Despite falling behind to an excellent strike from Scott Arfield, Chelsea produced an authoritative performance in their first match of the new season in taking down Premier League newcomers Burnley. Diego Costa picked up his first competitive goal for the club with simple tap-in following a rebound off the post, Cesc Fabregas produced an outrageously cute assist to provide the second for Andre Schurrle and the club's right-back-turned-poacher, Branislav Ivanovic, picked up the third from a corner. Burnley may have been beaten, but by no means shamed themselves with a perfectly competent if occasionally naive performance against a significantly higher level of opposition than they would've been used to in the Championship. The campaign ahead looks difficult for them, but if they can match last night's performance and learn from the experience of playing against top class forwards, there's no reason for them not to be able to keep their place in the league for another year. As for Chelsea, who often struggled against the smaller clubs last season, the omens are promising but Jose Mourinho will know that this is only one game on a long road and there will be plenty of sterner tests to come. Needless to say, this was a game with plenty of talking points. Read on for the 5 most important things we learnt from Chelsea's victory.
28-year old English writer with a borderline obsessive passion for films, videogames, Chelsea FC, incomprehensible words and indefensible puns. Follow me on Twitter if you like infrequent outbursts of absolute drivel.
