CLARETS’ PERFECT 10 IS ON

Even Josh can’t believe it!

NORWICH 0 BURNLEY 3

Zaroury 8, Vitinho 54, Ekdal 60

JOSH BROWNHILL admits even he has been astonished by Burnley’s amazing bounce-back campaign.

Vincent Kompany’s first season as a manager in English football is on course to end up in the record books as well as the Premier League.

The Championship’s runaway leaders accepted three gifts from Norwich, who were relegated with them last season, to go seven points clear.

It was a ninth successive league victory thanks to goals from Anass Zaroury, substitute Vitinho – with his first touch seconds after coming on – and debutant defender Hjalmar Ekdal.

Only two clubs have won 10 in a row since the Championship rebranded in 2004 – Reading in 2005-06 and Aston Villa in 2018-19. The second-tier record is 14, held by three clubs and last equalled in 1951.

That Reading side ended up with the highest points tally – 106 – from a second-tier season.

Burnley, who last won 10 straight at this level in 1913, now have 65 points with 57 still to play for.

Yet Brownhill (above), captain and midfield lynchpin, revealed he predicted none of this in the summer, when 22 players left including England keeper Nick Pope and defensive stars James Tarkowski and Ben Mee.

He said: “I’m very surprised. Sometimes if you get a new manager and a lot of players go out and new players come in you don’t know how well you are going to do.

“But you could see in pre-season that the players who were brought in suited the system very well.

“The players who left deserved their moves, but the ones who have come in have worked hard on the training pitch and you can see where we are in the table.” Norwich, who joined the 10-in-a-row club in 1986, won this fixture last season when Dean Smith was manager and Burnley were in the last days of the Sean Dyche era.

Home hopes were high following two high-scoring away wins in David Wagner’s first league outings as Smith’s successor.

But you cannot beat any team with such poor defending, let alone the best in the league. Keeper Tim Krul set the tone in the eighth minute by passing his goalkick straight to Zaroury.

Then early in the second-half, the Canaries failed to defend corners, with Vitinho heading in the first at the near post and Ekdal poking in the second (left) after Ian Maatsen had retrieved from the back stick.

Norwich ended the weekend in 10th and are without a home win since October.

Left-back Dimitris Giannoulis said: “We need to learn our lessons – and we will do.”