Burnley 1-1

Telegraph:

Burnley 1 Chelsea 1: Robbie Brady freekick cancels out Pedro opener as battling Clarets earn deserved point

Jim White

The Chelsea march has not been derailed. It may have been only a point gained at Turf Moor, but in many ways it was symbolic of the robust nature of Antonio Conte’s pursuit of the title.

If they were not blown off course by the fizzing spirit of a Burnley side who have now acquired 29 of their 30 points at home, if they were not distracted by a corker of a free-kick dispatched by the home side’s new boy, Robbie Brady, then they clearly mean business. Far from the archetypal southern softies, in an arctic swirl they proved themselves a team prepared to roll up their sleeves and graft, even if it was for just a point.

Yet walking into the press room after this whole-hearted tussle, Conte looked oddly deflated. His team may have just extended their lead at the top of the table to 10 points but the manager clearly ­believed they should have been even further ahead.

“I am disappointed,” he said. “It didn’t happen. It’s a pity.”

It is a measure of the Italian’s ­ambition that he should be so downbeat. Others would have been delighted to have emerged ­undefeated from such a huge examination. For this was as evocative a ­challenge as the Chelsea manager can have faced since he arrived from Italy. This sub-zero Sunday lunchtime in Burnley, with sleet falling on the mill chimneys beyond the Bob Lord Stand, made a wet Wednesday in Stoke look tropical by comparison.


It was not just the temperature that stood in the way of Chelsea progress. Burnley are a team comfortable in their own surrounds, a team resolute in the defence of ­local pride. How they tested the league leaders’ resolve, rarely allowing them to settle in a game that fizzed with energy. It was not that Chelsea had misplaced their fluency. It was that Burnley disrupted it with ­deliberate intent.

What most dismayed Conte, though, was that his side began in the kind of mood that suggested nothing would stop them. After five minutes, Eden Hazard was lurking, waiting in midfield, ready to break at pace, seizing possession off a wayward Burnley pass. He glided through the home defence unchallenged. He shot, but Tom Heaton smothered.

It was an alarm not heeded. Two minutes later, a Burnley attack was broken up, the ball played forward at pace to Victor Moses. Evading a despairing sliding tackle from Joey Barton, he strode on and played the ball inside to Pedro, arriving at full tilt on the edge of the area. The Spaniard fired past Heaton for the opening salvo. Only seven minutes had elapsed. It was the epitome of a Conte goal, turning defence into points at breathtaking speed.


Burnley, though, are not easily cowed. Even though they could not match Chelsea’s speed-ball precision, they pushed and harried, fighting for every square inch of Turf Moor’s restricted acreage. A fine bit of build-up involving ­Barton immediately led to Ashley Barnes firing wide.

Burnley kept pressing, bursting into the tackle, chivvied by Barton’s craft and industry. By now he was running the midfield, which will have opened Conte’s eyes. He ­admitted before the game that he had never heard of Barton.

“That surprised me,” said Sean Dyche, the Burnley manager. “I thought everyone in the world knew who Joey was. And if they don’t, he makes sure they soon do.”


Conte will now be aware of him. On 24 minutes, Barton was brought down by a clumsy Nemanja Matic foul about five yards outside the penalty area. But, despite Barton’s ubiquity, he did not ­address the kick. Instead record signing Brady stood over the ball as the wall jostled and shoved, arguing about distance and position. Brady bypassed the row, arcing his shot perfectly into the far corner of the net.

The Chelsea goalkeeper had spent the previous weekend in ­Texas savouring the performance of Tom Brady in the Super Bowl. Now he was left a spectator by a namesake’s excellence.

“There you go,” said Dyche when told that it was the first time Chelsea had conceded from a direct freekick in four seasons. “Shows how much we do our homework.”

Inspired by the goal, Burnley moved into the ascendancy. Andre Gray fizzed a cross through the Chelsea defensive line, but no one could get a touch, then Barton’s cunning ball played in Matt Lowton behind the Chelsea defence, but the full-back’s shot was saved sharply by Courtois.

It was turning into a fine physical, energetic and committed encounter. Chelsea, who have not lost here since August 1973, began the second half as if they really had not enjoyed half-time. They looked ­unusually distracted. Moments ­after the restart they made two uncharacteristic defensive errors. In the same move Gary Cahill then David Luiz misjudged the pace and flight of the ball, setting Burnley flying through, but Gray’s shot was easily smothered by Courtois.

The champions elect, though, are driven by Conte’s urgent determination. Gradually they eased back into the game: César Azpilicueta  shot just wide, Hazard shot over and the substitute Cesc Fabregas screwed a shot wide. Burnley were left to rely on the hopeful hoof. But how they kept trying, Dyche sending on Sam Vokes in the hope of rustling expensive feathers.

