Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Last Sunday saw Burnley travel to the South Coast and come away empty handed as they ended up on the losing side of a 3-1 scoreline, had it not been for the heroics of Tom Heaton then it could have quite possibly been a cricket score.
Burnley’s plight doesn’t get any easier this afternoon when they play host to Everton who are sitting comfortably in 6th place and just four points off the top of the table.
Last week saw Ronald Koeman’s side travel to Manchester City and the Toffee’s earned a well deserved point, perhaps Lady Luck was on their side but a huge amount of credit has to go to ‘keeper Maarten Stekelenburg.
He saved not one but two penalties to keep his side in front unfortunately Nolito would eventually breach his net to get City level but Everton were great value for their point.
Romelu Lukaku was in bullish mood last Saturday as it was his goal that put Everton ahead at The Etihad, that is now 6 for the season in just 7 matches and the Belgian international will certainly fancy his chances of adding to his tally this afternoon.
To put things into comparison, Burnley have only scored 6 goals all season in the Premier League and that lack of firepower sees them currently sitting 14th in the table. Not bad by Burnley’s standards but there is only one point separating 14th to 18th so Sean Dyche will be looking over his shoulder and hoping to add some points to the 7 they have already picked up
They have had some joy against Merseyside opposition already this season with a 2-0 win at home to Liverpool back in August, fans of The Clarets will be hoping that lightning strikes twice this afternoon. The encouraging sign is that both of Burnley’s wins have come at home so that will allow Sean Dyche’s men to come into this game with some confidence.
If they are to get any kind of positive result then they are certainly going to have to improve on the level of performance that they offered last weekend. They were outclassed in every department at St Mary’s as once again another game on the road passed them by. That defeat was the third occasion that they have shipped 3 goals away from home, the makes for starker reading considering they’ve only played 4 away matches.
Can they add to their brace of home wins today? To be honest I don’t think Everton will come unstuck like Liverpool did a couple of months ago. Ronald Koeman’s team is a well drilled outfit and I think it will be a routine victory for the blue half of Merseyside. An away win for me.
