Chelsea thrashed Burnley 3-0 in their Premier League game at Turf Moor on Saturday following a fantastic display by their attacking midfielder, Hakim Ziyech who recently joined the club.
The year has been tough for the former Ajax star as he suffered from a knee injury which he picked up at the season opener against Brighton. He recovered well and was introduced as a substitute to the Chelsea game and eventually broke into the first team. Chelsea’s 4-0 win against the Russian club, Krasnodar in the Champions League Group stage game saw his debut goal for the Blues.
It was again at Turf Moor that he opened the scoresheet with his goal for Chelsea. Ziyech struck a low shot from the edge of the box through Dale Stephens’ legs and into the bottom-right corner past Pope in just 26th minute. The highly-rated attacker became the first player of Chelsea since Diego Costa scored in both of his first two games in all competitions in the year 2014. But not only netting goals, but Ziyech also showed a wide array of passing and his unique vision made him a dangerous threat from the wings.
Chelsea’s French defender, Kurt Zouma had a few sloppy moments in the game but undoubtedly his powerful header was brilliant as he gave his team the deserved two goals lead in the 63rd minute of the match. James Tarkowski made an important clearance to deny a Werner tap-in just before the half time but couldn’t stop the French defender from heading the ball into the goal from a corner of Mason Mount.
Timo Werner started in the first team due to a sudden injury to USA winger, Christian Pulisic. Lampard was quick to replace him with the German striker just before the game started. Ziyech helped Werner to score Chelsea’s third goal that led to the straight fourth win of the League since the year of 2010. The move started when Reece James intercepted a cross-field and immediately passed it to Ziyech who assisted Werner just 20 minutes before the final whistle of the game.
A gentle reminder that Ziyech, Werner, Pulisic, Tammy and Havertz have contributed 10 G/A combined within the space of 4 days. This is just the start… pic.twitter.com/FgHiFunVG8
— CFC DUBois (@CFCDUBois) October 31, 2020
Lampard’s side conceded a minimum of two goals per game against the likes of Liverpool, West Brom, and Southampton this campaign, and questions were raised about his defence. But he has proved to all critics by keeping back to back clean sheets in all the previous four outings he had.
The Blues have now achieved back-to-back clean sheets on their climbing up the stairs to the top of the table which is kind of rare to be seen in the past two years since Lampard joined as a coach. Their 0-0 draw at Old Trafford last weekend was their second clean sheet of the season under coach Frank Lampard.
Signing in goalkeeper Edouard Mendy this summer to provide competition to the error-prone, Kepa Arrizabalaga has helped the team to tighten up things at the back. The Senegalese keeper’s fantastic display has helped the team to avoid conceding in each of his first three games in the Premier League- a feat which the legendary keeper, Petr Cech did last in 2004.
In the fifth minute, Ashley Barnes collided with Edouard Mendy after lifting a shot the crossbar though referee David Coote did not deem it worthy of a penalty call.
Burnley failed to register a single shot on target despite delivering nine crosses from open play in the whole game. Sean Dyche’s side didn’t have a proper plan to put Chelsea under pressure which helped the Blues to climb to the fourth spot of the League table after playing seven games. Lampard was very elated with the result and of course with the clean sheet but seemed concerned with Pulisic’s injury.
