressive Aaron Lennon. Weghorst got his shot on target but not enough behind it which allowed Thiago Silva to clear off the line.
Collins headed over a corner but then the best opportunity of the lot. Ashley Westwood hoisted a ball into the box. Despite the attentions of Jay Rod, it was an easy ball for goalkeeper Edouard Mendy to deal with or should have been. He made a right pig’s ear of it and punched it badly to Dwight McNeil who somehow lifted the ball over the unguarded net from just a few yards out.
Even so, we’d played well, really well I thought and there was every chance of getting something from this game if we could continue similarly in the second half.
Sadly, we didn’t. Reece James scored in the 47th minute and exactly seven and a half minutes later, Kai Havertz scored his second from close range. We were, to put it mildly, all at sea and we’d managed to concede three goals in seven and a half minutes, and that includes all the time lost after the first two goals as Chelsea celebrated.
It’s not use dissecting the goals and looking to apportion blame. It was as a team that we just fell apart for those few minutes once James had opened the scoring. We got precious little right and virtually everything wrong.
There’s very little, if anything, to report from the rest of the game. The result had been decided and although. The fourth goal prompted more to leave and by the final whistle the numbers remaining were low in our section of the stand.
Thankfully there was no further damage and I suppose I was relieved to be robbed of a good few minutes. As mentioned above, I did query why we had an extra minute at the end of the first half but I remain staggered that the board at the end showed only two minutes.
He could have blown half an hour earlier for me but in a second half that saw four goals scored, five substitutions and two injury stoppages for Thiago and James totalling three and a half minutes, how on earth can they come up with just two minutes added time? I’ve reached the point where I reckon it’s easier to select six winning lottery numbers than determine how much time is going to be added on.
Brentford winning at Norwich didn’t help so thanks to former Claret Ben Gibson for giving them two penalties. It makes getting a result at Brentford next week even more important. Lose that and it could be another side gone, too far ahead of us.
The teams were;
Burnley: Nick Pope, Connor Roberts, Nathan Collins, James Tarkowski, Charlie Taylor, Aaron Lennon, Josh Brownhill, Ashley Westwood, Dwight McNeil, Wout Weghorst (Ashley Barnes 78), Jay Rodriguez (Maxwel Cornet 63). Subs not used: Wayne Hennessey, Matt Lowton, Phil Bardsley, Kevin Long, Bobby Thomas, Jack Cork, Lewis Richardson.
Yellow Cards: Ashley Westwood, Ashley Barnes.
Chelsea: Edouard Mendy, Trevoh Chalobah, Thiago Silva, Antonio Rüdiger, Reece James (Mateo Kovacic 70), N’Golo Kanté (Ruben Loftus-Cheek 70), Jorginho, Saúl Niguez, Mason Mount (Timo Werner 78), Christian Pulisic, Kai Havertz. Subs not used: Kepa Arrizabalaga, Andreas Christensen, Malang Sarr, Kenedy, Hakim Ziyech, Romelu Lukaku.
Referee: Andre Marriner (West Midlands).
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