Burnley

Matthew Howarth
BBC Sport journalist

Image source, Getty Images

Burnley still face an uphill task to stave off relegation from the Premier League, but Saturday's victory over Brentford has the potential to breathe life into the Clarets' survival bid.

Jacob Bruun Larsen's early penalty - and Sergio Reguilon's dismissal - gave Vincent Kompany's team the perfect start at Turf Moor, but they could have made life easier for themselves in the first half.

Dara O'Shea's heavy back pass was hacked off the line by Clarets goalkeeper Arijanet Muric, before David Datro Fofana somehow failed to hit the target from inside the six-yard area after being picked out by Lorenz Assignon.

Fofana turned from villain to hero in the second half, beating Brentford keeper Mark Flekken with a composed finish to give the hosts a two-goal cushion with less than half an hour remaining.

Burnley fans had to endure a nervous finish, Kristoffer Ajer's late header giving Brentford hope before Shandon Baptiste's stoppage-time cross-shot nestled in the back of the net.

But the goal was correctly ruled out for Ivan Toney's foul on Muric as the Clarets celebrated only their second home win of the campaign.

Is it too little, too late? Only time will tell.

Here are the key facts and figures following Saturday afternoon's game between Burnley and Brentford in the Premier League.

• Brentford have lost nine of their past 10 Premier League away games (W1), losing 11 in total this season, more than any other side in the competition.

• Burnley ended a run of 10 Premier League games without victory (D3 L7) since a 2-0 win against Fulham in December. This was just their second home win of the season in the competition (5-0 against Sheffield United in December).

• David Datro Fofana has been involved in five of the eight Premier League goals Burnley have scored since his debut for the club in January, scoring four and assisting one. Despite only playing in eight matches, no player has netted more in the competition this season for the Clarets than the Ivorian (four goals, level with Lyle Foster and Zeki Amdouni).

• Sergio Reguilon’s red card in the 9th minute is the earliest dismissal for a Brentford player in the Premier League, and the earliest overall in the competition, since October 2022 (Nathaniel Chalobah for Fulham against Newcastle United in the 8th minute).

• Burnley’s Arijanet Muric made his Premier League debut, becoming the fourth Kosovan to appear in the competition after Milot Rashica, Florent Hadergjonaj and Bersant Celina. He is also the first goalkeeper to do so.

Burnley boosted their slim hopes of Premier League survival with a nervy victory over 10-man Brentford at Turf Moor.

Jacob Bruun Larsen's early penalty gave the hosts the perfect start after the video assistant referee (VAR) adjudged Sergio Reguilon to have committed a professional foul on Clarets winger Vitinho, resulting in a straight red card for the Tottenham loanee.

Dara O'Shea's heavy backpass almost gifted Brentford an equaliser, but Arijanet Muric - making his Premier League debut in place of first-choice Clarets goalkeeper James Trafford - produced a fine clearance to stop the ball trickling over the line.

David Datro Fofana was guilty of one of the misses of the season shortly before the interval, somehow scuffing his shot wide after Lorenz Assignon had picked out the young Ivorian.

But Chelsea loanee Fofana made amends midway through the second period, taking Wilson Odobert's pass in his stride and calmly beating Muric to double Burnley's advantage.

Wilson Odobert spurned an excellent opportunity to make it 3-0, before Kristoffer Ajer's late header gave Brentford hope.

The visitors thought they had salvaged an unlikely equaliser deep into added time when Shandon Baptiste's cross looped over Muric and into the far corner, but the goal was ruled out for a foul by Ivan Toney on the Burnley keeper.

The Clarets' second home win of the season means they are now eight points adrift of safety with nine matches left to play, while Brentford sit four points above the bottom three.

Were you at the match or did you follow it from elsewhere?

Burnley fans - let us know your thoughts on the game here

How did you rate the side's performance, Brentford fans?

Follow all of the reaction here

In the midst of the FA Cup quarter-finals, we still have plenty of Premier League action and we'll bring you every second.

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BBC Sport football expert Chris Sutton is making predictions for every Premier League game this season, against a variety of guests.

For this weekend's games, he takes on Anna Friedberg and Emily Linden from alt-rock band Friedberg.

