Players are what teams are about
It was all square at Turf Moor with Burnley and Chelsea both collecting a point from a 1-1 draw which certainly left one manager happier than the other.
Antonio Conte saw his side take an early lead before Burnley drew level with a Robbie Brady free kick. He said after the game: “It’s one point and for sure we must be disappointed. We tried to win. We started very well and scored a goal and created chances to score a second goal.
“We tried to win but we know Burnley at home are not easy. They have taken 29 points at home. Now it is important to continue to work.
“I think we tried to build and do our football for sure. Burnley tried to disrupt our play. They played long balls and the second ball is not easy. It is not easy to play against this team. It is very particular. At home they are very tough.”
A delighted Sean Dyche saw his side get this point against the league leaders that could so easily have been three. “It was a measure of sorts,” he said. “It’s hard to measure against a team as good as that, but it definitely shows the growth, both as individuals and as a team.
“There was an assuredness about our play and I was so pleased about that. For the first 15 or 20 minutes our front two weren’t screening the midfield well enough, so we managed to change that and for the rest of the game we handled that really well. We also had good moments ourselves and we certainly ruffled feathers and made them think it could an awkward one, which it was in the end.”
Dyche saw his team go behind to an early Pedro goal. “There was no disappointment following their goal either,” he pointed out. “Sometimes things happen early in football matches and you have to react, and I was so pleased with the mentality to stick to and believe in what we do and deliver the performance we did.
“It’s pleasing for me as a manager to think they had to adapt and change things to try and break us down, but it’s still vital that our players deliver a performance and they did that today.
“Players are what teams are about and I think the fans appreciate what they are seeing. I spoke in the programme today about a group of people giving everything to the cause. That doesn’t guarantee you anything but as a fan that’s the minimum I would expect.”
Both of our new signings got first starts, Ashley Westwood coming in for the suspended Jeff Hendrick and Brady replacing Scott Arfield. “It was a sublime finish,” the manager said of Brady’s goal. “There are other parts of Robbie’s game that he will need to adapt to with us, and I knew that, but for him and Ashley Westwood to come into that game wasn’t easy today and I thought they both handled themselves fantastically well.
“To be honest, it could be argued the goal was the hardest of the chances we created because we’ve had certainly three good chances against a top side. It was probably the toughest bit of technical ability, but he delivered it with aplomb.”
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