It was to Chelsea’s credit that they did not succumb. But then, as was attested to by the huge ovation which greeted the final whistle, neither did Burnley.

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Guardian:


Burnley peg back Chelsea thanks to Robbie Brady’s superb free-kick

Burnley 1 - 1 Chelsea

Daniel Taylor at Turf Moor


Everything has been going so well for Chelsea recently that, having started their latest assignment so impressively, it came almost as a jolt that they could not build on their early lead and increase the sense that it surely cannot be long before the first publicity-ravenous bookmaker announces it is paying out early on the Premier League champions.

It will still happen, almost certainly, but a lot of credit has to go to a Burnley side who gave the impression at times that they genuinely believed they could register a sixth successive top-division home league win for the first time since Harry Potts’s team were defending their title in the 1960-61 season.

Only three teams in the Premier League have superior home records to Burnley this season and as Antonio Conte pointed out afterwards, it is easy to see why when Sean Dyche’s side play with this togetherness. Chelsea happen to be one while Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal, second and third respectively, are the others. In those circumstances it still amounts to a useful point for the leaders, particularly when the game was played in the kind of conditions – driving sleet, biting-cold temperature and a difficult pitch, a long way from home – when champions have to show their durability.

Conte’s men are now 10 points clear and the first chant of “we’re going to win the league” could be heard from the away end shortly after Pedro had given them a seventh-minute lead. Their next five games comprise Swansea City, West Ham United, Watford, Stoke City and Crystal Palace – five teams positioned ninth or below – and unless something dramatic happens Chelsea should have everything virtually sewn up by the time they meet the two Manchester clubs in April.

All the same, Conte’s disappointment was obvious, bearing in mind the amount of second-half possession his team had without managing a single effort on target, together with the way the game had been progressing before Robbie Brady equalised with a peach of a free-kick.


Burnley can also reflect on chances to win the match but there cannot have been many opponents at Turf Moor this season who have moved the ball so quickly and, not that it should bother Conte or his players too greatly, Chelsea demonstrated in the process how absurd it is for their former manager José Mourinho to depict them as a defensive team.

What Chelsea do is break at speed on the counterattack, springing from the back to catch out their opponents. That, however, should not be confused as conservatism. The opening goal was the case in point, originating from deep in their own half and featuring a slick exchange of passes involving Gary Cahill, Marcos Alonso and Diego Costa before Victor Moses was suddenly in possession of the ball and running at the Burnley defence. Pedro was sprinting through the middle and it was a perfectly weighted touch to control the pass and give himself the angle to slide the ball past Tom Heaton.

Pedro’s quick running and directness was a prominent feature during the early parts of a match in which Chelsea managed 730 passes compared with 297 for their opponents. Yet it was a fine response from Burnley once Nemanja Matic’s 24th-minute foul on Joey Barton had given Brady the chance to show off his dead-ball expertise. Chelsea had four players in their wall – Moses, Alonso, Costa and Matic – but Brady’s left-foot shot went round them all to bend into the top corner of Thibaut Courtois’s net. “A sublime free-kick,” Dyche said, “against a giant of a goalkeeper.”

For the remainder of the first half, Burnley matched their opponents and had an outstanding chance to score again when Matt Lowton advanced from his right-back position only for his shot to come back off Courtois’s legs.

Chelsea, true to form, immediately broke upfield to create an opening of their own but Conte’s men were not alone in knowing the benefits of incisive counterattacking and early in the second half, Andre Gray really ought to have done better with his shot after a quick breakaway had led to David Luiz failing to cut out the through-ball from Ashley Barnes.

After that, Burnley had to withstand some concerted pressure, with Barton symbolising what Conte described afterwards as the team’s ability to “destruct”, and seemed reluctant to commit too many players into attack, perhaps wary of leaving themselves vulnerable in the way they had been for Pedro’s goal. This brought Chelsea forward in even more numbers – Conte smiled knowingly when Mourinho’s comments were put to him – and their disappointment must be that they had so much of the ball in and around the home team’s penalty area without creating one outstanding chance.

Burnley now have 29 points at home and if they continue to play with this vigour they will surely beat the 38-point record, set by Ipswich Town and Charlton Athletic in the 2000-01 season, for a newly promoted side over the course of a 38-game Premier League campaign. Chelsea, meanwhile, can look ahead to greater prizes.


