This archive report was first published on 12 July 2020.
Sheff Utd Cruise Past Chelsea, Liverpool's Record Bid Hit by Burnley ¶
Chelsea's Champions League hopes for next season were dealt a significant blow after a 3-0 defeat at Sheffield United on Saturday.
Sheffield United's victory at Bramall Lane moved them within five points of fourth-placed Leicester, while Chelsea remain in third place but could drop to fifth if Leicester and Manchester United beat Bournemouth and Southampton respectively.
Chelsea have already reinforced their attack for next season with the signings of Timo Werner and Hakim Ziyech, but Frank Lampard's side desperately need to improve their defending.
David McGoldrick's long wait for a first Premier League goal came to an end when he was quickest to react after Kepa Arrizabalaga saved Oli McBurnie's deflected shot.
More slack defending from the visitors then allowed McBurnie a free header to double the hosts' lead.
Lampard sent on Antonio Rudiger at the start of the second-half, but the German international did little to improve Chelsea's defending as his attempted clearance from Lys Mousset's cross only teed up McGoldrick to score his second 13 minutes from time.
Manchester City guaranteed their presence in the top four for a 10th successive season with Raheem Sterling scoring a hat-trick in a 5-0 win at Brighton.
However, they will have to wait for the outcome on Monday of their appeal against a two-season ban from European competitions to see if they will play Champions League football.
Meanwhile, Liverpool's long winning run at Anfield came to an end in a 1-1 draw with Burnley on Saturday.
For the first time since January 2018, Liverpool failed to win a Premier League game at Anfield as an inspired performance by Nick Pope in the Burnley goal and Jay Rodriguez's equaliser to cancel out Andy Robertson's first half header gave Burnley a share of the spoils.
West Ham's Michail Antonio scored four goals in a 4-0 win over Norwich, confirming the Canaries' relegation and sealing the Hammers' top-flight status for another season.
"They were better than us, physically, in the mind and with the ball. So you lose the game," said Lampard.
"We left the door open, we didn’t close it. We should have scored two, three, four goals at least," said Jurgen Klopp.