Sutton's prediction: 1-2

I keep being silly and going for Burnley to get a draw at home, and I keep getting it wrong.

Should I go down the same road here, though? The Clarets will definitely get some chances against Brentford, who are missing a few defenders through injury, but they don't tend to take them.

The more I think about it, the more I think Brentford will win. They are not in great form but they ended a seven-game winless run when they beat Burnley earlier in the season and I can see something similar happening this time too.

Anna and Emily's prediction: 0-2

Read the rest of their predictions here

Nicola Pearson
BBC Sport journalist

Vincent Kompany has been speaking to the media before Burnley's Premier League match against Brentford on Saturday.

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• Kompany confirmed that they have no new injury concerns for this game and could have a "few positive surprises" for players being available.

• On only losing one game at home last year, but only winning one this year, he said: "It is a different league. That is the easiest way to say it, but it doesn't take away the fact we would like to win more at home, we have been close a few times and Saturday is another opportunity for us."

• Kompany said "the hardest thing to do in football is score the first goal and that has not been a problem for us" but he added: "At the moment it [Premier League] looks like a striker's league, we're not an exception to that and it's what makes this league the best league in the world. Teams find a way to score and we have to do the same, we need to find ways to score more."

• On the form of striker David Datro Fofana, he said: "He is on track for where he is at in his age. There's a reason Chelsea bought him because they must think he is a big talent. I followed him before he went to Chelsea, knew him and spoke to him before, so nice to pick him up and we just needed his profile. What he's done so far we need another 10 times, there's no other way."

• Asked whether they can make more of set pieces, he said: "It's how you want to look at it. The positive is we do score goals from open play and that's not easy to do. When you analyse it we have been fairly dangerous at set pieces... the issue isn't creating chances from set plays, we are dangerous but we need to score more and have to believe next game we can do that."

• He said they "don't get dragged into anything other than next game" and the "only priority is to make the most of 10 games we have and then can reflect again [on progress of club]".

• On still having a chance of staying up, he said: "My life is like this, I look for any opportunity to do something special. This season can still be that so why throw away opportunities? We experienced something fantastic last year and no reason why the next 10 games can't give us the same feeling back."

At which Premier League clubs are English players getting the most game time this season?

An edition of the BBC Football Extra newsletter posed that question earlier in the week and the results make for interesting reading for fans of a few clubs.

Against a league total of 30.2%, that the proportion of total minutes across all clubs that England-qualified players account for, the range for individual clubs varies from 8% all the way up to 64%.

At the top of the table sit Everton with 64% - this perhaps not hugely surprising as manager Sean Dyche tends to gravitate towards English players. At Burnley across 2020-21 there were four occasions when he picked an 11 containing 10 English players plus Czech striker Matej Vydra, by far the closest we have come to an all-English 11 in recent times. More on that below.

Newcastle are the only other club where England players account for more than half of all minutes this season, clocking in at 53%.

At the other end of the table we find two London rivals, Tottenham and Fulham, where England-qualified players have accounted for just 8% of all minutes this campaign. At Spurs, this includes the game time of Eric Dier, who is no longer at the club.

Two other noteworthy clubs are Aston Villa and Chelsea. In February 1999, Villa fielded an all-English 11, the last time this happened in the league. This season, the percentage of game time given to English players at Villa is 21% - though they do of course fare better if British players are factored in too.

Later in 1999, Chelsea became the first Premier League side to field an 11 without an English player. However, this season they sit at 35% and this despite injuries to Reece James and Ben Chilwell.

The wider context is that the league average of 30.2% is the lowest since 2018/19 (28.9%) and well down on the 36.3% figure of three seasons ago.

And which nations are getting more minutes? One notable nation is Brazil – there was not a single Brazilian in the league when the Premier League came into existence, now they account for the second most minutes played in the league and only four sides don’t have a Brazilian in their regular starting 11.

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Here are the key facts and figures before Saturday's game between Burnley and Brentford in the Premier League.

• Burnley have only lost one of their past 11 home league games against Brentford, beating the Bees 3-1 in their only previous Premier League meeting at Turf Moor in October 2021.

• Following their 3-0 win in the reverse fixture, Brentford are looking to complete the league double over Burnley for just the second time, previously doing so in the second tier in 1934-35.

