Premier League - Chelsea vs Burnley

The sides' first meeting this term was on opening day of the 14/15 Premier League season, in a match that saw Chelsea come from behind to run out 3-1 victors on the evening, with a trio of goals in 17 minutes in the first half from Diego Costa, André Schürrle and Branislav Ivanovic negating Scott Arfield's 14th-minute opener.










The side's attained contrasting results a week and a half before in their Matchday 25 fixtures. Chelsea triumphed 1-0 over a resilient Everton at Stamford Bridge courtesy of a dramatic late winner from Willian, while Burnley were handed a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Manchester United at Old Trafford, where a brace from Chris Smalling and a penalty from Robin van Persie canceled out Danny Ings' 12th-minute equaliser.










Martin Atkinson, who last officiated for Chelsea in their 1-1 draw against Liverpool in the first leg of the Capital One Cup semifinals a month ago and for Burnley in their 2-1 victory over Stoke City at the Britannia in November, has been appointed referee for Saturday's affair.





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A win here is an obvious must.


Zouma for Cahill, Zouma will do better against Ings, I think.

Luis to rotate with Dave and Cesc back into the pivot.

Cuadrado should start, to give Willian a rest.

We absolutely must not understimate this match or any matches in the PL for that matter. Our road to win the PL is well underway but it's still full of pitfalls. There are no easy games in the PL, but I trust Mou when it comes to motivate our players.

I agree with Kick's line-up, Cesc, JC23 and Costa all need gametime to get to their best. Would rest one of Iva/Terry/Matic because they've been ever present this season but not all of them because I'd fear another Bradford.

BURNLEY XI: Heaton; Trippier, Shackell (c), Keane, Mee; Boyd, Jones, Arfield, Kightly; Barnes, Ings

CHELSEA XI: Courtois; Ivanovic, Zouma, Terry (c), Filipe Luis; Matic, Fabregas; Cuadrado, Oscar, Hazard; Diego Costa

Zouma returns, Luis into the side, and Cuadrado makes his first Chelsea start

The perfect line up imo

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAALLLLL!!!!!!


IVAAAAAA

Nearly 2 there

That should have been a penalty. Clear handball.

Another stonewall penalty denied as Costa shoved to the ground in the box

HT: 1-0

Matic off. Retaliation. Complete ****** idiot.

1-1

FT: Chelsea 1-1 Burnley


2 stonewall penalties denied and a leg-breaker challenge not even booked. Still, us far from our best and post-CL hangover strikes yet again.

Damn can't believe matic lost his cool like that

https://twitter.com/piersmorgan/status/569177675366944768


You know when even Pies Morgan is right, you've got a problem.

How can you not lose your cool after a tackle like that?

Disappointing from Atkinson today, we should have won, but at the end of the day, games like this is why we had the 7 point buffer, to allow for mistakes.

Soul wrote:How can you not lose your cool after a tackle like that?

Yea I know...

Kick wrote:but at the end of the day, games like this is why we had the 7 point buffer, to allow for mistakes.

No, that's not the position where you liquidate your buffer points. That match should've been an easy win. How many games are remaining till end of the season? 9 games, is it? (27 points?) so with a 70% point harvesting ratio, 20% draw and 10% loss...that would equate to us losing 7 points at least. We're only ahead by 5 points.

That means we have put our fate in the hands of City, once more. We're not able to produce this little extra push that will put us away from harms way.

It is very possible with this type of performance we've seen yesterday that our games in the CL are numbered; we will be kO'ed next time we meet PSG. In fact I would put it that we have a 65% chance to be ko'ed at SB in couple weeks and 35% we pass to the next round.

So I agree with the lot of you guys over here, our focus should be on the Premiere League, but even that is not looking so bright at the moment.

Chelsea's Game Philosophy needs a change along with some key players but it's too risky to start meddling with the game plan now as we have to stick with what we know best; our comfort zone.

It would be very good to experiment  in some other cup ties or less important games but we have made it difficult for us by losing easy points in easy fixtures. Blaming it on the referees wont help as well.

The current situation is not looking good. But it's even looking worse for the next season assuming no radical changes will be made for next season (which is an early and a relatively big assumption but holds very true for now; the present).

Good is a relative term, what's good to you might not be good to me. But I think even both of us should agree that anything less than a League win is considered to be extremely disappointing.

Huntsman shorter (as per usual):