The State of Play
Mauricio Pochettino remains under pressure in charge of Chelsea as they begin the weekend sitting in the bottom-half of the Premier League table with a remarkable ten defeats in their 27 matches so far this season. The Blues have been chaos merchants throughout the campaign with their last four games across all competitions consisting of a combined total of 20 goals.
Burnley, coached by former Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany, gave themselves a lifeline a couple of weeks ago when they defeated Brentford by two goals to one at Turf Moor. The Clarets now begin this weekend’s round of fixtures sitting five points adrift of safety. That was just their fourth win of the campaign and that has allowed for them to close the gap, combined with Nottingham Forest’s points deduction.
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Team News
Chelsea had some players return to their lengthy injury list over the break with Robert Sanchez, Trevoh Chalobah and Carney Chukwuemeka now all unavailable. The Blues are also still without Romeo Lavia and Levi Colwill, whilst Ben Chilwell is a doubt among others.
Burnley may have Ameen Al Dakhil and Jordan Beyer back at some point this season but both remain unavailable, whilst Aaron Ramsey, Luca Koleosho and Nathan Redmond will all be missing for the rest of the campaign. David Datro Fofana is ineligible.
Expected Line-ups
Chelsea: Petrovic; Gusto, Silva, Badiashile, Cucurella; Caicedo, Fernandez; Madueke, Palmer, Sterling; Jackson
Burnley: Muric; Assignon, O’Shea, Esteve, Vitinho; Gudmundsson, Brownhill, Berge, Larsen; Odobert, Foster
What they Said
Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino has been consistently adamant that he and the club should be trusted but has said that one of his key men Raheem Sterling ‘understands’ the booing he has personally received from the home crowd for poor performances.
Vincent Kompany heaped the praise on their upcoming opponents this weekend, saying “it is a young team, so with that one guarantee you have is that they will always get better.”
When and How to Watch
This match will be played at Stamford Bridge at 15:00 on Saturday March 30th but will not be televised live in the UK. It will also not be streamed live in the UK, either.
Prediction
Chelsea have been unconvincing throughout the game and even inconsistent within actual matches themselves. They remain in contention to finish with a flourish by winning silverware and qualifying for Europe but that seems very unlikely. Burnley will go to Stamford Bridge genuinely confident of making it interesting and at least scoring but Chelsea should still have just enough to overcome the struggling Lancastrians.
