Chelsea on Monday accused Burnley of time-wasting and playing “anti-football” after Blues boss Maurizio Sarri was sent off before a touchline skirmish marred their frustrating 2-2 draw in London.
Sarri’s side fell behind to Jeff Hendrick’s fine finish before N’Golo Kante equalized moments later.
In a frantic opening 24 minutes at Stamford Bridge, Gonzalo Higuain put Chelsea ahead, only for Burnley’s Ashley Barnes to punish more dismal defending from the Blues.
Photo: Reuters
Without a win in their past two league games, Chelsea took only slender comfort from climbing one point above fifth-placed Arsenal into fourth place, level on points with third-placed Tottenham Hotspur.
Chelsea would have gone third with a victory, but instead they have now played a game more than the top-four rivals Spurs, Arsenal and Manchester United, who are three points behind in sixth.
It was a missed opportunity after defeats for Tottenham, Arsenal and United at the weekend, and Chelsea were booed off at the end.
In a fitting coda to a damaging evening, Sarri was sent to the stands for protesting in the final seconds before several members of the Blues bench were involved in a tetchy touchline clash with their Burnley counterparts.
Sarri’s assistant, Gianfranco Zola, said his boss was so “emotional” after the game that he could not fulfill his media duties.
“He was very upset because he has heard not good words towards him from the Burnley bench. The only reason he walked over there was to get our players to go into position, he was trying to help the ref,” Zola said.
Zola took a swipe at Burnley’s perceived gamesmanship, which included Clarets goalkeeper Tom Heaton being booked in the first half for time-wasting.
“We are unhappy. There was too much time wasting. Five minutes injury-time wasn’t enough to compensate. We couldn’t build important rhythm,” Zola said. “We expected it to be a tough game. We didn’t expect so much time-wasting. We expected [referee] Kevin Friend to give more extra-time. That’s why we’re very unhappy.”
Chelsea defender David Luiz went even further in his criticism of Burnley.
“It’s anti-football. Wasting time all the time, especially when you have the ball. Their players went to the floor and stopped the game.”
Now Arsenal can replace Chelsea in fourth place if they avoid defeat at Wolverhampton Wanderers today.
“We need to improve, but we’re in a good way. We care, as we showed today,” Zola said.
Adding to Sarri’s problems, he was hit by first-half injuries to France midfielder Kante and England winger Callum Hudson-Odoi.
“It doesn’t look very good, unfortunately,” Zola said of Hudson-Odoi. “It’s a problem with his Achilles tendon.”
Brushing off the bench-clearing clash, Burnley manager Sean Dyche said: “By the time I turned round there was something going off in the tunnel.”
“I don’t know what you can call it now. Handbags? Manbags? Bumbags?” he said.
Chelsea were stunned in the eighth minute when Hendrick’s rocket put Burnley ahead.
It was a poor goal for Chelsea to concede as Cesar Azpilicueta could only head a Burnley corner to the edge of the penalty area, where Hendrick was left unmarked to volley a superb dipping strike past Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Eden Hazard’s majestic assist helped Chelsea draw level four minutes later, underlining why the club are so keen to keep their talisman out of Real Madrid’s clutches.
Cutting in from the left, Hazard twisted and turned so rapidly that Burnley defender Matt Lowton fell flat on his backside as the Belgian picked out Kante for a powerful shot that flashed past Heaton.
Pushing forward with pace and precision, Chelsea went in front two minutes later when Higuain turned smartly to pick out Azpilicueta.
The Chelsea defender executed a deft back-heel to Higuain, who continued his run and crashed a brilliant finish into the roof of the net from an acute angle.
However, Burnley punished more poor defending to equalize in the 24th minute.
With Chelsea slow to react to a Burnley free-kick, Ben Mee’s header was glanced on by Chris Wood and the unmarked Barnes apply the finishing touch with a close-range volley.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but