It turned out to be a deception. Burnley had taken the lead and, briefly, their supporters must have dared wonder whether they would be talking about Scott Arfield’s goal in years to come with the fondness they reserve for Robbie Blake’s finest moment for the club. Then Chelsea snapped them out of their dreams, ruthlessly and brilliantly. It was pass-them-to-death football during that blitz of retaliatory strikes and, by the time they were done, José Mourinho’s team had left the team that came up from the Championship looking in need of smelling salts.
Some will cite the financial gulf between the teams, others the technical divide, but the bottom line problem for Burnley on Monday night was that they had not seen anything like this. There were moments, the second goal in particular, when Chelsea took their football to a new level of excellence under Jose Mourinho, second time around. And dealing with that must be very unnerving for a group of players fresh to the Premier League.
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Only Michael Duff has survived at Turf Moor from the last time Burnley were part of the elite. He is 36. Of course, the increased challenge of the Premier League is only to be expected. But nothing could prepare Sean Dyche’s team for the moment when the full potential of players like Eden Hazard, Andre Schurrle and Cesc Fabregas was unleashed. They won’t have been confronted by the terrifying reality of a Champions League elite team before. They won’t have faced a mind as nimble as that of Fabregas, a full-back as dangerous as Branislav Ivanovic, or a finisher as clinical as Diego Costa. The Championship, we are frequently told, is a tough league – but not tough like this. Not in a way that challenges mentally, physically, technically, like the Premier League at its best. Burnley won’t have been confronted by a run like the one produced by Hazard for the second goal, or the pass delivered by Fabregas moments later.
It was the second goal that drove the message home, while also making clear the change in Chelsea season on season. It was more than just a thing of beauty. It was a ten-second showcase of all the damage that Mourinho’s little horse can now do, the new variations to Chelsea’s play, the many layers to their game. It comprised a scintillating dribble from Hazard, an intelligent overlap by Ivanovic, a killer pass from Fabregas, and a finish from Schurrle that brought memories of balmy nights in Brazil to a wet Burnley in the dwindling warmth of an English summer.
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