Reigning Premier League champions Chelsea have really suffered in the hands of Arsenal this summer. After losing at the FA Cup final by 1-2 at the end of last season, the two teams met again at the FA Community Shield final last week, where Arsenal won again. Chelsea will be looking to start their Premier League campaign on the right foot when they play host to Burnley on Saturday, August 12th. Despite their not so good season overall, Burnley were actually the surprise packages of the league last season, as they were quite competitive at home.
Chelsea did an excellent job in the Premier League last season, as they finished with a total of 96 points after 38 matches (30-5-3). They had the 2nd best offense with 85 goals anf the 2nd best defense with 33 conceded. They finished with a massive 13-3-3- record on the road, where they scored 30 goals against 16 conceded. Chelsea were quite active in the transfer window as usual, bringing in goalkeeper Willy Caballero, Rudiger from Roma, Bakayoko from Monaco and Morata from Real Madrid, all very solid signings. They are coming into this match after having lost at the FA Community Shield final to Arsenal. After a goal-less first half, it was Chelsea who took the lead at the 46th minute with Moses, before Arsenal pulled even to send the match straight to penalties. Arsenal were much more accurate in the new form of the penalty shoot-out (1-2-2-2-2-1), and captured the first trophy of the season.
Burnley did have a seemingly bad season last year, as they finished at the 16th spot of the Premier League with 40 points after 38 matches, having scored 39 goals against 55 conceded. Burnley were actually quite strong at home last season (10-6-3), where they only lost to the biggest teams in the league, but held Chelsea to a 1-1 draw too. However, it was their road performances who were actually pretty bad, as they managed to win a single road match all season (1-14-4). They were actually pretty active in the transfer window, as they brought in 5 players from various English teams, but lost around 20 players. Some of them were released, some of them returned to their clubs after their loan spell, and some of them were sold, with the most significant transfer being that of Micheal Keane who moved to Everton for 30 million british pounds. Burnley looked great in their 6 warm-up friendlies prior to this match (4-0-2), where they mostly played against clubs from lower English tiers.