Chelsea have no response to late suckerpunch with Burnley draw set to leave Tuchel simmering through break

Thomas Tuchel and Sean Dyche spent much of this match verbally sparring on the touchline.

But in the end, it was the Burnley manager who delivered a sucker punch that will leave his counterpart smarting all the way through the international break.

How on earth did Chelsea let two points slip in the most one-sided of contests at Stamford Bridge?

They dominated throughout and saw golden chances go begging in each half before falling for the oldest trick in the book.

Leading 1-0 through Kai Havertz’s first half header, they were caught out by a rare Burnley attack that saw substitutes Jay Rodriguez and Matej Vydra combine to clinch an equaliser with 11 minutes left on the clock.

In that moment Dyche exploited perhaps Chelsea’s biggest weakness under Tuchel – leaving them desperately chasing the game. For the vast majority of the German’s time in charge it has been a case of relentless control, with only their lack of cutting edge preventing them from more dominating scorelines.

That was the case here as well, with the European champions in complete control, but left to regret their failure to make their superiority truly count.

With little time to restore their lead, they rarely looked like doing so – even after Christian Pulisic and Mason Mount were sent on to perform a rescue act.

One point ensures they will remain top of the Premier League regardless of Liverpool’s result against West Ham on Sunday, but there was no doubt that the atmosphere inside the stadium was one of defeat.

By contrast, Burnley and Dyche must have felt like they had won the lottery. And how sweet it was for Dyche and his coaching staff, who had shown more fight on the bench than the players on the pitch in the first half.

Such was Chelsea’s dominance in the first 45 minutes that those on touchline provided more sparks than the two teams. Tuchel and Dyche were involved in an angry altercation when the Chelsea manager raced out of his technical area to complain about a foul going against Ross Barkley. Dyche instructed him to go back to his seat.

Later Burnley coach Steve Stone was up and shouting at Chelsea assistant Arno Michels – telling him to “show some respect”.

Had Burnley managed anything like the same passion on the pitch, they might have provided more in the way of opposition before the break. Havertz’s 33^rd-minute header from Reece James’ cross had given Chelsea the lead – and they would have been out of sight if others had been as clinical.

Callum Hudson-Odoi forced an early save from Nick Pope before blasting the rebound high and wide. Andreas Christensen should have done better with a free header and Barkley curled a long-ranger narrowly wide. Pope had to be sharp to block a James cross that was diverted goalwards.

It was all too easy for Chelsea and, if anything, they were guilty of strutting towards the final whistle.

Crucially for Dyche, Burnley were still in the game at the break, giving him chance to try to reorganise, though he was fortunate not to go two-down straight after the restart when Thiago Silva’s header clipped the outside of the post from James’ cross.

Havertz then almost got his second of the game following a sweeping break, but he fired over from close range after Hudson-Odoi’s cross. Hudson-Odoi forced Pope into action again after some slick footwork in the box.

Burnley were hanging on, which seemed like their sole gameplan - and it worked when they produced an impressive move that caught Chelsea completely cold.

After working the ball from the back, Ashley Westwood hooked a cross to the far post, which saw Rodriguez get behind Christensen. He knocked the ball square where Vydra got beyond Silva and Toni Rudiger to fire home from close range.

As desperate as Chelsea’s search for an instant response was, it never looked likely, and the pace of their play hardly altered as a result.

Two crucial points dropped – and they only have themselves to blame.

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