Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Huddersfield’s recent form has seen them go unbeaten in their last three Premier League outings, that trio of matches has seen them pick up five points after picking up a win and two draws and the subsequently find themselves 11th in the table some six points clear of Bournemouth in 18th, today they will look to extend that run when they entertain Burnley at the John Smith’s Stadium.
David Wagner’s men have earned successive draws over this busy festive period, they came away at Southampton this time last week and at home to Stoke on Boxing Day, with both matches ending with a 1-1 scoreline. This comes off the back of comfortably beating Watford at Vicarage Road as they ran out 4-1 winners a fortnight ago.
These results have seen Huddersfield keep their heads well above water when it comes to the battle to beat the drop and it must be said that when it comes to talk about relegation they are hardly coming up in conversation when people discuss which three teams will be unfortunate enough to be relegated come the end of the season.
And credit must to go to the Yorkshire outfit for how they have performed this season, ultimately they have picked up points when it really matters as they have cleverly identified that it is the matches against the teams outside of the top six in which the bulk of your results will come from and this in turn can aid your chances of survival.
Although the home win over Manchester United back in October was a fantastic result there is no doubting that Huddersfield’s approach against the other big teams has been more a case of damage limitation, that may be of some frustration to the fans but at the same time you cannot argue with the pragmatic approach that has got the club to where they currently are.
Today’s opponents Burnley will still consider themselves unlucky not to have picked up all three points on Boxing Day when they made the relatively short trip to Old Trafford to face Manchester United. After taking a surprise 2-0 lead they were then pegged back by a Jesse Lingard goal which halved the deficit.
Then it was a case of could they hold out with the clock ticking down, unfortunately for the Clarets it would not tick fast enough as it was once again Lingard who popped up with his second of the game as United broke Burnley hearts with a dramatic stoppage time equaliser. It may have been a well earned point but right after the final whistle had blown it would have probably felt like a defeat.
That means that Burnley have taken one point from six in this festive period as a draw at Old Trafford saw them at least bounce back after a heavy defeat to Tottenham at Turf Moor. That pair of results has just seen them slip away in the race for the top six and you do have to wonder if the team has hit their peak.
The task now for Sean Dyche and his players will be too make sure that the momentum from this incredible season does not start to slip away in the second half of the campaign. With a third successive tilt at the Premier League all but confirmed for next Summer to reach 40 points and simply hit the beach will not be good enough.
Now it will be a case of just how they can finish come next May. They still have a sizeable buffer between themselves and the duo of Leicester and Everton who look the only likely contenders to end up in seventh place they now need to make sure that continues to be the case and close out an incredible season.
Today though I think they may just be a little deflated after that late draw with Manchester United and that coupled with the recent form that Huddersfield are in means I think this one could see both teams cancelling each other out. Arguably a better point for the home side rather than the away one but I’ll go for a draw this time around.
