Every time Burnley go to Stamford Bridge for a Premier League game, it appears Burnley come up against another manager.
Since winning promotion in 2016 Burnley have played against Chelsea sides handled by Antonio Conte (who we came up against two ), Maurizio Sarri and Frank Lampard, their first British manager since Glenn Hoddle left to take over England in 1996.
Lampard is in his first season and he has been talking about their latest home beats which have left them some space behind the top three at the table.
“We have created fifty odds in three matches and scored no goals so if this is the case and you are playing in the Premier League and you let teams remain in the game then they’ll have the quality to hurt you.”
“We will need to take our opportunities in home games and I want to be quite firm about that since it’s easy to say we are unlucky or the ball has not dropped for us but we must get that right. We work on this in training but there is an element of it that’s instinct and we will need to find that killer instinct in front of goal since, when it comes drama, we are controlling big elements of games but we are allowing teams to remain in them. We get into the last third a lot, as far as any team in the nation barring Liverpool, but we are not converting chances in the home.”
It is a tough one for the Clarets on the back of three consecutive league defeats and Sean Dyche said, “Looking back in the Christmas period we lost all three matches, but there was just one, I believe, where people would have been disappointed, and that’s Villa. If we had beaten them, I believe people would say we have had a great Christmas, sat on 27 points and through into the fourth round of the cup. The other two games over Christmas; I believe most might think we could nick a draw or better since Everton needed a new manager and United are still United.
“Moving forward, we have a tough run of games, but you do need to play all of them. You will find tranches of games that are extremely tough and we’re in that now. We have only had Everton and Manchester United, today we have another run coming up with Chelsea, Leicester, Arsenal and Man U again. Then we go on another run towards the end of the season where we just play three of the large teams, so that you can look at it in whatever way you prefer.
“No games are simple, but statistically there are a group of groups that you’re more likely to have results from, and that is why the story from Burnley Football Club’s point of view is over a year.
The fact is where you’re at the end of the year and that is what we work towards rather than getting too bogged down with all the ups and downs on the way. You need good results, naturally, and you want good performances.
“We have tons of experience of the ups and downs. We seem to use that wisely, but we’ve reflected on things and we’re still in very good shape compared to last season.
We could be without lots of players tomorrow through illness and injury but Dyche added:”It all adds to the story of a year. We were very, very unfortunate last season and this one we have only had spells of unfortunate accidents.
“If you’ve got them within a season and they’re spread out, it will not affect you , but when they come in chunks, with four or five players down for a couple of weeks at a time, then it gets more difficult. It is frustrating, but it’s what it is, and we’ll get on with it. We have got a team that is competitive. I have said that all along, and we believe we have players who we think can go in the team, re-mould it and be productive.”
