Wonder strike denies Chelsea
BLUES HELD: BATTLING BURNLEY FULL VALUE FOR DRAW
Brady’s curling free-kick sends Turf Moor into raptures.
Home debutant Robbie Brady scored a memorable free-kick to earn Burnley a 1-1 draw on yesterday that prevented Chelsea moving 12 points clear in the Premier League.
Brady cancelled out an early strike from Pedro and while the point stretched Chelsea’s lead to 10 points, their advantage will be trimmed to eight points if Manchester City win at Bournemouth tonight.
Brady’s goal continued his recent run of success against Chelsea manager Antonio Conte, with the winger having also scored the winner for Ireland against Conte’s Italy in the Euro 2016 group stage.
Burnley, whose home record is bettered only by second-placed Tottenham and Chelsea themselves, looked like they might be swept away following an electrifying start from the league leaders.
But Sean Dyche’s team, who had won seven straight games at Turf Moor after losing to Manchester City in November, showed great resilience and deservedly equalised after 24 minutes.
A foul by Nemanja Matic on Joey Barton on the edge of the area presented Brady, a club-record £13 million signing from Norwich City last month, with his chance.
He took it in style, curling a magnificent 20-yard free-kick over the wall and into the top-left corner.
That cancelled out an equally impressive opener from Chelsea that was started, and finished, by Pedro in the seventh minute.
The Spanish winger helped begin the attack deep in his own half with a pass to Eden Hazard who, in turn, fed Victor Moses on the right.
After skipping past Brady’s crude challenge, Moses crossed for Pedro, who had covered nearly 70 yards, and his low, angled shot gave Tom Heaton no chance.
The Clarets then began to show why they have become so feared on their own turf.
Burnley should even have taken a lead into the interval after Barton found fullback Matt Lowton, who only had Thibaut Courtois to beat but was denied by a solid block from the Chelsea goalkeeper.
The furious tempo of the game continued after the restart, with a mistake by Matic and an error by David Luiz culminating in Gray gathering Barnes’ pass and shooting straight at Courtois.
In response, and thanks to a Ben Bee mistake at the other end, Diego Costa had a shot blocked before Cesar Azpilicueta chanced his luck with a long-range shot that just cleared the Burnley crossbar.
Arfield almost twisted and turned his way through on goal late on, but Luiz’s challenge prevented him from giving Burnley six successive home league victories for the first time in 56 years. –