Burnley cave in as Blades fail to cut it
BURNLEY have become all too accustomed to setbacks at Turf Moor this season, but this West Ham smash and grab was an especially bitter pill to swallow.
Vincent Kompany’s side have led Tottenham and Chelsea at home and more than matched Manchester United, yet lost all three.
They were clearly superior for 80 minutes and within touching distance of the first home success since their Premier League return that would have lifted them off the bottom.
But they still lost 2-1 and it was quite hard to fathom how.
Leading courtesy of Jay Rodriguez’s penalty early in the second half, all Burnley had to do was cling on as the clearly better team. But they just could not do it, folding under West Ham’s late pressure.
Four minutes from time, the hitherto anonymous
Mohammed Kudus delivered a cross that brushed in off unfortunate Burnley defender Dara O’Shea.
Teenage substitute Divin Mubama had applied pressure on O’Shea and thought he had the goal, only for replays to show a deflection. Worse was to follow as stoppage time began. It was Kudus again causing mischief down the right, his cross slammed home by Tomas Soucek, who swung a leg at the back post.
That Kompany’s side have now dropped 14 points from winning positions suggests a lack of resilience that looks increasingly likely to mean relegation.
It’s also looking increasingly perilous for Sheffield United who went down 3-1 to Bournemouth who were 2-0 up at the interval courtesy of strikes from Marcus Tavernier strike which was followedd up and Justin Kluivert.
The Blades pulled a goal back in added time through Oli McBurnie, but the chants of ‘We’ve scored a goal’ and boos at full-time told the story of a dismal day for the home side.
Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola was more than happy with the outcome.
‘We played really well. We had a lot of chances, we started really well and that helped us,’ he said. ‘The away form needed to improve. After improving ath ome, we needed this win.’