The most impressive performance from anyone in the opening weekend of the Premier League as Chelsea beat Burnley 3-1, getting a debut goal for Diego Costa for his new team, while Cesc Fabregas set up the next two goals, finding Andre Schurrle (with a genius assist) and Branislav Ivanovic to seal the win before the half time whistle.
It says something about the difference between the teams when Burnley’s most expensive signing this summer cost them £1.5 million, There’s no use going into how much Chelsea have spent. It’s almost like two teams from different leagues and the way Burnley played, spread out tactically and defended against the fantastic movement and passing from Chelsea makes you wonder how quickly will it take them to drop down to the Championship again.
Enthusiasm and some poor defending from Chelsea gave Burnley an early hope, taking the lead after 13 minutes. Scott Arfield was the one left complete open on the edge of the box, resulting in a stunning lead for the newly promoted side, but that was pretty much the last we saw from them in the match before Chelsea completely took over thanks to some fantastic work in the middle of the park from Nemanja Matic and Cesc Fabregas.
The equalizer came three minutes later. Diego Costa was the first to pounce on a rebound coming off the post, but the fact that Tom Heaton reacted so poorly to the initial shout should be the more worrying thing for his manager. It didn’t take long for the lead to be on the visitor’s side as a beautiful set of passing resulted in a perfect one-touch through ball from Cesc Fabregas to Andre Schurrle, showing that his selection in the lineup wasn’t a mistake.
Chelsea finished the job in the 34th minute. Fabregas was the set up man once again, giving Bransilav Ivanovic an easy chance to score, left completely open while coming from behind to convert the corner kick.
Jose Mourinho has a better set of players than the one he had last year, and Chelsea, at least for the first weekend of Premier League football, set themselves up as the team to beat with the most complete display of football we’ve seen over the three days, not even needing to stress themselves in the second half, coasting through the 45 minutes.