LAST UPDATE | 30 Mar
Updated at 19.50
CHELSEA WERE held to a 2-2 draw by Burnley at Stamford Bridge as Vincent Kompany’s side twice came from behind with 10 men to frustrate the hosts.
At five league games, it became Chelsea’s longest unbeaten run in the league in almost 18 months, but there was little good cheer directed towards Mauricio Pochettino and his players by fans at the final whistle after they saw Dara O’Shea snatch a point for Burnley late on.
Cole Palmer had earlier scored twice, the first a penalty after defender Lorenz Assignon had been dismissed for fouling Mykhailo Mudryk, then making it 2-1 after being set up by a delightful flick from the under-fire Raheem Sterling.
In between, Josh Cullen volleyed Burnley level against the run of play early in the second half, as their top-flight survival bid received an unlikely boost.
The first opportunity had been Burnley’s. A long ball up from halfway drifted over the head of Benoit Badiashile and was lashed across goal and wide by Jacob Bruun Larsen.
Next to go close was Enzo Fernandez. His shot from the edge of the box took a wicked deflection towards the top corner, before being brilliantly turned onto the crossbar and behind by Arijanet Muric.
It was a bright Chelsea opening, Palmer and Conor Gallagher readily a threat when linking up whilst Mudryk, fresh from scoring the goal that sent Ukraine to Euro 2024, showed speed and tricky footwork rampaging down the left.
Yet Burnley were not blunt. Wilson Odobert drew a fine, flying save from goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic, finding space to fire from range after stepping inside Malo Gusto, who allowed him past too easily.
Nicolas Jackson too might have done better when he raced on to Palmer’s incisive through-ball, danced round two defenders and aimed for the corner, again though Muric saved.
Axel Disasi thought he had given Chelsea the lead midway through the first half, turning the ball in at the far post from Mudryk’s cross, only for VAR to rule it had gone in off the defender’s arm.
Mudryk fired straight at Muric after being teed up by Jackson jinking in off the right, as Chelsea’s shot count rose to 12 inside the opening 35 minutes.
The sense that Burnley were clinging on grew, and shortly before half-time their task was made exponentially harder.
Assignon initially looked to have Mudryk under control as the pair raced to reach the ball in the left channel. Mudryk stepped across him, and Assignon heaved him away and to the ground with a raised arm at neck height.
In the chaos that followed, the defender was shown a second yellow card, the fulminating Kompany too saw red, leaving Burnley a man down and with their manager banished from the touchline. With his impudent penalty, Palmer added insult to injury to give Chelsea the lead.
It was richly deserved, and so Burnley’s equaliser immediately after the break stunned the home crowd. Cullen played a one-two with Josh Brownhill 25 yards out, receiving it back and crashing an instinctive volley beyond Petrovic with the second half barely two minutes old.
The visitors would have been ahead had Petrovic not saved brilliantly one-handed from Odobert’s close-range header, then at the other end Muric was again Burnley’s saviour, beating away Jackson’s low first-time drive.
Home fans were contemplating another frustrating result when Sterling, on for Moises Caicedo, diverted the ball beautifully into the feet of Palmer with a devilish flick, and Chelsea’s top scorer crashed it into the bottom corner to restore the lead.
It lasted under three minutes. At once Burnley were up the other end winning a corner, and from it nobody in blue followed O’Shea as he ran across four defenders and headed the ball through Petrovic’s fumbled grasp to level.
Sterling should have won it when he burst onto Palmer’s far-post cross but inexplicably nodded wide, before Jay Rodriguez headed against the crossbar in the 88th minute as Burnley threatened the improbable.
Elsewhere, Son Heung-min’s late winner fired Tottenham into the Premier League’s top four with a 2-1 win over Luton.
An action-packed afternoon also saw Fulham hit back for a 3-3 draw at bottom-of-the-table Sheffield United.
Spurs have now come from behind to win in four of their last five home games and needed another second-half turnaround to keep their challenge for a return to the Champions League next season on track.
Tahith Chong’s strike after just three minutes gave Luton a shock lead, but the Hatters ended the day in the relegation zone as their winless run extended to 10 games.
An Ange Postecoglou half-time substitution again made an impact for Tottenham as Brennan Johnson’s cross was turned into his own net by Issa Kabore just six minutes after the Welsh international’s introduction.
Son had missed several chances earlier in the game but finally got some fortune when his deflected effort trickled past Thomas Kaminski for his 15th goal of the season.
Seamus Coleman’s stoppage-time own goal condemned Everton to a bruising 2-1 defeat at Bournemouth as they equalled their worst Premier League run of 12 games without a win.
Beto’s 87th-minute equaliser to cancel out Dominic Solanke’s opener looked set to earn Sean Dyche’s side a valuable point, but Coleman’s late intervention left them empty-handed.
Everton looked to have claimed an unlikely point when Neto dropped McNeil’s cross right at the feet of Beto, who rolled the ball home from close range to leave Dyche punching the air in the dugout.
But, in a final twist, Adam’s Smith deep cross bounced up and hit Coleman on the chest before dropping agonisingly into the net.
Nottingham Forest edged out of the bottom three on goal difference in their first match since receiving a four-point deduction as Chris Wood salvaged a 1-1 draw against Crystal Palace.
Sheffield United were denied just their fourth win of the season by Fulham’s late fightback at Bramall Lane.
Ben Brereton Diaz struck twice as the Blades led 3-1 with four minutes of the 90 left only for Bobby DeCordova-Reid and Rodrigo Muniz to snatch a point for the visitors.
And in the later game, Aston Villa maintained their pursuit of Champions League qualification with a 2-0 win over Wolves at Villa Park.
Unai’s Emery men had been knocked down into fifth by Tottenham’s late win over Luton earlier on Saturday but they responded in style in the midlands derby.
Moussa Diaby notched his first Premier League goal of 2024 to open the scoring in the first half before Ezri Konsa celebrated his recent England debut with a rare strike, though it was a fluke.
He will not care too much about that as his side climbed back up into fourth position, three points above Spurs, as they chase qualification to Europe’s premier club competition for the first time.
It was also an important victory considering they visit Manchester City in midweek, but the one worry will be the condition of Ollie Watkins, who did not reappear after the half-time interval.
Premier League results:
Bournemouth 2 (Solanke 64, Coleman 90+1-og) Everton 1 (Beto 87)
Chelsea 2 (Palmer 44-pen, 78) Burnley 2 (Cullen 47, O’Shea 81)
Nottingham Forest 1 (Wood 61) Crystal Palace 1 (Mateta 11)
Sheffield United 3 (McBurnie 58, Brereton 68, Hamer 70) Fulham 3 (Palhinha 62, De Cordova-Reid 86, Muniz 90+4)
Tottenham 2 (Kabore 51-og, Son 86) Luton 1 (Chong 3)
Aston Villa 2 (Diaby 36, Konsa 65) Wolves 0
Additional reporting by AFP
