Chelsea beat Burnley in a professional performance to close the gap to Arsenal at the top of the table to three points.
The Blues eventually ran out comfortable winners after impressively breaking down Burnley’s defence, thanks to goals from Pedro Neto and Enzo Fernandez.
Despite the key goals from Neto and Fernandez, Marc Cucurella made a huge contribution with an impressive attacking performance.
In this article, we’ll cover:
Burnley initial quell Chelsea
Initially, the setup from Scott Parker was excellent. The plan was for Burnley to match Chelsea’s build-up of a 3-3 by marking the Blues’ midfield three of Fernandez, Andrey Santos and Marc Cucurella inverting from defence.
Lesley Ugochukwu, Florentino Luis and Zian Flemming were tracking the three players in the middle. This stopped Chelsea from building up centrally for most of the first half.
Additionally, whenever Enzo Maresca would try to use Liam Delap as a dropping strike, Axel Tuanzebe would track his deep run. It’s why, initially, Burnley created turnovers to release their wide wingers.
The Clarets couldn’t create a goal-scoring opportunity but they certainly made life uncomfortable for Chelsea in the first half.
Cucurella’s movement creates space
Maresca’s answer to Parker thwarting his attack? Instruct Cucurella to move his marker around.
It’s not that Chelsea changed anything in their play to create space. They simply got better at moving Burnley’s press around.
Cucurella was particularly exceptional at this. The opening goal came from the Spaniard making a run beyond Burnley’s defence, whereas previously him, Santos and Fernandez were looking to come short and receive the ball with their back to goal.
With Florentino following him, Cucurella made a run past Burnley’s midfield as he trapped a long pass from defence. The Spaniard was able to bring the ball down and take two defenders with him to lay it off to Jamie Gittens who crossed back post for Pedro Neto to head in.
There was a moment just after the goal where he made the same movement, popping up in the middle of the pitch to receive the ball unmarked. As an inverted full-back, he’s becoming a key player for Chelsea to find space. He can be used as the spare man in advanced positions while other players like Santos and Fernandez are marked as teams may think that it’s more important to mark them in deeper positions.
Taking a look at his touch map is evidence of his quality anywhere on the pitch, he is a crucial player in games like this when Chelsea need to break down a low block. His game has evolved massively, as at once, he’s a left-back, deep central midfielder and advanced attacker who can now be used to find space in the pockets.
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Chelsea create more space after goal
It was important for Chelsea that they kept up their intensity and aggression after Maresca had found an answer to breaking down Burnley. It helps that Burnley struggle to find an out-ball after conceding, aimlessly kicking the ball out often in the early parts of the second half.
With the manner in which Chelsea began to click with Cucurella’s movements, it allowed them to control the tempo of the game and find more players free in the middle of the pitch.
Previously, Burnley matched Chelsea 3v3 in midfield. But with the goal, Chelsea’s confidence began to shine through as they stretched Burnley by pushing Fernandez and Joao Pedro wider on either side of the Clarets’ midfield block.
The plan from Parker was to smother Chelsea in the middle of the pitch. But Fernandez and Pedro picked the ball up on the outskirts of their midfield, with three other players occupied.
Encouraged by taking the lead, Chelsea could allow themselves to take a breath and be more patient as Burnley began to commit more fouls and become more desperate in the press.
Inevitably, there was an eventual attempt from Burnley to respond and get a goal but it led to Chelsea finishing the game off with a brilliant goal on the counter.
Ahead of two massive matches against Barcelona and Arsenal, Maresca will be chuffed that they overcame a tough test in the league ahead of one of the toughest periods in the season so far.