Chelsea analysis: Eden Hazard and Willian make magic while N'Golo Kante provides midfield steel in Burnley win

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Vaishali Bhardwaj27 August 2016

Antonio Conte made it three wins out of three in the Premier League as Eden Hazard, Willian and Victor Moses struck to help Chelsea beat Burnley 3-0 at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

Chelsea were rampant in the opening 45 minutes as they threatened to overwhelm Burnley, with Hazard netting a wonderful solo goal to open the scoring in west London before Willian and Moses struck either side of half-time.

Standard Sport's Vaishali Bhardwaj assesses the key incidents from Stamford Bridge...

Hazard and Willian are magic

Last weekend against Liverpool, Burnley had just 19.4 per cent possession and, thanks to some resilient defensive work, managed to stun Jurgen Klopp's side and secure a 2-0 win.

It led to the general feeling that the best way to unlock the visitors' defence at Stamford Bridge would be a piece of individual magic, which Eden Hazard duly supplied when he picked up the ball in midfield, went on a fine run down the left, cut in and then fired Chelsea into the lead in the ninth minute.

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That was added to by another individual bit of skill, this time by Willian, when the Brazilian latched onto Diego Costa's pass on the right, slowed down and then fired in a fine, low shot past Tom Heaton to double the home side's advantage.

Last season, Willian was relied upon too much, at times, to provide such crucial goals as Hazard struggled to deal with injuries and poor form.

But, this term, things seem to be much different at Chelsea. Hazard is back to his best and Willian's recovery from a minor calf issue allowed him to show against Burnley why he could well challenge the likes of Hazard to be one of the club's most important players.

To add, the pair's goals also demonstrate that if Chelsea need to unlock a stubborn defence with one or two moments of magic, they possess the players to be able to do just that.

Kante impresses again

Ever since the midfielder switched Leicester for Chelsea this summer, his style of play, holding midfield position along with the the fact he's French resulted in comparisons with former Blues star Claude Makelele.

Kante, though, insisted he wants to be known as his own man, and his importance in central midfield was highlighted against Burnley as the 25-year-old showed some intelligent play, tough tackling and a superb reading of the game to shield Chelsea's back four throughout the match.

He was outmuscled in some instances by Burnley's bigger players but, after such a showing, comparisons with Makalele are likely to continue.

Costa is still the main man

The striker was rested for Chelsea's EFL Cup second-round tie with Bristol Rovers, but was put back into Conte's starting line-up on Saturday after scoring both winners against West Ham and Watford.

Chelsea's summer signing Michy Batshuayi certainly did enough with his two goals against Rovers, to add to his strike against the Hornets last weekend, to start against Burnley but Conte's decision to stick with Costa was justified despite the Spain international failing to get on the scoresheet.

His movement, his aggressive style of play and his passion to fight until the end - as well as draw clever fouls from the opposition - handed Sean Dyche's side all manner of problems at Stamford Bridge.

The Blues may not have been able to sign another forward apart from Batshuayi this summer, but Costa looks like he is still the main man to lead the Blues' front line this season.

Clean sheet does not mask weak links

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Burnley hardly troubled Chelsea's back line on Saturday apart from the opening stages of the game when the visitors found gaps in the Blues' defence and then saw Scott Arfield's effort later in the first half fly just wide.

However, despite keeping their first clean sheet of the season, Conte will still look at his defence as the weak link in his team.

Against more clinical and indeed tricky forwards, Chelsea's current defence may struggle and the issue for Conte is who he turns to should any of his defenders sustain an injury.

Ola Aina was handed his debut against Bristol Rovers as John Terry was rested but he suffered a minor injury, which he did recover from in time for the Burnley game. But had it been more serious then Conte would certainly have been worried.

AC Milan claimed this week that they rejected a "significant" offer from Chelsea for defender Alessio Romagnoli and even though Conte admitted on Friday that securing his first-choice targets hasn't been easy, he'll still be looking to bring in more cover at the back before the summer window closes next week.

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