Chelsea clash is a reminder of the club's evolution says Tom Heaton

Chelsea provided the opposition when the Clarets made their first appearance in the Premier League under Sean Dyche two seasons ago.
Tom HeatonTom Heaton
Tom Heaton

And Sunday’s top flight fixture is a reminder of just how far the club has come since falling to the eventual champions that term.

Scott Arfield gave the home side the lead under the floodlights at Turf Moor but Diego Costa equalised minutes later on his introduction to English football having sealed a £32m move from Atletico Madrid in the summer.

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World Cup winner Andre Schurrle, who netted twice in the 7-1 semi-final victory over Brazil at Estádio Mineirão, in Belo Horizonte, also netted in the first half before Branislav Ivanovic completed the scoring.

Skipper Tom Heaton is one of a large group of players that has evolved with the club since then, having gained caps for England, and the goalkeeper is fully appreciative of the journey.

“It’s grown massively,” he said. “I’ve said a few times that everything is evolving with the infrastructure behind the scenes, the players, size of the squad.

“Everything is evolving and everyone is developing and you can see that with where we are in the table and the results we’ve had this year. Everything is moving forward and it’s important we keep doing that.”

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The Blues have been getting plenty of attention of late as they charge, unopposed, to the Premier League title that they surrendered to Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester City last season.

But Heaton insists that the squad won’t be focusing on anything else but themselves as they look to cause an upset and build on their excellent home form.

Having won seven games on the bounce at home, the 30-year-old said: “It’s another good one back at Turf Moor.

“I don’t think it’s a game that they’ll be looking forward to but as ever we’ll give them the respect that they deserve. We’ll focus on ourselves.

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“It’s important that we continue to do that. We’ll go in to the game looking to come away with three points.

“We know about their quality and where they are in the league but we need to make sure that we just focus on us and as ever we’ll be looking to win the match.”