Old guard wins it for Tuchel

CESAR AZPILICUETA and Marcos Alonso earned Thomas Tuchel a first victory as Chelsea boss and struck a blow for the club’s re-emerging old guard.

The club captain thumped home a 40th-minute opener and Alonso hammered a delicious late second as the dominant Blues rendered an in-form Burnley completely toothless to record only their second Premier League win since Christmas.

While Chelsea were rarely dazzling, they controlled the match from start to finish, moving up to seventh in the table before Tuchel gets his first ‘big-six’ test at Tottenham on Thursday.

These are early days for Tuchel — named as Frank Lampard’s successor less than a week ago — but there has been a definite shift away from young British players to more experienced imports.

The German’s decision to replace England left-back Ben Chilwell with Alonso was the most surprising here — but it paid off.

There was still no league goal for Timo Werner — a man Tuchel admits is struggling for confidence — but other than that, this was a highly satisfactory day for the new Stamford Bridge boss.

Given that Chelsea had won just twice in nine Premier League games, and Burnley had chalked up five victories during that same stretch, this was never going to be a ‘gimme’ for Tuchel.

As he feels his way into the job and weighs up a squad with plenty of strength in depth, he made four changes to the side held by Wolves on his opening night - Werner coming in along with Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham and Alonso.

Having plumped for Jorginho, not a regular under Lampard, and Toni Rudiger, who had been frozen out for months by the former boss, Tuchel is clearly keen to give every one of his new charges an opportunity.

But Alonso, not seen since he was dragged off at half-time with Chelsea 3-0 down at West Brom in September, was still a surprise inclusion.