Wood nets brace in Burnley win
All Whites striker Chris Wood rediscovered his goal scoring form, netting twice to help Burnley to a valuable English Premier League win.
Wood’s brace propelled Burnley to a 2-0 victory over Norwich City at Burnley’s Turf Moor home yesterday, a result which lifts the Clarets to seventh in the standings.
Both of Wood’s goals came in the opening 14 minutes, scoring twice in four minutes to put Burnley in control.
They were Wood’s first goals of the new English Premier League season and his first league goals since April.
‘‘It’s been a little time coming but it’s nice to be off the mark and rolling,’’ Wood told the Burnley FC website.
Wood, who scored 10 Premier League goals in each of the last two seasons, said he ‘‘backed myself that they would come. I knew that it was hopefully only a matter of time.
‘‘You want to get off the mark but as a striker you know the next chance is around the corner so you can’t get too disheartened. You’ve just got to make sure you’re ready for when they do fall.’’
The result snapped Burnley’s winless run of four games since they beat Southampton 3-0 on the opening day of the campaign.
Wood’s opening goal came in the 10th minute after Ashley Westwood delivered a perfect inswinging corner. Wood’s impressive movement found him space at the near post to nod home and get Burnley off to a fast start.
It had been a long wait for the New Zealand international, but four minutes later he was celebrating again.
Norwich didn’t help their cause as defender Ibrahim Amadous misplaced a pass to Jack Cork and the Clarets were ruthless in exposing the mistake.
Cork released Dwight Mcneil and when the winger went past Sam Byram and crossed to the near post, Wood was there again to neatly steer the ball past Tim Krul with his left foot.
The highlight of the round was defending champion Manchester City’s 8-0 rout of bottom-placed Watford.
It came four months after City beat Watford 6-0 in the FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium to complete an unprecedented domestic treble last season. The previous season, City won 6-0 at Watford.
Tottenham endured another disappointing day, losing 2-1 at Leicester to an 85th-minute winner from James Maddison. Spurs had led 1-0 and thought they had added a second before VAR ruled out the ‘goal’ for offside.
In other matches, Sheffield United won 2-0 at Everton, Newcastle drew 0-0 at home to Brighton, while Bournemouth won 3-1 at Southampton on Saturday.