Wood peeved by penalty decision
Chris Wood has set a personal scoring record with Burnley’s goal but was frustrated to have a penalty appeal denied in a 1-1 English Premier League draw with Tottenham Hotspur.
The All Whites striker bagged his 11th goal of the 2019-20 campaign with a routine tap-in at Burnley’s Turf Moor yesterday, breaking his season record.
Wood had scored 10 goals in each of the last two campaigns, but has eclipsed that mark with two months of the season still to play, making him one of the most consistent scorers in the world’s best football league.
Burnley manager Sean Dyche was livid the Clarets had a penalty appeal disallowed after a barge on Wood soon after Spurs’ Dele Alli had levelled from the penalty spot.
Wood felt he should have had a penalty because Spurs defender Davinson Sanchez ‘‘came over the top’’ exactly as Burnley’s James Tarkowski had done to Tottenham’s Erik Lamela earlier.
‘‘It’s the same type of foul, in my opinion,’’ Wood told Burnley’s official website.
‘‘He didn’t touch the ball in any sense. I don’t understand why it’s not the same, but that’s life and we move on.’’
Wood, who made his 350th appearance in English football, was chuffed to equal former Claret Danny Ings as Burnley’s leading scorer in an EPL season.
‘‘It’s nice to have that tally ticked past from the past seasons. It’s a good place to be in and hopefully there are a lot more to come.’’
At the top of the table, Liverpool survived a scare to beat Bournemouth 2-1 and are three wins from claiming their first title in 30 years.
‘We weren’t at our best,’’ captain James Milner said. ‘‘But many teams would have crumbled after a couple of poor results.’’ Not this side as it moved 25 points clear, although Manchester City have played two games fewer.
Unlike last Saturday, when hopes of an unbeaten Premier League campaign were thwarted by Watford, Liverpool did complete a recovery against a team fighting relegation.
Defensive lapses were seized on by Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane as they scored the goals that wiped out Callum Wilson’s early strike to hand Liverpool a top-flight record 22nd straight home win.
Whether Liverpool will get to celebrate their seemingly inevitable title in front of their own fans, or any crowd, remains uncertain with nine matches remaining.
The coronavirus outbreak has opened up the prospect of the closing weeks of the season being played in empty stadiums.
There were few goals in the other matches, with 1-0 wins for Arsenal over West Ham, Crystal Palace over Watford, Sheffield United over Norwich and Newcastle at Southampton, while Wolves and Brighton drew 0-0.