Premier League: Battling Burnley Head to the Bridge

Chelsea vs Burnley

Sean Dyche takes his Burnley side to the capital city this weekend where they will face league leaders and European champions Chelsea in an intriguing Premier League clash.

The Premier League 2021 betting odds for this game make it a home banker – first against eighteenth in the table, a bankrolled team of superstars against a group of street fighters.

But, as Chelsea fans all know, the Clarets are never to be underestimated. Dyche’s team has plundered Stamford Bridge for a win and two draws over the last six seasons, scoring six goals in the process, so Thomas Tuchel will have his title-chasers well primed.

Chelsea come into the game on the back of a 1-0 victory in Malmo. Meanwhile, Burnley registered their first league win of the Premier League season last week against Brentford, and the Clarets now set their sights on the Bees’ illustrious neighbours.

Talking Points

Chelsea wing-backs the best in the business

Much has been written and said about Chelsea’s incredible array of attacking talent. But you don’t win the Champions League with just strikers alone, and Tuchel has put together a squad of players of exceptional quality in every area of the pitch.

At the moment, it is his two-full backs who are writing the headlines. Right-back Reece James is top scoring for Chelsea with four goals. He scored a special goal to give the Blues a lead in their 3-0 victory over Newcastle last week, bringing the ball down on the right side of the penalty area and rifling an unstoppable shot into the roof of the net. He then lashed in another beauty to double the lead before Jorginho made it 3-0 from the penalty spot.

And left wing-back Ben Chilwell has three goals to his name already. England missed him at Euro 2020 and his former club Leicester City could certainly do with his services. Now fit again, he is one of the most complete wing-backs in the game, equally comfortable snuffing out attacks or launching raids down the left wing.

Hakim Ziyech is keen to help Chelsea once again to beat Burnley in their next Premier League match — Hakim Ziyech celebrates as he scored Chelsea’s winning goal in their Champions League match against Malmo

These two young stars are challenging Liverpool’s duo of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson as the best wing-back duo in the league.

Up front, Tuchel has players still coming back from injury. Romelu Lukaku, Timo Werner and Mateo Kovacic are all doubtful while Christian Pulisic came on as a second-half substitute in Chelsea’s win over Malmo, so he could be pushing for a start.

Meanwhile, Tuchel has asked winger Hakim Ziyech for more consistency and he bagged the winning goal in Sweden, so the Moroccan could also be in the manager’s thoughts.

How high can Cornet lift the Clarets?

Burnley have made a habit of starting slowly in the Premier League before recovering as the nights draw in and the temperatures plummet. But surely they’ll get caught out sooner or later.

Well…maybe not.

Summer signing Maxwel Cornet has given the Clarets some real star quality to add to the cut and thrust of Dyche’s team. The Ivorian has scored four goals in five appearances, and he already has an impressive show reel of long-range strikes, brilliant volleys and bullet headers.

Chelsea’s centre-back duo of Anton Rudiger and Thiago Silva are an imposing pair. The Blues have conceded just one goal in the last four Premier League appearances, but they know they’ll be in a game against Cornet and his strike partner Chris Wood. The New Zealand man fired in a cracker to open the scoring against Brentford, his second goal of the campaign.

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La Liga

And while Chelsea have two world class wing-backs Burnley’s right back, Matthew Lowton isn’t doing badly either. He’s made three assists and scored against the Bees. Meanwhile, captain Ben Mee is fit again to partner James Tarkowski at the heart of Burnley’s defence.

Dyche insisted that his team’s early Premier League 2021 results were an unfair reflection of their performances, and it all came right as they inflicted a first away defeat on Brentford. And the way Burnley played against Thomas Frank’s side, as well as Southampton and Leicester recently and… if Cornet stays fit, then they’ll probably be just fine.

History

In the 15 games played between the two teams in the Premier League era, the Blues have won ten, while Burnley have won two and drawn three, so you could give the Clarets a one in three chance of avoiding defeat and the odds of 3.58 on Burnley or Draw might turn out to be decent value.

But recent form suggests otherwise. The Blues have won the last six in all competitions and while Burnley have lost just one of their last five league games, against Manchester City, they will struggle to take anything from the Bridge, having lost their last four games against Chelsea.

Betting Tip

	Chelsea vs Burnley	Total Goals 2-3 @ 2.08
	November 06, 23:00 (GMT+8)

Chelsea have SBOTOP odds of 1.25 to win this game with Burnley at 10.12 and the draw at 5.41 and, despite the Clarets’ recent upturn in form it’s hard to see anything other than a home win.

For a correct score line 2-0 is at 5.22 and that’s well within Chelsea’s capability.

Burnley lost by the same score away to both Manchester City and Liverpool but, while 2-0 would be no disgrace, the Lancashire side will push their hosts as far as they can.