The 46th-minute Chelsea substitution Maurizio Sarri should have made vs Burnley

Football FanCast

By James Beavis

Published Apr 23, 2019

Chelsea drew 2-2 with Burnley at Stamford Bridge on Monday as their top-four hopes suffered a blow, and Maurizio Sarri failed to make one half-time substitution that would have won the game.

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Chelsea's hopes of finishing in the top four this season suffered a huge blow as they were held to a 2-2 draw by Burnley at Stamford Bridge on Monday night.

The Blues had the chance to go above Tottenham Hotspur into third and extend their advantage over Arsenal and Manchester United to three and five points respectively with a win, but instead they could only take a solitary point ahead of their trip to Old Trafford on Sunday.

With Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Eden Hazard and Gonzalo Higuain in the starting XI the hosts looked to have enough to see the Clarets off, but four goals in the opening 24 minutes left the two teams tied.

That was how it remained until the interval, with the injured Hudson-Odoi having to be replaced by Pedro in the 41st minute having suffered an Achilles issue.

It was clear that the west London outfit needed to be on the front foot again in the second half, and while manager Maurizio Sarri did the right thing by taking one of his defensively-minded midfielders off in Kante at half-time, the decision to bring Mateo Kovacic on was clearly the wrong one.

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Chelsea needed a player capable of a bit of magic in-between the lines and in tight areas as Burnley dropped deeper and deeper, and the Real Madrid loanee is not the man to provide it – no goals and two assists in 29 top-flight outings this term is proof of that.

Bringing on Ross Barkley for either Kante or Jorginho would have been the better bet, even if the former Everton man has been struggling for form himself in more recent times.

That said, the England international has the quality in his locker to make a difference in matches like these when the Blues need to break their opponents down, and failing to bring him on at the break ultimately cost the hosts what would have been a crucial three points.

It was yet another error from Sarri when it comes to making the right changes and deploying effective tactics, and it may well be one of many things that leads to him losing his job at the Bridge in the summer.