Silva hits out at the referee as Burnley punish 10-man Watford
Six minutes of commotion, devilment and enterprise at the end of the first period ultimately proved decisive in this ferociously competitive contest.
During that time the Watford leftback Marvin Zeegelaar was sent off and Scott Arfield scored the only goal of the game to carry Burnley to the threshold of the Champions League places.
Sean Dyche’s team may have gained no positional advantage from their fifth victory in seven outings, but they moved level on points with both Arsenal and Tottenham and are on the coattails of fourth-placed Liverpool.
It has been a brilliant start for Burnley and their snowballing ambitions were advanced further by Zeegelaar’s dismissal for a two-footed challenge on Steven Defour.
Replays suggested that the Dutch left-back had not been high on the Belgian, but in the current climate of zealous officiating it was an ill-advised lunge at best. While the Watford manager, Marco Silva, remonstrated with the officials, his thoughts should perhaps have turned to why Zeegelaar had countenanced such recklessness 70 yards from his own goal.
“For me, it’s clear, it’s a harsh, harsh, harsh decision from the referee,” Silva said. “It’s not a red card. Until the red card, the game was really balanced. The decision had a big influence on the rest of the match. It was not fair and, of course, after a few minutes they scored.
“Even with 10 players I didn’t see one minute in the second half with Burnley in control.”
Arfield neatly slotted the goal home after Jeff Hendrick had dummied Johann Gudmundsson’s low cross to open up space. From then on, Burnley made heavy weather of dispatching Watford, although they had two goals disallowed when Ashley Barnes was twice flagged for offside. “They went down to 10 men,” said Dyche, “and sometimes the hardest fights to win are the ones you are meant to.”