Premier League

Hakim Ziyech stars as Chelsea sweep aside Burnley

Moroccan winger Hakim Ziyech scored his first Premier League goal on his maiden English top-flight start as Chelsea powered to a 3-0 win at Burnley on Saturday.

Frank Lampard’s side dominated from start to finish thanks to an influential display from Morocco playmaker Ziyech.

Ziyech scored his first Chelsea goal in their midweek Champions League rout of Krasnodar and a cool finish in the first half at Turf Moor got him off the mark in the Premier League as well.

The 27-year-old, who joined from Ajax in the close-season, is the first player to score in his first two starts for Chelsea in all competitions since Diego Costa in 2014.

Kurt Zouma doubled the lead after half-time and Ziyech teed up Timo Werner to seal Chelsea’s first win in three Premier League games as they climbed to fourth place.

After the tiring trip to Russia, this was a confident performance from the Blues, with new boys Ziyech, Werner and Kai Havertz showing they would not be intimidated by a chilly, wind-swept afternoon against physical opponents.

Well marshalled by Thiago Silva, Chelsea kept a fourth consecutive clean sheet in all competitions, banishing the defensive woes that haunted them earlier this term.

It is the first time Chelsea have kept successive league clean sheets since Lampard took charge last year and they are now unbeaten in six games in all competitions.

Winless Burnley sit bottom of the table after losing five of their opening six top-flight matches for the first time since 1927-28.

Isaac Darko
Isaac Darko is the lead Combat Sports writer for AfroBallers. He is an expert in Boxing, Mixed Martial Art and Wrestling reportage. Isaac is a journalist with newfound love for athlete management and digital media.

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