Pope keeps Villans at bay to help the Clarets climb
BURNLEY clung on to the point they needed to move out of the bottom three – thanks in no small part to fine goalkeeping from Nick Pope.
The Clarets were well worth a draw at Villa Park last night but Villa will feel they should have taken all three points after having 27 shots.
In the end, it all came down to just two main chances. Anwar El Ghazi’s effort was tipped onto the crossbar by Pope and Matt Lowton cleared Ahmed Elmohamady’s effort off the line against his former club.
Kortney Hause also headed against a post while Burnley’s best chance fell to Chris Wood, whose header was saved by Emiliano Martinez.
El Ghazi may have been making his first start of the season but the Holland forward alone had eight attempts on Pope’s goal.
Villa boss Dean Smith admitted his frustration at the result and his side’s inability to break the deadlock.
‘It was a performance worthy of a win and we had enough chances to win two or three games,’ he said.
In total, Pope made six saves and Burnley manager Sean Dyche heaped praise on his
England stopper. ‘His first job is to show me, himself and his team-mates what a good player he is,’ he said.
‘Popey is doing a very good job of showing everyone what a top keeper he is at the moment.’
Pope’s 31 clean sheets since his debut for the club in September 2017 is bettered only by one Englishman, Everton’s Jordan Pickford – the man keeping him out of the national team currently.
His save from El Ghazi effectively preserved a point for Dyche’s men, although Jack Grealish and Tyrone Mings went close to a breakthrough.
Robbie Brady and Ben Mee also forced saves from Martinez but the result proved enough to claw Burnley, who host Wolves on Monday night, out of the relegation zone.
We had enough chances to win two or three matches