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Reece James was the star of the show as he returned to the Chelsea starting XI for the first time since December against Burnley.
After an underwhelming first half, Thomas Tuchel’s men exploded into life in the second half and scored four goals in 25 minutes to kill the game off and take all three points.
James sparked the upsurge in quality, arrowing a shot past Nick Pope to open the scoring. After Kai Havertz had made it two, James provided an assist for the German to net his second of the game too.
Christian Pulisic rounded off the scoring, netting his fifth goal against Burnley since arriving at Stamford Bridge.
After the final whistle, Tuchel was understandably eager to laud the performance of his 22-year-old wing-back.
“We missed him for such a long time that we almost got used to it. I think it was like nine weeks and we played something like 25 matches in that time,” Tuchel told his post-match press conference.
“We were constantly trying to find solutions and we did find solutions as a team, and we managed to win games and even trophies in this period.
“But once he is back and plays three times, and first time from the beginning, you see what we missed. Huge quality and it’s very impressive how decisive he is in training and in the games.
“These positions are very important positions if you play with this structure and it’s the same on the left side. So it puts things into perspective when you see what we missed and I am very happy that he came back like this.”
It was an afternoon that saw James take his tally for the season to seven goals and eight assists in all competitions this season, and draw level with Romelu Lukaku for Premier League goals.
He would have been forgiven for being excitable after such a performance but his three-word message to fans after the game was a simple one.
Writing on Instagram alongside a photograph of himself celebrating, he simply wrote: “Back on track.”
