EPL week 35 review: Chelsea move into fourth after Burnley draw

The final of three Wk 35 English Premier League reports see Chelsea move into the top four after drawing with Burnley at Stamford Bridge.

The 35th week of the English Premier League (EPL), and when the leaders of Spurs, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United reminisce they will grab the rats than gnaw at their heels and ask them to kick them in the shins instead.

A wasted opportunity.

Like terrorist cells rising in Afghanistan, it happens regularly; it’s as if the teams battling for whatever it is they are battling for become a thriving singular mass of DNA.

One team loses, passing the baton to the next, and they promptly drop it like high powered binoculars in the hands of a voyeur standing in their bedroom window, watching a barbaric act of evil across the road in number 56.

Spurs lost.

Arsenal lost.

Man Utd lost.

Maurizio Sarri’s side had the good fortune of watching those termite colonies tumble, but it mattered for nought. Chelsea couldn’t capitalise. Burnley blunted what could have been a bolt into third place with an impressive performance at Stamford Bridge.

All the goals came in a crazy opening 25-minutes.

Chelsea had the first chance when Eden Hazard found Gonzalo Higuáin with an impudent little chip over a Burnley defender, and it took a goal-line overhead kick clearance from Ben Mee to prevent the ball going into the net off the outside of the Argentine’s right boot.

Then Burnley took the lead.

The Clarets won a corner in the 8th-minute, a Chelsea defender cleared it to the edge of the box where Jeff Hendrick stood waiting to volley the ball into the back of the net.

Chelsea’s response was rapid and ruthless.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek ram-raided the Burnley box with giant strides through the midfield. The young England man found Hazard, who turned Matthew Lowton inside-out so many times he must have felt like he had ridden The Simpson ride at Universal Studios for 24-hours straight. With Lowton in the middle of next week, Hazard found N’Golo Kante, and the French midfielder slammed the ball home. It was Hazard’s 13th assist of the season. Nobody has more.

Then two minutes later, Chelsea was ahead, and it was another brilliant goal.

Higuaín picked up the ball inside the Burnley penalty area, turned his marker with a brilliant piece of skill before feeding Cesar Azpilicueta who backheeled it back to Higuaín who smashed it into the net off the underside of the crossbar. One fan was so enamoured with the goal that when Higuaín ran into the crowd to celebrate, she buried his head in her ample bosom. Maybe that’s why he was so pissed off when Sarri subbed him later on.

Chelsea had another chance to put some distance between the two sides when Loftus-Cheek curled a speculative effort wide, but Burnley sent the two clubs into the half time break on an even keel when Ashley Barnes finished off a double-headed move involving Ben Mee and Chris Wood.

That’s the way it ended.

2-2.

We had handbags at ten paces towards the end with Chelsea feeling Burnley was time wasting (the ref booked Tom Heaton for time wasting in the 32nd minute!), and the man in the middle sent Sarri for an early bath after reacting angrily to comments hurled at him from the Burnley bench.

But no more goals.

No more points.

Chelsea overtakes Arsenal to move into fourth place with only goal difference separating them from Spurs in third. They have a point lead over Arsenal, and three over Man Utd, but the other three sides each have a game in hand.

There was also bad news on the injury front with Kante picking up a rib injury, and the talented Callum Hudson-Odoi rupturing his Achilles tendon.

Here are the remaining fixtures, and odds.

Top Four Odds

Spurs 1/9
Arsenal 4/7
Chelsea 6/4
Man Utd 5/1

Chelsea Remaining Fixtures

Man Utd (A) 28 April
Watford (H) 4 May
Leicester (A) 12 May

Arsenal Remaining Fixtures

Wolves (A) 24 April
Leicester (A) 29 April
Brighton (H) 4 May
Burnley (A) 12 May

Man Utd Remaining Fixtures

Man City (H) 24 April
Chelsea (H) 28 April
Huddersfield (A) 5 May
Cardiff (H) 12 May

Spurs Remaining Fixtures

Brighton (H) 23 April
West Ham (H) 27 April
Bournemouth (A) 6 May
Everton (H) 12 May

Week 35 Results

Man City 1 v 0 Spurs
Huddersfield 1 v 2 Watford
West Ham 2 v 2 Leicester
Bournemouth 0 v 1 Fulham
Wolves 0 v 0 Brighton
Newcastle 3 v 1 Southampton
Everton 4 v 0 Man Utd
Cardiff 0 v 2 Liverpool
Arsenal 2 v 3 Crystal Palace
Chelsea 2 v 2 Burnley

EPL Standings

1. Liverpool – 88
2. Man City – 86
3. Spurs – 67
4. Chelsea – 67
5. Arsenal – 66
6. Man Utd – 64
7. Everton – 49
8. Watford – 49
9. Leicester – 48
10. Wolves – 48
11. West Ham – 43
12. Crystal Palace – 42
13. Newcastle – 41
14. Bournemouth – 41
15. Burnley – 40
16. Southampton – 36
17. Brighton – 34
18. Cardiff – 31
19. Fulham – 23 (R)
20. Huddersfield – 14 (R)