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Mail;


Burnley 1-1 Chelsea: Robbie Brady cancels out Pedro opener with stunning free-kick to halt leaders as the hosts continue impressive run at fortress Turf Moor

By Martin Samuel for the Daily Mail

It would be rather unfair to suggest, after this, that Antonio Conte’s Chelsea team cannot do it in the snow at Burnley. Credit instead should go to Sean Dyche and his players. In resisting the champions-elect, they were quite outstanding.

Chelsea threw it all at them in a bid to secure what many would consider an unassailable 12-point lead at the top. On came Cesc Fabregas for Nemanja Matic, then Willian for Victor Moses, finally joined by a second striker Michy Batshuayi. Most neutral observers probably felt they would find a way through in the end, with that lot.

But, no. Burnley held out for a draw, confirming their status as a Champions League team, if home form only was taken into account. At Turf Moor, Burnley are among the Premier League’s top three sides; away they have recorded a single point. So, it was really no shock that, having been brushed aside at Stamford Bridge earlier in the season, they should regroup and prove to be made of much sterner stuff here. Even so, the roar from the home crowd when Kevin Friend’s final whistle sounded summed up local apprehension.

Burnley have barely faltered at home this season, but lost to Manchester City and Arsenal, and when Chelsea went ahead after seven minutes they would have feared a repeat against a member of the established elite.

Yet Burnley have grown since Chelsea last visited these parts, for the first fixture of the 2014-15 season. Their response was magnificent and a draw by no means flattered them. If Chelsea take solace despite the two points dropped, it will come from the thought that they do not have to come here again in the League this season but Tottenham and Manchester United do.

Anyway, Chelsea’s lead is so substantial now, it is going to take more than the odd draw away from home to faze them. They are now clear in double figures — 10 points separating them from their nearest rivals, although Manchester City could make a small dent in that by winning at Bournemouth tonight to move within eight.

Even then, it is still Chelsea in control, still Chelsea in the clear, and still Chelsea who are surviving tests those around them have failed. Tottenham lost at Liverpool; Chelsea drew. Liverpool lost at Burnley; Chelsea got their point. Yesterday’s results saw Chelsea’s title odds move out from 9/1 on to 8/1 on. Not what any punter would call a value bet.

Even so, the most impressive aspect of the match, more than Chelsea’s sprint out of the gate at the start, was Burnley’s response to going behind after seven minutes. It was the fastest opposition goal scored at Turf Moor this season by 30 minutes, and, as such, could easily have thrown Dyche’s side. Instead, they responded brilliantly — a pair of hopeful, tame shots from Ashley Barnes in the eighth and 19th minutes building to a head of steam that saw Burnley level after 24 minutes and then have chances to go ahead.

The goal was a beauty and made an instant local hero of record signing Robbie Brady. Acquired from Norwich for £13million in the January transfer window, Brady was already well known to Conte, after scoring a header against Italy in last summer’s European Championship, a winning goal that took the Republic of Ireland into the last 16.

This one could not have been more different. Goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois played a sloppy ball out which forced Matic to give away a foul, 25 yards from goal. Brady and Joey Barton stood over it, and it was immediately clear the new man had made a strong impression.

Barton does not give way easily in such situations. Instead he stood by as Brady lifted the ball over the Chelsea wall — admittedly at its shortest point — and out of the reach of Courtois, top left. It was a brilliant strike — the first direct free-kick to go in against Chelsea since Rickie Lambert for Southampton on March 30, 2013, close to four years ago. Fernando Torres and Marko Marin were in the Chelsea team that day. It seems a different age.

Soon after, the ball flashed across the Chelsea six-yard box with no-one to convert, and in the 37th minute Burnley spurned a fine chance to go ahead. Barton, who had an excellent game, found Matt Lowton with a sweetly-threaded through-pass, and for a moment it looked as if he had smashed the ball through Courtois’s legs. An optical illusion. Courtois — watched by Belgium manager Roberto Martinez, who can’t have been brimming with confidence on what he had seen until that point — got them closed just in time, getting the ball away with a scissor motion.

The half-time whistle did not curb Burnley’s momentum either. From their first attack after recommencement, Burnley forced mistakes from Gary Cahill and David Luiz, allowing Barnes to set up Andre Gray, thwarted by a good save from Courtois.

Yet for all this, it was Chelsea who had started the game livelier, looking every bit the champions in waiting. In the sixth minute, Diego Costa picked out Eden Hazard, whose finish was disappointing, offering little challenge to the in-form Tom Heaton.

A minute later, they were ahead: a counter-attacking move started by Pedro and N’Golo Kante ending with an impressive run by Moses on the right and a fine cross to Pedro, now completing a late arrival in the box. His first touch was a delight, creating space, his second left Heaton no chance.

