THE SEAN IDENTITY
Burnley have never-say-dyche spirit
WHAT on earth would Burnley do without Sean Dyche?
Who could they possibly attract to foster the kind of spirit the Clarets showed last night at the London Stadium?
West Ham battered them for so much of this game and yet Jay Rodriguez ensured Dyche and his men headed back north with another three points. Smash and grab it may well have been, but you could also point to organisation, defensive resilience, and character, all instilled by Dyche.
It’s now three wins from their last four and a third victory on the road in their last five.
Dyche is understood to be ready to walk at the end of the season. He has earned a crack at a club with a bigger budget.
His Burnley side were helped by the fact that VAR didn’t even review James Tarkowski’s dangerous lunge on West Ham’s Jarrod Bowen. Tarkowski should have been sent off instead of merely yellow-carded
Burnley were also helped by the fact that West Ham simply can’t defend. David Moyes’s side have now gone 15 games since they last kept a clean sheet.
Don’t get too carried away by talk that they are still in trouble. The bottom three are awful. But West Ham have to find a way to stop conceding goals.
On this occasion it was Ryan Fredericks who failed to prevent Charlie Taylor sending in a superb cross from the left, seven minutes before the break. Rodriguez powered in a header that smacked the bar and bounced over the line. Harsh on Hammers? Perhaps, because before then Tomas Soucek had blown a number of chances to put them ahead.
Just four minutes in he’d found himself in space outside the box but powered his effort over the bar. Eleven minutes later he sent a header too high above the target. Then 29 minutes in, he ghosted into the Burnley box to meet a Fredericks cross - only to fire his volley straight at outstanding Burnley keeper Nick Pope.
Moyes (left) sent on Sebastien Haller to add more firepower and the big striker could have levelled with his first touch from eight yards but Pope got a leg to it.
The Hammers boss was furious about the Tarkowski let-off.
“It’s a red card. It’s really disappointing the ref didn’t see it, the linesman didn’t, and VAR didn’t,” he said.
Burnley boss Dyche said: “I haven’t seen it back but I presume that’s what VAR is there for. Did their players react? I can’t remember. I don’t think they did.”
The controversy comes after Hammers CEO Karren Brady slammed VAR last weekend, calling for it to be scrapped.
WEST HAM: Fabianski 6, Fredericks 6, Ogbonna 6, Diop 6, Cresswell 7, Yarmolenko 6 (Haller 62, 5), Rice, Fornals 6 (Ajeti 86), Soucek 7, Bowen 7, Antonio 6. BURNLEY: MOTM Pope 8, Bardsley 7, Long 7, Tarkowski 7, Taylor, Brownhill 7, Pieters 7, Westwood 7, Mcneil 7, Rodriguez 8, Vydra 7 (Wood 58, 8).
REFEREE: Michael Oliver