Chelsea Vs Burnley: chelsea vs burnley ends 1-1 as Fofana sees red

Chelsea drew 1-1 with Burnley after a 93rd-minute equaliser, a result that left Chelsea having dropped 17 points at home this season and continued a run of disciplinary problems. The match, a late collapse after João Pedro's early goal and Wesley Fofana's dismissal, crystallised concerns Rosenior has inherited from Enzo Maresca's tenure.

Chelsea Vs Burnley: late equaliser

João Pedro opened the scoring inside the opening stages after a Moisés Caicedo pass from deep found Pedro Neto and the winger's cross was met by a sliding João Pedro. Chelsea then saw Wesley Fofana sent off in the 72nd minute, and Burnley's Zian Flemming nodded home an unmarked James Ward-Prowse corner in added time to make it 1-1 with a 93rd-minute equaliser. Jacob Bruun Larsen, introduced as a substitute, had a similar chance from a Ward-Prowse corner minutes earlier but headed over.

Fofana sent off, 72nd minute

Wesley Fofana's 72nd-minute dismissal was his first sending-off in English football and left Chelsea down to 10 men. That red card was Chelsea's sixth of the Premier League season, taking them to a league-high total and equalling their joint-most in a single campaign. The dismissal was cited as a turning point that ultimately led to Chelsea's collapse after holding the lead.

Set-piece failures and Flemming

There was evident frustration at Chelsea over set-piece defending. Zian Flemming was given a free header in the centre of Chelsea's box to convert the late corner, and Rosenior singled out a marking mistake, saying: "A marking assignment was missed. I'm not here to throw players under the bus - I will always protect my players, and I'll deal with it during the week. But there was a player assigned that duty who marked the wrong man. " The manager also admitted: "Our record defending set plays is not of the level required. " Marcus Edwards' earlier free-kick for Burnley from a promising position had also been a disappointment.

Discipline, cards and statistics

Chelsea have now dropped 17 points from winning positions at home this season. They sit bottom of the Fair Play table with 86 points, having received 60 yellow cards this season; they were second-bottom last season and bottom the season before. The club have equalled their highest number of red cards in a single Premier League season, matching the 2007-08 campaign, with 11 games still to play. Only when they went down to 10 men at Nottingham Forest did they manage to claim all three points, holding on after an 87th-minute dismissal. Defeats against Manchester United, Brighton and Fulham have been largely attributed to red cards earlier in those matches, although Chelsea did rally well after Moisés Caicedo was sent off in the home draw with Arsenal in November.

Rosenior's reaction and quotes

Liam Rosenior, appointed after Enzo Maresca left the club on New Year's Day following a falling-out with the hierarchy, conceded the problems in a forthright post-match assessment. He said: "There's an inquest after every game whether we win or lose. " He added: "I'm learning about the players. I'm learning about the people you can lean on when things aren't going your way and you need to see a game out. That's something we need to address very quickly. " Rosenior, whose usual mild manner deserted him, also said: "To not win the last two games, that's the biggest frustration; we have set fire to four points from two games. I've learned I have a good team but to maximise the potential we need players to see things through. " He criticised his side for lacking incision: "What I want is to create wave after wave, we were too safe in our possession. "

Broader context and reactions

Observers have concluded that "This Chelsea team isn't ready to challenge. " The home crowd, who had been chanting "Chelsea, champions" before the match, saw another setback as Chelsea blew a lead at Stamford Bridge; all three promoted sides have now come from behind to take points off Chelsea there. Both Liam Rosenior and Scott Parker talked up the talent in the Chelsea squad after the game. Scott Parker, reflecting on Burnley's point and resilience, said: "We've had a big challenge this year. At times we've fallen a little bit short. The one thing we have not fallen short on is the resilience of this group. We keep fighting, we keep coming. " Parker's selection included only two survivors from the side that lost to Mansfield in the FA Cup the previous weekend, and his defensive reshuffle — moving Bashir Humphreys, the Cobham graduate, to central defence — produced a vital last-man challenge on Cole Palmer. Chelsea had given players four days off, with Cole Palmer among those heading to Dubai; Estêvão was absent with a hamstring problem and Roméo Lavia was named on the bench after a period of convalescence in which he has fine-tuned decision-making with virtual reality.

Chelsea's recent history under Enzo Maresca had produced threatening runs of results; the squad carried the club to a Club World Cup win in the summer after outclassing Conference League opponents last year, and a deep FA Cup run this season still beckons. But the pattern of conceding late goals, disciplinary issues and an unusually young squad — Chelsea have not fielded a player over the age of 28 all season and have the youngest squad in the Premier League, a profile deliberately built by the hierarchy — leaves Rosenior with clear priorities ahead of the next fixtures.

James Milner's milestone and details from elsewhere on the day were also noted: Milner made his Premier League debut on November 10, 2002, the same day Real Madrid's Eduardo Camavinga was born and eight months before Jude Bellingham; Milner's manager Fabian Hurzeler was nine years old on that date. Six hundred and fifty-three games later, at age 40 and across 23 seasons and six clubs, Milner holds the record for all-time Premier League appearances. He is a three-time Premier League champion, a Champions League winner and a world champion, and his performance in a first start in eight games helped secure Brighton's first win in six, a contribution his manager did not call a coincidence.

For Chelsea, the collapse at home to Burnley — a 1-1 draw sealed by a 93rd-minute equaliser after a 72nd-minute red card — adds to mounting evidence that Rosenior must address set-piece defending, discipline and the team's ability to see games out.