POPE SAVES BURNLEY FROM A NAILING BY HAMMERS AT EASTER
West Ham 1 Burnley 1
Sean Dyche is no longer the Burnley manager. Hard to believe that this is a voluntarily entered into situation by the club. They still have eight games left and are just four points away from Everton, their nearest rivals. So why sack him?
There is of course the possibility that Dyche has ‘walked.’ There is radio silence from Operation Dyche such as it is. Perhaps he has finally decided to get a decent throat soother to gargle with. Or he may have been tapped up by some other sleeping giant who fancies a few seasons in the Prem. Bolton Wanderers? Preston North End? Notts County?
Burnley are a bit of a sporting conundrum if you look at it. They did actually win the league in 1959/60 and I had the pleasure a few years ago to be shown behind the scenes by my good friend Shaun Kelly, and wondered at the greats of yesteryear, one of whom turned out to be Ian Wright Wright Wright, who played for the clarets on 15 occasions scoring four goals, marginally less microcosmically impressive than his 22 appearances for the Hammers and nine goals in 1998/99 that secured West Ham fifth position and took the Hammers into Europe.
But now is now, and Burnley are looking down the barrel of relegation with eight games to go. They’ve been in the Premier League for five successive seasons, parallel with West Ham’s occupation of London Stadium. Their most memorable game here may well be the March 2018 3-0 victory played against the backdrop of fans’ protest over perceived lack of investment in the club by the Board. This afternoon they will be managed by injured captain Ben Mee and U23 boss Michael Jackson, both promising not to do anything off the wall.
In terms of their recent history, Burnley were in the fourth division of the English Football League back in 1991/92, so they have seen previous lows, and if they do go down this season, they will be one of the favourites to promptly return, even without the great Sean Dyche.
This afternoon is proof that talk of Burnley failures may well be press calumny. Moyes has decided to play his best team, even though they are clearly serially shagged by Thursday’s heroic efforts in Lyon. Burnley soon manage to look like formidable opposition, and Hammers seem nothing like Thursdays’s heroes, metamorphosing into a tired old bunch after three days on the treatment table.
The first event of the game is an appalling injury to Burnley midfielder Ashley Westwood after a seemingly innocuous challenge from Nicola Vlasic, causing a delay to the game of almost ten minutes. When the game restarts, Burnley take it by the scruff of the neck and the big German Weghorst brought in to replace New Zealand giant Chris Wood, uses his height to good effect to head Burnley into the lead on the half hour after an uncleared goalmouth scramble. Aaron Cresswell then volleys just wide with a spectacular effort that may well have been goal of the season.
Incredibly, Maxwel Cornet, missing an ‘l’ in his first name, misses a penalty in first half injury time, screwing the ball wide to join a parade of London Stadium missers that includes Phil Foden and Ademola Lookman. Lookman is currently on loan to Leicester from RB Leipzig, so he may have the chance to miss another if recalled to the main squad. Or are appearances in the Europa Conference enough to cup tie you from appearing in the Europa League in the same season? No matter.
Burnley are put to the test after the break as West Ham’s attacking machine is cranked, and Tomas Souček heads home with a quarter of an hour left. The last few minutes produce a series of stunning saves from Burnley keeper Nick Pope, twice denying Michail Antonio his first goal in an unusually barren patch, and then saving acrobatically from Issa Diop’s powerful downward header.
Hammers will next face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, a venue where Burnley grabbed a decent point in a 1-1 draw in early November 2021, a game where Sean Dyche described his side’s ‘mentality’ being ‘on show.’ And, indeed, why wouldn’t a manager say that? Their new manager may well believe after this afternoon that the mentality is right to avoid relegation at the death…
1 Lucasz Fabianski, 31 Ben Johnson, 5 Vladimir Coufal, 23 Issa Diop, 41 Declan Rice (c), 15 Craig Dawson, 28 Tomas Souček, 8 Pablo Fornals, 10 Manuel Lanzini, 9 Michail Antonio, 20 Jarrod Bowen
Substitutes: 22 Saïd Benrahma, 24 Ryan Fredericks
Goalscorer: Tomas Souček
