Dyche: A Bridge Too Far

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2021-01-31T16:00:00.000Z

Dyche: A Bridge Too Far

2021-01-31T16:00:00.000Z

Sean Dyche admitted his side were second best as Chelsea flexed their muscles in front of new boss Thomas Tuchel.

The Clarets fell to goals late in each half from full backs Cesar Azpilicueta and Marocs Alonso at Stamford Bridge, where they struggled to create chances and lost Chris Wood to a hamstring injury.

Boss Dyche said: “ I’ve no complaints because the best side won.

“In the first half I thought we contained the game pretty well and kept them to a pretty slow tempo.

“They had a few chances, but stuff we are used to dealing with.

“But in the second half they were by far the better sides, and that happens.

“When you play the better sides and they turn up, as Chelsea did today, with a new manager, four changes and everyone playing with a bit more fizz, then it’s hard.

“They brought a better tempo to their passing and their pressing and we couldn’t get a foothold at all, to be honest.

"All credit to them; it was top players doing what top players do to win a game.

“The only gripe for me is that we had a couple of players who were below par, especially in the second half.

“And even though the two centre backs and Matt Lowton were excellent, without doubt the best side on the day won.”

Following a competitive opening half, Azpilicueta opened the scoring five minutes before the break following a counter-attack from a throw in, deep in the Chelsea half.

And despite Chelsea’s second half dominance of the ball, the game still hung in the balance until Alonso spun and rifled the ball home from close range six minutes from time.

Dyche added: “Sometimes you forget there is a vast gap of millions of pounds when you look at the two teams on a piece of paper, and that does pay you back eventually over a season.

“Not always, of course, because we have just shown at Liverpool that we can compete in our own style.

“But it’s very difficult when these teams turn up; that’s the difference and they really turned up in the second half.”

Wood’s hamstring injury was another blow, with Dyche unsure of the severity of the injury. But the Burnley boss is hopeful of his walking wounded bolstering the ranks soon.

He explained: “We have to be careful with Jay and that’s why he didn’t start today. Barnesy has a knock and we are hopeful that he is returning, as we are with Charlie Taylor and Josh Brownhill.

“These are challenging times for us, ever since the lockdown last season, but they should be back in days, rather than weeks, hopefully.”