Wood lifts Burnley out of the bottom three
Burnley finally claimed their first victory in the English Premier League yesterday, 1-0 against a Crystal Palace missing star forward Wilfried Zaha after he tested positive for the coronavirus.
Allwhites striker Chriswood scored in the eighth minute, latching onto a neat flick by strike partner Jay Rodriguez and sidefooting powerfully past goalkeeper Vicente Guaita from a central position.
The chance openedupbecause of a poor attempted clearance by Palace defender Cheikhou Kouyate, whomisdirected a header straight to Rodriguez.
Thewin in Burnley’s eighthgame allowed the team to climb out of the bottom three and into fourth-to-last place on five points.
Burnley winger Johann Berg Gudmundssonstruck the crossbar at the end of a counterattackmidway through the second half, while Palace struggled to create any clearcut openings without Zaha, who appeared in each of the team’s last 59 Premier League games stretching back to February 2019.
“He has tested positive unfortunately for coronavirus so is self-isolating,” Palace managerroy Hodgson said before the game.
“He is not feeling particularly ill, but unfortunately the test proved (positive).”
The best chance for Palace fell in stoppage time to substitute Christian Benteke, whoseclose-range effort wasblocked by the outstretched left hand of goalkeeper Nick Pope.
Wood’s goalwas Burnley’s first at homeinthe league, and only their fourth in total. — AP