Clarets Mad resident feature writer Dave Thornley reflects on Tuchel’s Teutonic meltdown at Stamford Bridge where Burnley yesterday “stole a point”.
Show of hands please, who saw that coming? Come on, let’s be honest.
When the teams were announced prior to Burnley’s visit to Stamford Bridge to take on League leaders and European Champions Chelsea, a glance down the hosts team list revealed a depth of high-quality players extending even to the bench where players as gifted as Mason Mount and Christian Pulisic found themselves unable to find a place in the starting line-up.
Add to that, the knowledge that the likes of Lukaku and Werner were side-lined through injuries only served to further emphasise the divergence in relative wealth between the two teams.
This is not, of course, a recent phenomenon, Chelsea have wallowed in the riches of Croesus ever since Roman Abramovich decided that the London club was a suitable location in which to house his excess billions.
How can a group of diligent, well-organised and hard-working professionals armed only with a bit of Lancashire grit hope to compete with that?
But Burnley do what Burnley under Sean Dyche has regularly done, they find a way. They commit themselves to the cause, keep their shape and their organisation, they place their faith in their fitness, their planning and in each other and they emerge with heads held high.
A single point earned from an away game at Chelsea is mathematically the same as a point gained from, let’s say, at home to Norwich, but they are worlds apart in how they are received and perceived. In the latter case, the point is casually discarded onto the pile with all the others, whilst the former is admired and cherished like a valuable family heirloom.
There is no doubt that Chelsea dominated the game, who would have expected anything else? They were emphatically ahead on every statistical measure except the one that mattered.
Through a combination of some profligate finishing, some last-ditch siege mentality, the brilliance of Nick Pope in goal and sheer force of will, Burnley stayed within touching distance of their illustrious hosts.
The Clarets somehow managed to stay in the game, even after falling behind to Kai Havertz’s close range header in the 33rd minute, the one single chance Chelsea were able to convert.
Paul Merson, commenting on the game for Soccer Saturday, ventured the opinion that Havertz’s goal had “opened the floodgates”, sorry Paul, not so much.
As the game developed and the score remained at 1-0, Burnley took heart, their confidence started to swell, and it became obvious the Clarets began to envisage an outcome other than a comfortable home win.
Merson made no effort to mask his incredulity when, after 79 minutes, Burnley fashioned a move involving Dwight McNeil, Charlie Taylor, Josh Brownhill, a precise cross from Ashley Westwood and a cushioned header from Jay Rodriguez into the path of Matej Vydra who prodded the ball past Mendy in the Chelsea goal from close range.
Vydra almost managed a second, and winning, goal, when his stoppage time lob narrowly missed the target to deny Burnley three immensely valuable points.
“Pure luck” and “a stolen point” was how Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel described the game in his ungenerous post-match interview. One could understand his feelings, but he omitted to acknowledge that luck, however large a slice, is rarely unearned. Tuchel's sideline histrionics did him little credit either.
As for Nick Pope, his performance yesterday demonstrated once again what everyone except, it seems, Gareth Southgate knows, that England simply don’t have three better goalkeepers.
Although Burnley remain in the bottom three, recent performances have begun to yield a few points, and the one earned yesterday most definitely propels the Clarets into yet another international break riding a wave of confidence.
Let’s just hope no injuries are gathered while the Burnley international contingent are away from Turf Moor.

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