Burnley leap to sixth spot

Chris Wood will arrive in All Whites camp high on confidence after his club team, Burnley, extended their best start to an English Premier League season by beating Everton 1-0 yesterday.

Jeff Hendrick completed a 24-pass move to give Burnley the victory, easily side-stepping Morgan Schneiderlin in the penalty area to slide home a low shot in the 21st minute after Scott Arfield and Stephen Ward combined down the left toward the end of the flowing advance.

It delivered the latest impressive away result for Wood’s side on top of an opening-day win at Chelsea and draws at Tottenham and Liverpool.

Burnley have now climbed to sixth place, seven points behind the Manchester pacesetters City and United, and that should bode well for the All Whites, who will be relying on their leading marksman to continue his good form in Friday’s friendly against Japan.

Arsenal continued their improvement as they moved into the top five in the Premier League with a 2-0 win over Brighton & Hove Albion. Nacho Monreal put Arsenal in front early on at The Emirates and a brilliant goal from Alex Iwobi in the second half sealed a sixth win in seven matches, in all competitions.

Liverpool lost ground on the leading pack as they were held to a 1-1 draw at Newcastle.

Philippe Coutinho put Liverpool in front on 29 minutes with a brilliant strike from outside the box, but Newcastle equalised seven minutes later with a massive stroke of luck as Joel Matip’s clearance deflected off Joselu and went past Simon Mignolet into the corner.

Daniel Sturridge had a good chance to win it for Liverpool but his attempy was saved by Rob Elliot, and Liverpool have now won just once in seven games in all competitions.