That this did not lead to a walk-over is testament to Burnley and the competitiveness of this league. Incredibly, although Chelsea saw plenty of the ball, the goal was their last shot on target.

For Burnley, Michael Keane was outstanding, keeping Costa as quiet as he has been in any game this season, although Barton did accuse the striker of clumping him off the ball in the first half. Those expecting a brutal sub-plot to follow were disappointed, however, Barton taking late revenge — but on Willian instead. One might call that a sign of maturity; or just common sense.



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Independent:


Robbie Brady's stunning free kick denies Chelsea all three points as Burnley's impressive home run continues

Burnley 1 Chelsea 1: The visitors opened the scoring but were unable to extend their lead at the top of league to 12 points as the Clarets fought back for a hard-earned point

Jack Pitt-Brooke


No top team likes draws but do not be fooled into thinking that Chelsea are stumbling their way back into a title race. There will still be no such thing this season, even after Burnley held Antonio Conte’s side to a 1-1 draw at Turf Moor this afternoon.

Even if Manchester City win at Bournemouth tomorrow night, narrowing Chelsea’s lead to eight points, do not expect that gap to get pulled into zero between now and May. It is more likely that Chelsea will regroup and pull further away.

Because Chelsea are still the best team in the country. This game did not undermine that, it proved it. This was, all things considered, one of Chelsea’s hardest trips all season. Not many other sides would have been able to withstand everything thrown at them today, but Chelsea did, and they got out of here alive.

Turf Moor is statistically the fourth hardest away game in the country. Only Tottenham, Arsenal and Chelsea themselves have taken more home points so far this season than Burnley, a point Conte underlined before the match and straight after it. Burnley struggle away but at home their aggressive muscular style, with the crowd behind them, creates a challenge that we see less and less of in English football. They ask problems that teams have forgotten how to solve.

This was a physical bombardment, with plenty of tackles and elbows that are the far side of legal in 2017. Eden Hazard got his usual kicking while Ashley Barnes laid out Cesar Azpilicueta with an elbow which was not even punished with a booking. On top of that the weather was no more welcoming, with the game taking place in a sideways snow-storm that sped up as the afternoon went on.

Plenty of teams would have wilted under all this, and plenty have so far this season. But Chelsea dug in and worked hard. They scored a brilliant opener but were pegged back by an equaliser that was even better. And then when Burnley threw everything at them after that, Thibaut Courtois made two priceless saves to stop them from taking a 2-1 lead.

It only took seven minutes for Chelsea to go in front with an incisive counter-attack, opening up a Burnley side committed to keeping enough men behind the ball. N'Golo Kante and Pedro started the move, passing to Victor Moses who stormed down the right wing, away from Robbie Brady, the man tasked with stopping him. Moses laid a pass inside to Pedro who took it in his stride, firing the ball into the bottom corner.

Many teams would drop their heads when 1-0 down to the champions-elect, but not Burnley, not here. They came hard at Chelsea, always trying to get Andre Gray in behind, forcing David Luiz to be at his very best to stop them.


Gray was a menace but it was Brady, on his home debut, who scored the equaliser. Burnley forced a free-kick 25 yards out and Brady whipped it with his left foot over the wall and into the top corner of the net, swerving too fast for Courtois to keep it out.

It would be harsh to call that a Courtois mistake but the Belgian goalkeeper responded with the determination of a man who was making up for something. He made two vital saves to stop Chelsea from slipping to 2-1 down, which would have made it a very different afternoon. First, 10 minutes before half-time, when Joey Barton put Matt Lowton in and Courtois had to dart off his line to block the shot. Then, two minutes after the re-start, Ashley Barnes played Gray in, and the striker should have done better given the space he had, but he could not beat Courtois either. It was a reminder of just how decisive Courtois can be.


The rest of the second half was never going to be as good as the first half. Chelsea were less assertive although when they brought Cesc Fabregas on they started to create chances again from the edge of the box. Willian and Michy Batshuayi came on too but ultimately they could not pick through Burnley’s massed ranks.

Dyche’s team could not sustain their early intensity and the ferocious match settled into more of a stalemate. Burnley, to look at their manager, players and fans, were clearly the happier side at the final whistle. But Chelsea, for all their quick disappointment, could not be too down-hearted about another small step towards the title.


Burnley (4-4-2): Heaton; Lowton, Keane, Mee, Ward; Boyd, Westwood, Barton, Brady (Arfield, 64); Barnes, Gray (Vokes, 81)

Chelsea (3-4-3): Courtois; Cahill, Luiz, Azplicueta; Moses (Willian, 72), Matic (Fabregas, 66), Kante, Alonso; Pedro (Batshuayi, 86), Diego Costa, Hazard