(Football news) Chelsea have consolidated their third place in the Premier League with an emphatic 4-0 win over Burnley at Turf Moor. The Blues scored their opening goal in the 47th minute through Reece James’ solo effort before a brace by Kai Havertz all but sealed a win and Christian Pulisic added the cherry on top with a fourth goal. Burnley were quite wasteful, especially in the first half as Dwight McNeil missed an open goal after Thiago Silva had cleared an effort from Wout Weghorst off the line. The result means that Chelsea are five points ahead of fourth place Arsenal who have played one game less while Burnley remain in the relegation zone with 21 points.
The match also had a moment of controversy as Chelsea fans chose the moment when the clubs were showing their support to Ukraine by paying tribute to Roman Abramovich who had announced his decision to sell the club. After the match, Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel said “It was not the moment to do this. If we show solidarity, we show solidarity, we should do it together. We take the knee together. If an important person from our club or another club unfortunately dies, we show a minute of respect, it is not the moment to give other messages, it's a moment to show respect.
“We do this because this is what we are, we show respect as a club, and we need our fans to commit to this minute of applause. We do it for Ukraine, there is no second opinion about the situation there. They have our thoughts and our support; we should stand together as a club. It's not the moment for other messages." Speaking about the match, Tuchel said “It was very calm, we just reminded everybody what we wanted to do, where the spaces were, and where we also needed to step up. It was clearly up front; we needed to ask more questions and make life more difficult for their back four.
"The goal opened the game for us and gave us a lot of belief and confidence, and then our attacks were more fluid, and we were absolutely more decisive. We had a bit of a switch in tactics to give N'Golo [Kante] more space. The team did very well, we kept on believing, and it was a fantastic second half with a brilliant result."
At Anfield, a first half goal by Sadio Mane ensured that Liverpool secured three points against West Ham. The Reds had an unsettled performance and the Hammers could have secured the three points if they were more composed in front of goal but their failure to do so ensured that Jurgen Klopp’s side managed to get a 12th successive victory. Mane capitalised on Trent Alexander-Arnold’s cross and fired it past Lukasz Fabianski. Liverpool could have doubled their advantage through Luis Diaz but his effort was cleared off the line by Aaron Cresswell.
The Columbian had more opportunities to score in the second half while Manuel Lanzini missed a great opportunity to level the advantage by failing to hit the target from six yards after controlling Tomas Soucek's right-wing cross brilliantly. Despite a less than convincing performance, Jurgen Klopp will be happy to have secured three points as Liverpool remain in the hunt for the Premier League title despite six points separating them from league leaders Manchester City.
Speaking after the match, Jurgen Klopp said “It was a really tricky fixture in the first place, we know about all the different things West Ham are good at. I told the boys after the game, if we are not well organised, we have to defend with passion. You cannot win the amount of games we have won in the last few weeks without stress and luck from time to time. I know we can do much better, but you have to get it over the line and I'm very happy about that. It's a very special win. You look at the Burnley game, we went there and got a 1-0 win too. These are the ones that really matter – it's nice with a 4-0, 5-0 win, but it's three points. It's about getting the job done."
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