Good morning and welcome to our live text coverage of the Premier League match between Chelsea and Burnley from Stamford Bridge! Chelsea are undergoing a mid-season transition in their pursuit of Champions League football with Thomas Tuchel in the dugout for the second time after replacing Frank Lampard as manager. Burnley, on the other hand, are in the middle of purple patch and a win this afternoon would make it three wins on the bounce for them. We will be bringing you all the build-up, highlights and talking points from the match, so stay tuned ahead of kick-off at 12:00.
Premier League / Matchday 21
Stamford Bridge / 31.01.2021
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- C. Azpilicueta(40')
- M. Alonso(84')
Live
Live Updates
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Updated 31/01/2021 at 13:55 GMT
It's been an underwhelming showing for Burnley so far, but definitely can't rule them out after the way in which they continually bounced back against Aston Villa to win 3-2, creating their goals from relatively nothing.
Mount dribbling on past Cork in the first half.
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Image credit: Getty Images
End of 1st Half
45'
HALF-TIME: Chelsea 1-0 Burnley
A dominant first-half performance from the Blues, but it could've easily been a different story. The wastefulness in front of goal suggested today could've been a replica of the events midweek in the goalless draw against Wolves, but they finally found a breakthrough. Burnley fought well and for the first 20 minutes or so were matching Chelsea's energy before they fell slightly under the cosh.
40'
GOAL!!! Azpilicueta rifles home the first goal of the Tuchel era!!
It started deep in their half when Jorginho set Mount free. He ran at the Burnley defence, laid it off to Hudson-Odoi, who shifted it to Azpilicueta on his right. The speed of their passing was much better and they got their reward for it.
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Goal
C. Azpilicueta
Chelsea
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Goals1
On target1
Free Kicks1
38'
Burnley very much sitting deep and defending on the back foot with Chelsea's defenders passing and receiving the ball around the halfway line. Can they make this pressure count?
37'
Werner cuts in from the left and has a low shot on goal deflected easily into Pope's hands.
35'
Sikly one and two-touch passing in the build-up from Chelsea and after a backheel flick from Werner, Mount shoots high and wide from the edge of the area not for the first time today.
Have Chelsea left their shooting boots at home for the second game running?
30'
Werner does well on the left to find space and pulls it back for Mount, but the shot is much too high. Chelsea back to controlling the game.
29'
CHANCE!! Rudiger sprays a pass out wide to Hudson-Odoi, who makes a brilliant run down the right and cuts it back for Werner, who has the goal at his mercy. But Werner miskicks the ball completely. Sums up his time in England so far to be honest.
26'
CLOSE!! Great cross from Jorginho in search of the far post but Alonso skews his header cross-goal instead of on-target. A good opportunity to mark his return to competitive action and he really should've done better.
25'
Burnley are enjoying a lot of possession at the moment. Tarkowski has been particularly impressive so far, both defensively and on the ball. You can tell they're high on confidence due to the amount of attacking intent they're showing.
20'
Mendy is passed the ball under tonnes of pressure and he gives away the ball himself trying to pass it out of the box, but Burnley fail to capitalise on the error.
16'
SAVED!! Mount and Kovacic link up well after the latter starts the move with a lovely flick, but his eventual shot is straight at Pope.
14'
Tasty cross comes in from Azpilicueta but Lowton does just enough to prevent Silva making good contact on the header and it goes over.
8'
Werner peels off to the left and sets up Mount, whose effort on the turn goes wide.
5'
Kovacic lofts the ball over the defence in search of Mount but Pope cleans up.
1st Half
1'
KICK-OFF: Match now underway!
11:52
Burnley were recently bought by American investment firm ALK Capital and 53 year-old businessman Alan Pace now takes on the role of chairman as part of that deal. Here is a bit more about him.
11:45
Cautious optimism from Burnley fans? Their 4-4-2 system could actually be a tricky system for Chelsea to defend against with their back three, especially with the two wing-backs Hudson-Odoi and Alonso being more regarded for their attacking qualities than defensive ones.
Burnley could look to find space in the corners behind the wing-backs in order to stretch the three centre-backs and have the wing-backs running back towards goal. That said, the absence of Barnes, who works tirelessly in attack could be a slight let-off for Chelsea.
Mount gives Chelsea that extra creativity in midfield they were perhaps lacking against Wolves when Jorginho and Kovacic were basically passing sideways for 90 minutes. However, a key factor could be whether Werner partners Abraham in a front two, or if him and Mount play off Abraham instead.
11:37
That explains that one then! Tuchel specifically trying to counter Burnley's aerial threat. We will see if it works...
11:35
Lots of anger at Alonso starting. Perhaps that is due to Alonso being more attacking than Chilwell and thus more suited to the left wing-back role.