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Not long ago, one of two teams on the pitch today was running away with the Premier League title while the other was embroiled in a relegation dogfight. Coming into the match today, few had given the Lancashire-based club an ounce of chance against the defending champions. However, what transpired over the course of 90 minutes outdistanced everyone's predictions as Burnley held on against a nine-man Chelsea to take home three invaluable points.
Following Gary Cahill's red card in the 14th minute of the match, Sean Dyche's men raced to a three-goal lead in the first half. With pride at stake, Chelsea came out in the second half firing on all cylinders as debutant Alvaro Morata's goal reduced the deficit. Although Cesc Fabregas's sending off further dented their chances of making a comeback, David Luiz scored in the dying embers of the match to ensure a frantic finale.
Here are five of the various talking points from the match.
#1 Cahill's red card sets the tone of the match
If there are a '101 ways of commencing a title defence', this, here, certainly wasn't one of them. Chelsea's skipper, while making inroads into the Burnley half, lost control of the ball, and went for a studs-up lunge on Steven Defour. The referee was in a great position to spot the challenge and off went Cahill.
Here, Dyche's team need to be credited as they made full use of the numerical advantage, dominated possession and banged in three goals in the first half itself to all but end Chelsea's chances of staging a comeback. Sam Vokes scored on either side of a perfect Stephen Ward volley.
Chelsea's stalwarts weren't done yet as after a booking in the first half, Fabregas picked up his second yellow late in the 80th minute while Morata was leading Blues' charge.
Though Cahill's red was a big blow for the team as a whole, it must've been disheartening for Jeremie Boga, a Chelsea academy product, who was making his debut, to get substituted within 18 minutes to allow Andreas Christensen fill in for the skipper.
#2 What has happened to the Premier League defences?
The defending in first two matches of this season's Premier League, the ones between Arsenal and Leicester, and Liverpool and Watford was absolutely deplorable. And that's just putting it gently.
The trend continued as five more goals were scored in the match and defenders were made to look like fools yet again. Yes, Chelsea did lose one of their first choice defenders in Cahill, but the makeshift back-three of Luiz, Rudiger and Christensen looked completely out of sorts. Mind you, Christensen is the first change centre-back in the three-man defence system that Conte prefers.
Both Rudiger and his Brazilian counterpart were crossing into each other's channels and one of such instances resulted in the third goal for Burnley, where Sam Vokes was left unmarked in the box during a set piece.
Similarly for Burnley, though they were expected to leak goals, conceding two goals against a numerically disadvantaged team is not something their manager would be happy of, irrespective of the result.
#3 Will Sam Vokes lead the Burnley attack-line throughout the season?
With all eyes on the strike-force of defending champions, few had thought that Sam Vokes will go on to steal all the post-match headlines. Making a mockery of Chelsea's makeshift back three, the 27-year-old struck twice in the first half to take his goal tally to six in the last four PL matches.
With the departure of Andre Gray, speculations were rife that Burnley are on the lookout for a replacement. However, with Vokes grabbing the opportunity handed to him, it's now up to the Burnley board to decide whether they need an established striker or do they invest that money elsewhere and let the Welshman lead the line.
#4 Alvaro Morata delivers on debut
The dawn of the new PL season has seen some of the star debutants making an instant impact. While Lacazette scored for Arsenal, Salah found the back of the net for Liverpool and following in the footsteps of his counterparts, Morata scored within 10 minutes of coming on as well.
After the Spaniard had exclaimed that English media is already 'killing him', manager Conte made things trickier for Morata by hinting that he might prefer Batshuayi over the former Juve striker for the season opener. And the Belgian did start. However, his was an underwhelming performance, which followed a rather promising pre-season.
With 3-0 down and just about 30 minutes left in the match, Conte decided to introduce Morata. Soon after, he scored from his first shot on target, a gentle header past Tom Heaton.
20 minutes later, the Spaniard turned provider for Luiz as the Blues decreased the deficit from two to one. Though his team fell way short of what they'd have expected from the match, Morata will go home knowing the English media will not 'kill him' tomorrow.
#5 What's next for the defending champions?
Before the commencement of this season, majority of the pundits opined against Chelsea defending the title they romped home with last season. The Blues swept aside all challenges en route to the title in Antonio Conte's first season, but as things stand, it looks like their inability to sign their prime targets in the transfer window so far will lead to their downfall this term.
Conte's first choice centre-back signing was Leonardo Bonucci, who went to Milan and Chelsea instead signed Rudiger. They even preferred Lukau over Morata but lost the former to Manchester United.
Not just that, the Italian wasn't even happy with Matic's departure, who might have been shielded their fragile defence after Cahill's sending off. With shortcomings of such magnitude in the former half of transfer window, the defending champions need to finish on a high in the market come 31st August.
One of their first priorities should now be to sign a top-class centre-back, preferably Virgil van Dijk, who Liverpool are desperately trying to add to their ranks. While the addition of just a centre-back might not transform this team into a finished product, it definitely will improve a back-line, which looked in all sorts of trouble against Burnley.
They will also hope that Eden Hazard and Tiémoué Bakayoko make their respective returns from injury as soon as possible.
