Burnley vs Chelsea LIVE: Premier League result, final score and reaction today
Follow live reaction as Chelsea blew Burnley away at Turf Moor on a busy day of Premier League action
Follow live reaction from this afternoon’s Premier League fixtures, after Chelsea swept Burnley aside in the second half to consolidate their place in the top four. Burnley will look back with regret after not taking their early chances but Chelsea were too good in the second half, with the returning Reece James producing an outstanding display on his first start since his injury lay-off. The wing-back fired Chelsea in front shortly after the break, as Thomas Tuchel’s side scored three times in the space of seven minutes.
Kai Havertz added the other two, steering in an excellent header from Christian Pulisic’s cross before tapping in James’ delivery from the right. Pulisic made it four for Chelsea late on to punish Burnley, who remain in the bottom three after suffering back-to-back defeats this week.
Elsewhere, Newcastle took a huge step towards survival after edging Brighton, while Brentford claimed an important win at Norwich to all but condemn Dean Smith’s side to the drop. Philippe Coutinho inspired Aston Villa to thrash Southampton, while Crystal Palace inflicted a third straight defeat for Wolves ahead of Liverpool’s evening clash with West Ham at Anfield.
GOAL! Aston Villa 1-0 Southampton (WATKINS 9’)
First goal of the day, and it comes at Villa Park! The front three combine as Coutinho works the ball to Ings, who finds Watkins. It’s a super finish into the top left corner.
Burnley 0-0 Chelsea
5 mins: Turf Moor is soaked in early spring sunshine - and it’s been a quiet start to the game so far. Chelsea knocking the ball around in their own half, with Saul lining up on the left.
Reece James gets his first opportunity to cross from the right his it’s claimed by Nick Pope.
Over at Brentford, David Raya is called into early action to deny Rashica.
KICK-OFF!
Underway at Turf Moor, and across the Premier League’s 3pm kick-offs.
At all the games this afternoon there will be a moment of solidarity with the people of Ukraine amid the continued invasion of Russia.
The 20 captains will wear yellow and blue armbands as ‘Football Stands Together’.
There are then boos at Turf Moor as the visiting Chelsea fans chant ‘Roman Abramovich’.
Tuchel urges Chelsea to focus against Burnley
Tuchel admitted the sheer scale of Abramovich selling has the power to distract his players, but insisted everyone in the Chelsea set-up knows how to maintain focus.
“It can affect, we should not say this has no effect,” said Tuchel. “But I think we should be careful of already giving an outlook on a general impact because we have 80 people in the building, 80 different life situations and 80 different characters, and they will handle the situation differently.
“And I think that we have also the chance here in Cobham to react to the situation how we want and in the end still influence everybody in a positive way, that it’s okay to focus on sport, and we proved it already twice in the last two games.
“So right now there are not too many reasons why we should not be able to do it a third time, then a fourth time and a fifth time.
“Let’s see what’s going to happen, how the situation evolves and continues. But right now I’m positive that we can be competitive.”
Sean Dyche knows importance of getting details right as Burnley host Chelsea
Burnley boss Sean Dyche says the defeat to Leicester last time out was a reminder of the importance of “getting the details right”.
The Clarets had lost only one of their previous seven matches and taken seven points from their last three prior to being beaten 2-0 by the Foxes at Turf Moor on Tuesday.
Dyche – whose side are 18th in the Premier League, a point adrift of 17th-placed Everton having played a game more – said ahead of Saturday’s home clash with Chelsea: “We weren’t far off (against Leicester).
“We gave away two sloppy goals in the end that cost us, but the general performance wasn’t far off, it just wasn’t as clear-focused and clear-minded as we have shown in performances recently.
“I just felt it was one where kind of we added to the fact that it went away from us. We didn’t play with the clarity we have been and we gave away two soft situations.
“Nick Pope had played very well and made some big saves for us, and we actually conceded from two situations that we didn’t need to. If a couple of the other ones had gone in against Popey, I would have held my hands up, but we kind of didn’t do the things we normally do to prevent two situations which led to their goals.
“So that was my main bugbear. I felt we were on such a good performance level over so many games, and I just felt the energy was right but the detail wasn’t right.
“We’d done well with that over the previous seven games, so we have to remind ourselves of how important that is. The other night does remind you of that – you need to get the details right all the time in the Premier League, otherwise you get punished.”
Burnley vs Chelsea: Reece James returns to starting line-up
Good news, Chelsea fans. Reece James is back starting a game for the first time since December.
Christian Eriksen to start against Norwich
Christian Eriksen will make his first start for Brentford this afternoon at Carrow Road.
Burnley vs Chelsea: Confirmed line-ups
Burnley: Pope; Roberts, Tarkowski, Collins, Taylor; McNeil, Brownhill, Westwood, Lennon; Rodriguez, Weghorst
Chelsea: Mendy; Chalobah, Thiago Silva, Rudiger; James, Kante, Jorginho, Saul; Pulisic, Havertz, Mount
Lukaku and Werner on target in FA Cup win
It was a good night for Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner on Wednesday as they helped Chelsea come from behind to beat Luton in the FA Cup.
Lukaku tapped home Timo Werner’s cross late on to thwart the Hatters’ dreams of a first quarter-final since 1994, on the day when Roman Abramovich signalled the impending end of his Blues reign.
Werner scored and made both Chelsea’s other goals on a solid night for the Germany forward, with Saul Niguez also clipping home.
Could Lukaku or Werner start today? Line-ups will be confirmed in five minutes.
Premier League fixtures
It’s a busy afternoon of Premier League football today, with the following games all underway at 3pm. Jesse Marsch’s first match as Leeds United manager at Leicester is currently goalless.
Burnley vs Chelsea
Newcastle vs Brighton
Aston Villa vs Southampton
Norwich vs Brentford
Wolves vs Crystal Palace
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