VYDRA SMASH AND GRAB ACT
THOMAS TUCHEL accused Burnley of “stealing a point by pure luck” after Matej Vydra’s late strike denied his Chelsea side one of the most comprehensive 1-0 wins you’ll see.
Tuchel’s frustrations were understandable – after all, the Blues were dominant from the off and should have run away with the game.
But it wasn’t Burnley’s fault that Chelsea were wasteful and the German ignored the fact Nick Pope made three outstanding saves, after a disappointing week in which he was overlooked by England boss Gareth Southgate.
Pope sent a timely message that on his day he’s as strong as any of his rivals for the No.1 spot because he more than played his part in securing a point that was as vital as it was unlikely.
Tuchel said: “It was a fantastic 90-minute performance. It can only happen in football.
“That’s why everyone loves the game – a team can steal a point if the other team forgets to score the goals they deserve. We played a fantastic match.
“Of course I’m disappointed. If we played this game 100 times, we’d win 99 times.
“It’s our fault. We should have scored. We created so many chances. You have the opponent where you want to have them. You create so many chances.
“We let them believe it was possible to steal a point by pure luck and that’s what happened. But we are in a good place.”
Burnley boss Sean Dyche said: “I can understand him being frustrated. If the shoe was on the other foot I might be thinking that but I also might be thinking, ‘They did what Burnley had to.’”
Things were far more polite between the managers after the game than they during it, with Dyche claiming to be bemused by questions about two or three exchanges as tensions simmered in the technical areas.
He must have forgotten them shouting at each other after Ross Barkley and Ben Mee clashed, even though he appeared to complain to the fourth official he’d have been in trouble if he’d run on to the field as Tuchel did.
Dyche’s assistant Steve Stone concluded another round of handbags as he told the Chelsea bench to, ‘Show some flipping respect,’ or words to that effect.
Tuchel giggled as he declined to divulge details of the spats but he must have known what he was doing when he celebrated Kai Havertz’s goal wildly in front of the Burnley bench.
Dyche, Ian Woan and Stone, for their part, were much more cool in their own celebrations, the Clarets gaffer simply sipping his water when inside he must have been punching the air.
Chelsea had four fine chances to go ahead within the first eight minutes but Pope saved well from Callum Hudson-Odoi, who then skewed the rebound, and again from Jorginho.
In between those chances, Charlie Taylor got enough of a block on Reece James’ shot to deflect the ball over, Andreas Christensen headed just wide and Maxwel Cornet needed to be alert to stop Barkley’s cross reaching Havertz at the far post.
Chelsea were deservedly ahead by the break, Havertz heading in from James’ brilliant cross after N’Golo Kante set the wing-back free down the line.
They were unlucky not to make it two after half-time when centre-back Thiago Silva headed against a post.
Havertz had a glorious chance to kill the game but scooped over before Pope denied HudsonOdoi again.
And they were made to pay when Jay Rodriguez nodded down for fellow sub Vydra and the Czech tucked the ball home.