After recovering from an early deficit to post a 4-1 victory over Burnley on Saturday, Chelsea became the first team in the Premier League since March to win consecutive games in the competition.
Wilson Odobert scored his first goal in English football to surprise the opposition in the 15th minute as promoted Burnley surged into a lead. The goal was Wilson Odobert’s first in English football and it was looking to break a record of four consecutive home losses on their return to the top division this season.
After Mauricio Pochettino’s squad went up, Chelsea didn’t provide much of a reaction until three minutes before halftime, when Ameen Al Dakhil scored an own goal by accidentally putting the ball into his own net. This brought the score back even.
Cole Palmer’s strike from the penalty spot in the early minutes of the second half allowed Chelsea to achieve a turnaround that had previously eluded them in their previous 19 Premier League meetings when they had allowed the first goal to their opponent. This losing streak dated back to October 2022.
An excellent goal from Sterling and a fourth from substitute Nicolas Jackson put the game beyond the reach of the hosts. As a result, Chelsea moved up to ninth place in the rankings, while Burnley remained in the bottom three of the standings with just one victory this season.
Burnley had only won one of their previous 16 Premier League meetings against Chelsea. That victory came on the road in 2017, when the Blues were still the defending champions. However, given the massive revamp of both squads before to the start of this season, such a record would not have been at the forefront of either side’s thoughts.
The game started out with both sides looking like units that had not quite gotten acquainted to each other yet, and the only genuine attempt at goal in the early exchanges was a long-range shot by Palmer that went far beyond the goal.
The 18-year-old Odobert became Burnley’s youngest goal scorer in the Premier League after collecting a feed from Lyle Foster and firing a shot between the legs of Chelsea full back Marc Cucurella into the bottom corner. Sterling had previously sent a whizzing effort just past the post before Odobert scored.
Al Dakhil was able to deflect Sterling’s cross over the head of the custodian for the home team, James Trafford, just before the halftime break. Chelsea enjoyed a lot of possession for the rest of the first half, but it seemed as like they were going to be disappointed heading into the break.
Sterling was once again in the focus of the action five minutes into the second half. He drew a foul from Vitinho, which provided Chelsea’s David Palmer with the opportunity to open his scoring account. Palmer took full advantage of the opportunity and scored with conviction.
Conor Gallagher provided the assist that made it possible for England international Raheem Sterling to score his third goal of the year after setting up Sterling with a through ball.
Jackson’s well-taken fourth goal, which was set up by Palmer, insured that the Chelsea supporters would travel back to the city with large grins on their faces after watching their club score four or more goals for the first time in 71 matches across all competitions. This was the first time their team had scored four or more goals in any of those matches.