Chelsea's 2-1 victory over Burnley on Thursday night was full of surprises.

For a start, Antonio Conte chose to make six changes from the side that won 3-2 at Southampton on Saturday to make a mockery of the old maxim of never tinkering with a winning team. Given the Italian's general reluctance to rotate his squad, the amount of alterations raised a few eyebrows and seemed to indicate that his focus was firmly on Sunday's FA Cup semi-final with Southampton rather than carrying on fighting for a...

It could be their last meeting for years. Southampton and Chelsea are separated by 13 places now and could be divided by a division next season. Southampton have gone 42 years without a trophy. Chelsea's last came just 11 months ago.

Yet if more divides than unites Sunday's FA Cup semifinalists, there is a shared sense this season has been underwhelming. Striking failures are a reason for that. They made it strange that last week's meeting ended 3-2; more typically, however, was that neither...

Chelsea edged out Burnley 2-1 in a highly entertaining game of football at Turf Moor. The Blues always held the upper hand in respect to possession and it was no surprise when they took the lead in the 20th minute, Kevin Long putting through his own goal via a Victor Moses cross. The Clarets had no intention of lying down though and battled back to level somewhat fortunately, when Ashley Barnes deflected a speculative shot from Johann Berg Gudmundsson past Thibaut Courtois. The game was won five...

BURNLEY, England -- Three quick thoughts from Chelsea's 2-1 Premier League victory over Burnley at Turf Moor on Thursday:

1. Morata misery continues as Chelsea win at Burnley

Alvaro Morata's Chelsea nightmare hit a new low at Burnley, with the struggling forward reacting petulantly to being substituted after appearing to blow his chance of starting in Sunday's FA Cup semifinal against Southampton.

Although Chelsea maintained their faint hopes of catching Tottenham and securing a top-four finish...

When the dust settles on Chelsea's lacklustre campaign there will be fingers pointed in many directions regarding culpability and areas requiring improvement. One of those will be aimed at the goalscoring department, where an inability to kill games off when on top has been the team's undoing on far too many occasions.

Chelsea have found the net just 57 times in 33 games this season, the fewest of any of the sides in the top seven. Compare that to the 85 scored in the 38 games that took them to...

Manchester United's shock home defeat to bottom club West Brom last Sunday finally confirmed this season's least surprising outcome, Manchester City are Premier League champions. City's inexorable rise to dominance during the course of the campaign has been phenomenal.

Having finished third last season, 15 points behind title-winners Chelsea, Pep Guardiola's side have more than made up the difference. Presently, table-topping City are 27 points better off than Antonio Conte's charges who lie a distant...