After a first half hour with little action at Turf Moor, Neto broke the deadlock with his finish in the 37th minute, following a fine team move from Enzo Maresca, culminating in a dinked ball into the area from Jamie Gittens.
It was Maresca’s 50th Premier League game and although Chelsea were perhaps lucky not to concede a silly penalty in the first half and were not entirely convincing, they won through Fernandez’s 88th-minute goal. Substitute Marc Guiu produced excellent hold-up play before the Argentine midfielder turned home.
The win left Chelsea three points clear of table-topping Arsenal ahead of the weekend’s remaining games, having overtaken Manchester City ahead of their game against Newcastle United on Saturday afternoon.
Here, Cersei Jones breaks down the game’s main talking points.
How did Chelsea cope without Caicedo?
Chelsea have rarely played without Moises Caicedo this season.
It was only the second Premier League game that the 24-year-old midfielder did not start. Lincoln City was the only match in the Carabao Cup in which he did not participate at all. Maresca later joked that this was “the last time” he would not use Caicedo in a Premier League match.
Caicedo was given a welcome rest after returning from international duty with Ecuador on Thursday, but with Romeo Lavia and Dario Essugo both injured, Maresca had to get creative. André Santos, who usually rotates with Enzo Fernández in a more attacking role, took over Caicedo’s midfield duties.
Chelsea fans will have been pleasantly surprised by Santos’ defensive nous. He was confident in duels – a recovery run and a perfectly timed sliding block on Jadon Anthony 10 minutes in helped him settle – and positioned himself well to make several key clearances and blocks.
For a small 21-year-old, he held his own against Burnley’s front line. The problem was his pretending. As many teams have done with Caicedo this season, Burnley used striker Gian Fleming to take Santos out of contention and thwart Chelsea’s attempts to take the lead from the back. Left-back Mark Cucurella often stuck into midfield to add an extra option and provide some extra pace and mobility, but this left Jamie Gittens isolated on the left wing.
Even with Caicedo on the pitch, Chelsea struggled to deal with the opposition’s tactics. Santos was perhaps less confident on the ball and ambitious with his passing than Caicedo, but overall he performed admirably in a position to which he is less accustomed.
Should Burnley have been awarded a penalty?
Trevoh was aggrieved at Burnley not getting a chance to take the lead from the spot around the half-hour mark after Chalobah handled the ball in the box, with debate over whether the game had already restarted.
As Chelsea prepared to take a goal kick, goalkeeper Robert Sanchez turned the ball into the box and passed to Chalobah on the edge of the six-yard box. He ran back towards his goal, making it look as if he thought the ball was in play.
The defender placed his hands on the ball to control it – apparently believing it was not in play.
After protests by the Burnley players and Chalobah pleading his innocence, referee Peter Banks sided with the spectators and allowed the game to continue.
It was reminiscent of the penalty awarded by Aston Villa against Club Brugge in the Champions League last season, when centre-back Tyrone Mings handled the ball without realizing play had restarted. In contrast, in a similar incident involving Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya and his team-mate Gabriel against Bayern Munich in the 2024 Champions League quarter-finals, a penalty was not awarded. FIFA match official Christina Unkel told CBS Sports at the time of the Arsenal incident that referees should use “common sense”.
“I think if the penalty was given, I don’t think anyone would be asking any questions,” former Manchester City and England defender Joleon Lescott said on TNT Sports’ UK broadcast at half-time. “The thing that saved Chelsea here is that Sanchez has not got his hands on the ball in the six-yard box, which does not indicate that it is a fresh start. Then the referee has allowed Chalobah to make that decision.
“I think if Chalobah lets that ball go past his body and then plays it to Cucurella, the referee lets them play and it doesn’t guarantee them a restart, but the fact he has put his hand on it has made it certain in terms of ‘now we’re restarting’. The referee can and cannot make a mistake in that. He is going to make it wrong for a team and, unfortunately, he made it for Burnley. Found wrong for.”
Is NATO undervalued?
In the endless conversations around Chelsea’s wingers – the battle between Gittens and Alejandro Garnacho on the left, the magic Estevao can sprinkle on the right – there came a moment for Neto.
The Portugal winger has been one of Chelsea’s most consistent forwards this season. Joao Pedro could not play at number nine due to Liam Delap’s absence due to injury; Now Delap is back, he is still regaining his finishing sharpness and has yet to score in the Premier League. Garnacho is coming into form, but the left wing has not been the most prolific source of goals for Maresca.
At Burnley today, Neto’s header opened the scoring in the 37th minute after a brilliant ball from Gittens, his fifth goal contribution in Chelsea’s last five Premier League games. He came close to doubling the lead in the 62nd minute, hitting the post with his first-time effort from Fernandez’s pass.
Neto has added more box threat to his game since arriving from Wolverhampton Wanderers, and his directness and strength are valuable. Estevao may have attracted a lot of attention for his stellar performances off the bench, but Neto has helped in many games by tiring defenders out well before the hour.
The Neto-Estevao tag team on the right is the most exciting part of Chelsea’s attack at the moment, and Neto-Estevao deserves credit for that.
Where does this leave Chelsea?
Being the team that got things back on track after the international break, Chelsea’s three points left them second in the table with a game in hand in the rest of the league.
In his 50th Premier League game in charge, Maresca secured his 27th win. His team are now going strong to retain their place in the Champions League next season, but are they any closer to becoming title contenders?
The ability to win even on days where performances are poor is important – something Chelsea failed to do against Sunderland. That they managed to avoid any of their three yellow cards getting red would also be very welcome. A clinical counter-attack to set up Fernandez’s goal capped what would otherwise have been an unconvincing scoreline, ending Burnley’s hopes of a last-minute equaliser.
Initially it looked as if they would leave themselves open to a late blow: Benoit Badiachile’s late yellow card for wrestling at a corner kick was a frustrating sequence that did not speak of a particularly confident side that they could have added a second goal. The fact that they managed to do so will be a significant confidence booster.
However, there are still major questions. How can they be more creative in midfield to prevent opponents from marking their deeper playmakers? It is a different matter whether they can convert one of their central forwards into a consistent goal threat or not.
Chelsea are trying to maintain their European status, but their title credentials remain unclear.
What did Maresca say?
“It was a difficult game for many reasons,” Maresca said in the post-match press conference. “After the international break, 12 o’clock in the morning, Burnley away, this type of pitch (Maresca clarified he meant the dimensions of the pitch). Overall, I think we deserved to win the game and we’re happy.
“I’ve been very happy since I joined the club, just not at this moment. When you’re Chelsea manager, you know when you lose one game it’s a crisis, and if you lose two games it’s a bigger crisis, so you have to be aware of that. But I really enjoy it because I also like learning. Today we expected a Burnley back five, and they used a back four, so after 20 minutes we had to change plans. There was a need, and the players adapted, so I’m very happy.
“We believe, we are doing well. Today we could have done many things better, but in the end it was important to win the game. But we are confident and we are ready to prepare for Tuesday (when they face Barcelona in the Champions League) and Sunday (when they face Arsenal in the Premier League).”
On the half-time replacement of Reece James, Maresca said: “We had planned (for him to play) 45 minutes. That’s why I said we had many reasons to be happy today, because one of the reasons was also to try to manage the players. It’s not easy, because I personally want Reece to continue in the second half, but we need to protect Reece.”
What next for Chelsea?
Tuesday, November 25: Barcelona (home), Champions League, 8pm UK, 3pm ET
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