{"id":344357,"date":"2017-08-12T16:11:11","date_gmt":"2017-08-12T16:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=344357"},"modified":"2017-08-12T16:11:11","modified_gmt":"2017-08-12T16:11:11","slug":"champions-chelsea-stunned-at-home-by-burnley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=344357","title":{"rendered":"Champions Chelsea stunned at home by Burnley"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"sp-story-body__introduction\">Champions Chelsea suffered a nightmare start to their Premier League title defence, having two men sent off as a Burnley claimed a superb win at Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n<p>It would be easy but misleading to lay the blame for the Blues&#8217; defeat on the decision to show a red card to new club captain Gary Cahill for a lunging tackle on Steven Defour midway through the first half.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Cahill.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-344360\" src=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Cahill.jpg\" alt=\"cahill\" width=\"574\" height=\"373\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>But that would deprive Burnley their due for a disciplined, energetic and ruthless display that saw them score three times before the break, with Sam Vokes netting twice &#8211; a header and a volley &#8211; either side of a lashing angled drive from Stephen Ward.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Chelsea-Vokes-cele.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-344361\" src=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Chelsea-Vokes-cele.jpg\" alt=\"chelsea-vokes-cele\" width=\"574\" height=\"397\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Blues were better after the break and pulled a goal back when summer signing Alvaro Morata headed in shortly after coming off the bench.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Spaniard was also at fault for denying the home side a second goal, adding an unnecessary touch to Andreas Christiansen&#8217;s goal-bound shot from an offside position.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Courtois.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-344362\" src=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Courtois.jpg\" alt=\"courtois\" width=\"574\" height=\"376\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Chelsea&#8217;s hopes looked to have gone when a late challenge from Cesc Fabregas on Jack Cork added a second yellow to the first he received for dissent to leave the Blues with nine men.<\/p>\n<p>But David Luiz fired home from inside the box after being set up by a Morata header to set up a frantic final few minutes, during which Burnley struck the post through Robbie Brady before holding on to take the three points.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Fab.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-344363\" src=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Fab.jpg\" alt=\"fab\" width=\"574\" height=\"389\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>There was no doubt about the secret behind Burnley&#8217;s Premier League survival last season &#8211; their form at Turf Moor.<\/p>\n<p>Sean Dyche&#8217;s team had the ninth-best record in the top division &#8211; picking up 33 points at home.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/MorataGoal.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-344365\" src=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/MorataGoal.jpg\" alt=\"moratagoal\" width=\"574\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In contrast, they mustered just seven away from home &#8211; and just one between the start of the season and the end of February, with a goalless draw at Manchester United on 29 October.<\/p>\n<p>They didn&#8217;t win away from Turf Moor until a 2-0 victory at Crystal Palace on 29 April &#8211; and so the achievement of their opening-day victory at the current champions should not be under-estimated.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Morata-cele.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-344364\" src=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Morata-cele.jpg\" alt=\"morata-cele\" width=\"574\" height=\"392\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>If Burnley can regularly pick up points on their travels while maintaining the sort of form they showed at home, then it bodes well for their prospects this season.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC Sport<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Champions Chelsea suffered a nightmare start to their Premier League title defence, having two men sent off as a Burnley claimed a superb win at Stamford Bridge. It would be easy but misleading to lay the blame for the Blues&#8217; defeat on the decision to show a red card to new club captain Gary Cahill [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[142,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-344357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football","category-slider-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=344357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344357\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=344357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=344357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=344357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}