Burnley hope to secure survival as Chelsea target top four

Burnley could confirm their Premier League status by beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Monday.

The Clarets could virtually secure survival by drawing and relying on Fulham beating Cardiff City on Saturday, but victory for Sean Dyche’s side in the Capital would secure their Premier League status for a fourth consecutive season.

It will be a difficult task for Burnley with the Clarets without a victory from any of their trips to London to play Crystal Palace, Arsenal, Spurs, Fulham and West Ham.

Dyche will, however, travel with optimism following a run of three straight victories in the League, with his side keen to add a fourth set of maximum points to their current run.

“If others do you a favour, so be it, but we want to take control of our own situation.” he said.

“We’ve done that for six and a half years and we have a chance again, over these next four games, starting at Chelsea, to do that.

“When you look at their squad they have some very, very good players. On the other hand, we’ve been competitive pretty much all season, and particularly so in the second half, and we want to continue that.”

Manchester United’s 4-0 drumming at Everton and Arsenal’s loss to Crystal Palace has given Chelsea the perfect opportunity to increase pressure on the top-four, with the Blues still in the race for a spot in the Champions League.

Maurizio Sarri’s side were not in action on Saturday because of their Europa League involvement on Thursday night; however, the London outfit produced another less than convincing performance as they bypassed Czech side Slavia Prague to reach the semi-final stage.

Chelsea have started the second half of their matches slowly over recent months, and their inability to carry on performing at a high standard is of extreme concern to Sarri as the campaign enters its final three matches.

“[We performed] very well in the first half I think. As usual in the last two months we started badly in the second half. We need a solution. In the last ten matches we started like this match. It is a big problem.” Sarri said.

“We had to get qualification, not for three points, and probably we thought at the end of the first half we had qualified.

“At half-time I said that the target was the start with the same application and attention in the second half. But we didn’t do it. I don’t know why. It is not easy to understand. Otherwise we can’t solve the problem very easy, but it is difficult to understand why.”

Antonio Rudiger’s knee injury means he is unlikely to feature for the hosts at Stamford Bridge, while Ruben Loftus Cheek is likely to retain his place in the Blues’ side having impressed since his return from injury. Burnley have no fresh injury concerns.