Chelsea’s three things to look for at Turf Moor: More clean sheets?

Chelsea is in search of another win to justify a 0-0 draw from last week. Burnley will want their first win, but the Blues will want them to wait.

The Blues travel to one of the scariest places in the Premier League in recent seasons with a trip to Turf Moor. After 0-0 draws last week, Chelsea had to follow up with wins in the Champions League and Premier League to help justify them. The job is half done with Sean Dyche’s awful Burnley side in the way for the other half. What is worth looking out for in this match?

1. The dark omens of this fixture

Elephant out of the way first. Chelsea is playing a team without a win in . They should, by all accounts, continue that. And what’s this? The little team that couldn’t did and now the Blues go home having ended that winless run in the wrong way.

Fans won’t be unfamiliar with that idea as Chelsea seemingly is always “the team” to end these terrible runs for opponents. But what about Halloween? It might not be as apparent, but the Blues tend to struggle with games on or near Halloween in recent seasons.

Last season it was a loss to Manchester United just the day before. In 2017 it was a 3-0 shellacking to Roma. 2015 it was a 3-1 home loss to Liverpool.

At the very least, the Halloween losses seem to come on odd numbered years for the Blues. Then again, in 2018 Chelsea beat Frank Lampard’s Derby County on Halloween, so it isn’t a great day for him either.

Should these things mean anything? No, but they tend to and that’s why they are spooky.https://theprideoflondon.com/2020/10/30/chelsea-predicted-xi-vs-burnley-lampard-gives-the-4-2-3-1-another-try/

2. Can the attack fully click ahead of the new found base?

In the first half against Southampton, Chelsea’s attack played beautiful free flowing football. In the second half, that completely fell apart and the Blues went home with a somewhat embarrassing 3-3 (given how it came about).

Frank Lampard then traded that free flowing attack for a sturdy defense against Sevilla and Manchester United. The plan was not necessarily to earn just a point, but it was to not concede. That worked, but it did stifle the attack.

Against Krasnodar, the attack again was quite reined in. It was only with the subs and the Russian side tiring that the Blues began to pile on. It is not exactly ideal that the two Germans Timo Werner and Kai Havertz have somewhat spotty goal scoring records overall this season.

Burnley will pack it in tight to deny the Blues goals as they do even when they are playing well. It will be a test of Chelsea’s attack after three (and a half?) games where they haven’t been up to snuff. The defensive base is there, now the attack has to earn their keep again.

3. Can something be figured out in midfield?

As Chelsea’s defense has found its way, a new issue has been fully revealed (or rather, it gets to share the spotlight alone now). The midfield is a disaster. Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic have the “sauce” or some nonsense like that, Kovacic and Kante has the steel, and Kante and Jorginho has featured in the most recent bad draws (not to be confused with the good draws).

The simple fact of the matter is Chelsea has no pivot that truly works well together. Even if a pair does manage to do well for a game, they fall apart the next game. That was an issue with defense before Mendy came in and the pair of Kurt Zouma and Thiago Silva was seemingly settled on.

4-2-3-1 seems to be primarily about getting Kai Havertz in his “natural” position, a term which here means the role he claims he wants to play and the role FIFA 21 has assigned him. But modern players do not really have natural positions anymore and the 4-2-3-1 is essentially what the 4-4-2 used to be; a jack of all trades master of none formation.

Lampard made a triple sub against Krasnodar to go 4-3-3 with dual eights. Either that or Krasnodar running out of gas worked as the Blues scored three times after the changes. Seemingly, that is the answer for midfield going forward.

Of course, so was a Kovacic and Kante pivot for a time. Then it was Jorginho and Kante. Recently, some have been crying out for the Kovacic and Jorginho pivot. If 4-3-3 is going to work, it needs to work for more than one game. Can it do so from the start against Burnley?

What are you looking for in this match? Let us know in the comments and on Twitter!