Chelsea failed to get past Burnley. Much of the aftermath boils down to Chelsea being beaten by a team using its own tricks from the past.
Everything was coming up Chelsea this weekend. The Blues started the weekend with an extra match played compared to their top four rivals. All three of those rivals opted to lose the match in hand they had, which gave Chelsea a golden opportunity to set the pace.
They blew it. Burnley is not a team to be dismissed easily but they are also not a team that poses any sort of threat to the rest of the top six. Sean Dyche does what he has to do and on the day, he had his side fight for every blade of grass and every second.
Maurizio Sarri and many Chelsea fans were angry at the antics. They railed against Dyche’s timewasting and his parked bus. Not that long ago, Chelsea fans would have applauded the same.
The Blues beat Tottenham in 2016 using similar tactics. They went into the match knowing they were the underdogs. But they agitated the North Londoners through time wasting and antics. Then the Blues stepped back and let Tottenham implode.
The Blues did the same against Liverpool in 2014. With little on the line other than ruining Liverpool’s party, the Blues sat deep and waited for their chances as they wasted as much time as possible. They let Liverpool imploded.
Even Chelsea’s most famous victory came with backs their backs firmly against the wall. Chelsea absorbed everything Bayern Munich had in 2012 and when they got set piece opportunities, they let Bayern implode.
Chelsea’s hardly imploded against Burnley, but the effect was largely the same. The Blues were doing well. 1-0 Burnley off terrible zonal defending. The Blues roared the score back and took the lead. Again they were doing well. 2-2 Burnley off terrible zonal set piece defending. After that, Chelsea had an initial flurry of pot shots on goal before they started to live in their own heads.
Burnley sensed at that point that there would be little more they could do from that point on. They had to let the Blues do themselves in, so Burnley began to soak up as much of the clock as possible. It got in Chelsea’s heads, culmination in a bust up at the end with Mateo Kovacic. Sarri was sent off shortly afterwards.
Birthday boy David Luiz ran to tell the camera about “anti-football“, a term which here means football played by a team that should be beaten but is not. No one talks about anti-football from the opponent when they win. They only talk about it when points are dropped. And rarely is it every mentioned that the other team had little other choice.
But that is Chelsea now. Against the “anti-football” they used to call “getting the job done, no matter what”. Talking about “the right way to play” when the right way in a sport that keeps score is the way that wins the most often for that team.
The Blues can still make top four, but it will be difficult. Other teams have had the Blues figured out since October and that is unlikely to change in the last fixtures. Chelsea used to be the team that caused this frustration in others.
But the Blues traded their soul for a YouTube highlight reel and this is where they reside now. Arsenal in Blue decrying “anti-football” from a team they should have beaten.