Chelsea closes gap on Arsenal with win at Burnley
Goals from Pedro Neto and Enzo Fernandez earned Chelsea a 2-0 victory at lowly Burnley, a win that moved the Blues within three points of Premier League leader Arsenal.
Despite the visitors struggling to find their rhythm early on, Neto arrived at the back post to put Chelsea into a 37th-minute lead, an advantage it never looked like relinquishing.
The hosts rallied in the second half but did not create one opening of note, with Fernandez slamming home the second goal late on to seal what will be one of Enzo Maresca's side's most comfortable successes of the campaign.
A third straight league win moved Chelsea up to second on 23 points behind London rival Arsenal, which hosts Tottenham Hotspur on Monday (AEDT).
Manchester City, which has 22 points, also couldn't regain second spot after a 2-1 defeat at Newcastle United later in the day.
Burnley has been a happy hunting ground for Chelsea, which travelled to Lancashire in search of a seventh successive league win at Turf Moor.
It was nevertheless the hosts that had the better of the opening exchanges but they could not make their pressure pay.
With their first meaningful attack, Chelsea edged into the lead. Jamie Gittens's cross was inch-perfect, as was the header from Neto, the Portuguese scoring his fourth league goal of the season.
A fine, flowing move saw Neto almost score again when he hit the post just after the hour mark as Chelsea pushed for a killer second goal. Down the other end, however, they remained totally untroubled.
Argentine Fernandez could not miss the game-clinching second when it came two minutes from time after impressive tenacity from substitute Marc Guiu to set the chance up.
After a mixed start to the campaign, Chelsea is starting to click into gear. It has now won five of its past six Premier League games, winning three successive league matches to nil for the first time since March 2022.
"Tough game for many reasons, but they did not have one chance," Maresca said. "Overall we deserved to win the game.
"I am very happy since I joined this club. When you lose one game it is a crisis, when you lose two it is huge crisis. But I am still enjoying it. We are in a good place right now."
Burnley's third straight defeat – all have come against sides from London – leaves it struggling on 10 points from 12 matches.
"I am pleased with the performance," Burnley coach Scott Parker said.
"We didn’t make poor decisions, we stayed in the match, but we could not make the pressure count.
"We need to hit a certain target and keep improving."
