Sports Blog 19/04/2018: Premier League Preview – Burnley vs Chelsea, Thursday 19th April 2018

Can Burnley continue their unlikely push for a place in Europe when they host Chelsea, at 7.45pm on Sky Sports?

The Clarets narrowly avoided the drop in 2016/17, finishing in 16th place with only a relatively meagre 6 point gap between them and the relegation zone. Kudos to Sean Dyche, then, for achieving the turnaround he has this season, propelling Burnley towards the Europa League without much fanfare in both transfer windows.



Currently Burnley are the in-form side in the Premier League, their 5 consecutive wins since the start of March unrivalled even by newly crowned champions Manchester City. And though their last 5 opponents – Everton, West Ham, West Brom, Watford and Leicester – may have all been below them in the league, such consistency has evaded those more traditional top tier teams of late. This leaves Burnley 2 points behind the ever error-prone Arsenal in 7th, setting up an unlikely battle for the final Europa League spot heading into the pair’s next league meeting in a fortnight.

While the Clarets have been drastically outperforming expectations, Antonio Conte has struggled to follow-up his dream debut season at Chelsea. In 2018 specifically the Blues have been pretty damn woeful in the league, with a paltry 4 wins, 3 draws and 5 losses. That run has left the club 27 points adrift of their title-successors, and without much of a chance of reaching the 2018/19 Champions League.

However, they’ve found some conciliatory success in the FA Cup, with a semi-final against Southampton – who almost beat Chelsea last weekend – on Sunday potentially complicating Conte’s team-selection on Thursday night. Still, one of Alvaro Morata or Olivier Giroud, the latter of whom was instrumental in their recent comeback against the Saints, should feature, and sit at Super Mega PGMs of 31-37 and 34-40 respectively.

All the way back in August Dyche made his intentions clear by beating the defending champions 3-2 on the opening day of the season. And though Spreadex are offering a Chelsea/Burnley (h) Goal Supremacy spread of 0.5-0.7, and a Total Goals spread of 2.35-2.55, it isn’t outside the realms of reason this time out.