I was in attendance to see Burnley lose 1-0 to Arsenal last week. I picked up on some strengths and positive attributes to Burnley’s game, but also some weaknesses. Here is my away team report:
Strengths
Burnley are a very fit side. Arsene Wenger paid tribute to the Claret’s fitness and energy levels after last week’s clash. This helps their closing down game; they’re a side who give you very little space to play around them. In recent weeks they’ve played Arsenal, Tottenham and Man City at Turf Moor and only lost and conceded once. This conveys their resilience and work ethic. Their hard work and collective energy and enthusiasm for closing down and out-running the opposition makes it hard for teams to dictate and create chances against them; not to mention giving them the opportunity to create chances by winning the ball back high up the field.
They don’t concede many goals and look a vast improvement on the side they were in the opening 10 games of the season, when they conceded more and generally looked more open. Everton looked like they could create chances at will earlier in the season at Turf Moor but the more the season has gone on, the tighter Burnley’s defence has got.
Since those early days they’ve also become more of a threat going forward. Their increased confidence since their timid opening has seen them create more chances, the right side partnership of Trippier and Boyd being particularly effective, along with the talented Danny Ings. They’ve recently also started playing 3 strikers, which gives them more aerial threat in the shape of Vokes and Barnes. With Everton’s vulnerability from set-pieces this could be a real danger, along with the right-sided threat considering Martinez’s policy to leave the left winger forward when defending.
Weaknesses
Despite the aforementioned threats of Ings and the right side of their team, Burnley’s goals have dried up of late. However this has probably got something to do with facing the top 8 teams in the league in their last 8 games. Ings hasn’t scored since Burnley visited Man Utd on February 11th and they’ve also only scored 1 goal as a team in their last 6 games.
The lack of pace in Burnley’s defence could be exploited, the ageing Michael Duff, Ben Mee and Jason Shackell could be out-paced by the likes of Lukaku and Lennon. They have defended deeper of late than at the start of the season however, when their age and lack of pace was clearly showing. But this could work in favour of Everton as I think they prefer it went teams are deeper and give them the initiative than when they press them high and force individual errors.
Plus they have a poor away record. They’ve only won once away from home all season and struggle for goals on the road too. With Everton gaining more solidity of late and managing 2 clean sheets in a row at Goodison, a third could well be on the cards here.
Conclusion
Overall I think we all know that this is a game Everton should be winning. However I think it would be easy to underestimate Burnley’s fighting spirit and improved solidity. Last week I saw their endeavor and fitness was second to none and their closing down is relentless- that will make it very hard for Everton to find a fluency in their play. Despite their recent drought, they do have quality to match their spirit with the clearly talented Ings, a creative spark in midfield in Arfield (an underrated player in my opinion), their right side, height on set-pieces and other strikers.
