Chelsea spurned the chance to open up a commanding lead at the top of the Premier League. They were pegged back by a late goal from the substitute Matej Vydra despite dominating the game and carving out a dozen good chances, only one of which was converted in the first half by Kai Havertz.
For all the opportunities Chelsea wasted — and the excellence of Nick Pope in the Burnley goal — they still appeared to have done enough, but a lapse in defensive concentration 11 minutes from the end was punished by Burnley, whose manager, Sean Dyche, deserves plenty of credit for his positive substitutions when some of his counterparts might have engaged in damage limitation.
Burnley’s fighting spirit was not confined to the pitch, with Dyche and Thomas Tuchel, the Chelsea manager, squaring up at one point and snarling at each other in response to one particularly tasty challenge by Ross Barkley on Ben Mee.
Dyche’s assistant, Steve Stone, also got stuck in minutes later, calling on the Chelsea bench to show some respect as comments were flying back and forth. That was during a period of total Chelsea dominance in the first half but, in the end, Burnley earned their respect by staying in the game and then snatching a point.
Both managers sought to play down the incidents afterwards and would not be drawn on what was said, though Tuchel risked further underdog ire by claiming the visiting side had been lucky.
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“A team can steal a point if the other team forgets to score the goals they deserve,” Tuchel said. “We did a fantastic match. Of course I’m disappointed. If we played this game 100 times, we’d win 99 times.
“Today we didn’t win it. The second goal would have decided it. It’s always possible you miss one ball, one cross, and this can happen. It’s our fault. We should have scored. We created so many chances.”
Burnley were unchanged from the team that defeated Brentford last weekend, while Tuchel’s selection again contained one or two surprises, with a rejuvenated Barkley making his first league start since July last year.
As Chelsea took the game to Burnley from virtually the opening whistle, Barkley was prominent in the first dangerous move after only four minutes. He picked the ball up in midfield with Burnley having committed plenty of men forward and found Callum Hudson-Odoi, who had peeled away to the edge of the box and given himself room to shoot. However, Pope saved well diving to his right.
The Burnley goalkeeper then denied Jorginho moments later from another corner. The visitors looked particularly vulnerable from set pieces, but Andreas Christensen sent a flashing header wide from a cross by Hudson-Odoi from a short corner.
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Reece James was the main Chelsea threat, his low cross in the 29th minute almost turned in by a Burnley defender before he fashioned Chelsea’s goal moments later. Charlie Taylor should have got much closer to James but allowed him to pick out Chelsea’s false nine with a pin-point cross that split the Burnley centre- half partnership, and needed Havertz only to slightly divert the trajectory of the ball to send it into the corner of the net, a task he made look easy.
That appeared to ease out Tuchel after his touchline spat with Dyche a few moments earlier, but for all Chelsea’s possession — 78.9 per cent in the first half — Burnley were still very much in the match going into the interval.
That surprising state of affairs should have been rectified as Chelsea carved out another couple of excellent chances early in the second half.
James forced an early second-half corner which was again taken short to Jorginho, whose cross was smacked against the upright by the head of Thiago Silva, and Havertz then missed a sitter from Hudson-Odoi’s cross, skying the ball over the bar.
Hudson-Odoi then had a shot well saved by Pope just after the hour mark and Matt Lowton managed to scramble the ball away as Burnley swayed but refused to crumble.
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It was Jorginho’s turn to pull all the strings and Barkley’s opportunity to have stars in his eyes as he blasted over with the gaping goal on 72 minutes, and seconds later the former Everton player was substituted by Ruben Loftus-Cheek.
Still Burnley sounded a warning when an Ashley Westwood corner was flashed just over the bar by the substitute Jay Rodriguez and it was not a surprise when Dyche’s side snatched an equaliser in the 79th minute.
Perhaps Chelsea were starting to believe in their own invincibility, for they appeared to freeze when Lowton chested the ball down for Westwood to scoop into the box, and Rodriguez headed the ball into the path of Vydra who scored from close range, with the home side apparently looking for an offside with the exception of Antonio Rüdiger, who was playing Burnley on.
Chelsea sent the cavalry on but to no avail, and might even have been caught a couple of times on the break had Burnley shown a tad more composure with their play.
However, the point earned against all the odds yesterday were vindication for Dyche’s positive substitutions and massive frustration for Tuchel that his side had not put more daylight between themselves and Manchester City.
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“Pope was outstanding,” Dyche said. “It was footballers trying to do whatever they could to find a way to get something against a fantastic football side.”
Chelsea (3-4-1-2): E Mendy — A Christensen, Thiago Silva, A Rüdiger — R James, N Kanté (M Mount 85min), Jorginho, B Chilwell — R Barkley (R Loftus-Cheek 72) — C Hudson-Odoi (C Pulisic 85), K Havertz. Booked James.
Burnley (4-4-2): N Pope — M Lowton, J Tarkowski, B Mee, C Taylor — J Gudmundsson (M Vydra 70), A Westwood, J Brownhill, D McNeil — C Wood (J Rodriguez 61), M Cornet (E Pieters 88). Booked Cornet, Westwood.
Referee A Marriner.
