Burnley 1-0 Crystal Palace: Chris Wood’s goal gives Burnley first league win of the season

Burnley secured their first Premier League victory this season when the win over Crystal Palace at Turf Moor knocked them out of the relegation zone.

However, Chris Wood’s first goal, Burnley’s first goal at home this season, proved the difference, as the forward drove home off a pass from Jay Rodriguez after a mistake on the Palace defense.

Palace was left without influential forward Wilfried Zaha after he tested positive for coronavirus, and his contribution in attack was lost.

However, they had a chance to equalize in the first half with loaned Chelsea forward Michy Batshuayi who failed to reach an excellent ball from James McArthur before Nick Pope overturned Andros Townsend’s powerful effort.

Burnley should have put the game out of Crystal Palace’s reach shortly after the restart, but Johann Gudmundsson slammed his shot off the crossbar, a failure that nearly proved costly shortly after when a Dwight McNeil error put Batshuayi in goal but failed. was able to beat Pope.

There was one last chance for Palace to equalize, but Pope produced a superb save from close range to deny substitute Christian Benteke.

The victory moves Burnley to 17th place with five points, one point above the relegation zone, while Crystal Palace remains with 13 points in 10th place.

A much-needed victory to give Clarets hope

After losing five of his opening six league games this season, it seemed increasingly likely that Burnley’s five-year tenure in the top flight was coming to an end.

Clarets boss Sean Dyche has firmly maintained that his team has looked more like its old self in recent games, even if the results suggested otherwise, but this was a performance reminiscent of those seasons in which they have outgrown. The expectations.

They seized the first opportunity presented to them with Rodriguez attacking after Cheikhou Kouyate cleared a header and the striker, reinstated to the side in place of Ashley Barnes, set Wood up to score his second goal of the season.

Burnley showed good stamina to maintain his slim lead and secure three important points, particularly ahead of a tough-looking match streak with matches against Manchester City, Everton and Arsenal to follow.

Dyche said: “It’s a starting point, it’s good that the story calms down a bit when you get that victory, increase your points count and come out of the last three in this period, but we know there is a lot of work.” to finish.

“We’re getting the players back in shape, we look like a more complete team right now, as long as everyone stays in shape, so it gives you a better platform to build on.”

Palacio feels Zaha’s absence

Zaha is undoubtedly a key figure for Palace and the forward has had a particularly good start to the season with five goals and two assists in the eight games he has played.

It’s no wonder that before Monday’s game, the Eagles had lost 13 of their last 15 games without Zaha, lacking a true leading edge in attack in his absence.

Against Burnley, their approach game was good, but movements often faded once they got closer to the area, and players either made the wrong pass or didn’t get into the best positions.

Palace have been unable to keep a clean sheet in the Premier League since the first game of the season, underlining the importance of scoring goals. This result highlighted his need to find a way to do it without putting the weight of expectations on Zaha.

Hodgson, however, disagreed with Palace being too dependent on Zaha, saying: “We have scored 12, which is more than we have had in previous years after nine games.

“I’ve been hearing people tell us for two years that we don’t score enough goals and we don’t have enough scorers. There are goals in the team, we have players who can score and who will score.

“There are 29 games left and the goals will come and go from many different sources, of that I am convinced.”

Clarets last to finally score at home – the statistics

• Burnley have won consecutive Premier League games against Palace after losing four in a row.
• Burnley has recorded his first Premier League win of 2020-21, with this his first win in the competition since defeating Norwich 2-0 in July (winless in eight before today).
• Palace have kept just a clean sheet in their last 17 Premier League games, conceding in eight straight games since a 1-0 win against Southampton in September.
• Wood’s first goal for Burnley was his first Premier League goal at Turf Moor this season (278 minutes of action and 30 attempted goals), meaning that all teams in the first four levels of English football have scored. a goal at home in 2020-21.
• Since making his Premier League debut with Burnley (08-27-2017), Wood has scored 36 goals in the competition, at least nine more than any other Claret player.
• Since the start of 2014-15 (when Zaha rejoined the Palace), the Eagles have lost 20 of their 28 Premier League games without the Ivorian, including each of the last seven away from home.
• Johann Gudmundsson made his 100th Premier League appearance for Burnley tonight becoming the 10th player to reach this milestone for the Clarets in the competition.

Whats Next?

Burnley will travel to Manchester City in the Premier League on Saturday, November 28 (15:00 GMT) while Crystal Palace will play at home to Newcastle on Friday, November 27 (20:00 GMT)