Premier League 2018/19: Chelsea vs Burnley

Chelsea came into this match with a fantastic opportunity to move into sole possession of third place in the table with Tottenham, Arsenal, and Manchester United all dropping points at the weekend. The opportunity was squandered as a dominant attacking performance was undone through poor defending on set pieces. Set piece goals from Burnley’s Jeff Hendrick and Ashley Barnes negated the enormous Chelsea advantage in the run of play.

The possession advantage for the match was 74% to 26% in favour of Chelsea while the xG numbers from wyscout.com ended with 2.17 for the Londoners and 0.58 for Burnley. Using tactical analysis and statistics we will look at how Chelsea broke down Burnley’s two blocks of four and how Burnley succeeded on their two set-piece opportunities.

Lineups

The home team, Chelsea, came out in a 4-3-3 formation. Kepa Arrizabalaga was in goal, with Emerson Palmieri, David Luiz, Andreas Christensen and captain César Azpilicueta in the backline. Jorginho anchored the midfield with Ruben Loftus-Cheek and NGolo Kanté. Eden Hazard, Gonzalo Higuaín, and Callum Hudson-Odoi made up the front line.

Burnley countered with a 4-4-2 formation, naming Ashley Barnes and Chris Wood up top. A midfield block of four consisted of Jeff Hendrick, Ashley Westwood, Jack Cork and Dwight McNeil. The four-man defence was Matthew Lowton, James Tarkowski, Ben Mee and Charlie Taylor. The captain Tom Heaton played in goal.

Burnley set pieces

Wyscout.com had Burnley with four shots for the match and an xG of 0.58. They scored from a corner kick that was a 0.04 xG chance and a free kick that was a 0.54 xG chance. Their other two shots registered less than 0.01 xG. The only chances that registered xG were the two set-piece goals. Burnley were thoroughly dominated by Chelsea in every area except set pieces and the scoreline.

Jeff Hendrick goal off a corner kick

The setup for the goal by Hendrick saw Burnley commit five players around the six yard area with three players at the top of the box. Chelsea countered this by putting 10 players around the six yard box and Hazard wide to take away any short options.