• Burnley are winless in their past 10 Premier League games since a 2-0 win at Fulham in December. Their eight games without a win so far in 2024 is their longest run without a league victory from the start of a calendar year since 2007 (12).

• Having won three consecutive Premier League games in October and November, Brentford have since won just three of their last 17. Since the weekend of the first game in that run, the Bees have lost more Premier League games than any other side (13).

• David Datro Fofana has been involved in four of the six Premier League goals Burnley have scored since his debut for the club in January, scoring three and assisting another. Across the season as a whole, only Lyle Foster (seven) and Zeki Amdouni (five) have been involved in more league goals for the Clarets than Fofana.

• Brentford striker Yoane Wissa has scored in each of his last three Premier League games, and has now scored exactly seven goals in all three of his campaigns in the competition. He has never scored in four consecutive matches within the top two divisions in his European league career.

According to Opta's 'Supercomputer', Burnley are likely to be relegated this season on 23 points (22.86 to be precise!).

We asked you for your thoughts on this prediction and here are some of your responses:

Oli: We have been utterly shambolic all season. Considering we did so well last season, this campaign needs to be classed as an abject failure. Any higher in the league would be undeserved. Worse than the last time we went down. Poor summer business and managerial inexperience have not helped this year.

John: Terrible season. We've had no luck and the early fixture list was a nightmare that meant no confidence, and terrible VAR decisions against us. But there were signs against West Ham that we are improving. We just need some luck now and VAR decisions to go our way! Kompany will stay, it's a five-year plan and we're only one year in!

Jack: We're certain to be relegated. The way the whole season - from the £100m wasted to the present - has shown how little Pace knows about football. If he had that sort of money, he should have spent it on known Premier League players to back up what we had. This experiment of buying a whole team has been a complete failure.

Jeremiah: Kompany is persistently playing the worst keeper in the league after wasting £15m on him. If he played Muric we would probably have stayed up. He's bought loads of flops this year and just keeps playing them no matter what.

Dec: Sadly they looking favourites to be relegated. Defence just not up to the job. If things don't change they will struggle in the Championship.

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Pat Nevin
Former Chelsea and Everton winger

Image source, Reuters

Watching Everton, Luton Town and Sheffield United on Saturday underlined just how competitive the Premier League is. Nobody has given up down at the bottom and no three points can ever be taken for granted.

Luton battled to the very death against Crystal Palace to win a point in the 96th minute. Everton had more possession, chances and endeavour than Manchester United at Old Trafford and although there is a distinct lack of quality in front of goal, the spirit is there in bucketfuls.

Sheffield United might have buckled after the embarrassing 6-0 home hammering by Arsenal, but no, they were back down at Bournemouth going 2-0 up before succumbing to a late equaliser.

All the bottom sides have weaknesses, most obviously up front with few natural goalscorers, though Luton's Elijah Adebayo has scored nine in the league. His return is arguably as impressive as Erling Haaland's 18 to date, simply because the Norwegian gets so many more chances.

The teams at the bottom are all fighting, and each is dangerous. They keep the entire division honest, and they deserve applause for that alone. Who knows, one of them might even decide the title in the end.

As if to underline the above, Burnley, who are very likely to be in the Championship next season, were asking West Ham the toughest of questions after going 2-0 up in east London on Sunday. Eventually, David Moyes got the message across that there are no easy games and they fought back impressively in another cracking game.

Pat Nevin was writing for the BBC Football Extra newsletter

Natalie Bromley
Fan writer

At this stage of the season, with a return to the Championship merely a matter of time, I am looking for one thing and one thing only: a performance you can be proud of.

It's been a hard season for the Clarets, there is no doubt about that, but it's time to start looking ahead and preparing for what is likely to be another challenging season in the EFL.

Vincent Kompany needs to start thinking about who will make up his Championship squad, where they will play and how he can return some confidence and a winning mentality to this team. Fans need to see them playing for that badge.

We saw glimpses of that on Sunday. That first half was one of the best performances we have seen from Burnley all season.

Sure, they took advantage of a sluggish West Ham start, but we still had to convert the opportunity. And we did. We looked more mature than we have for most of this season and even when we lost control of the game in the second half, there was fight in those players.

Kompany's substitutions have baffled me all season, and the decision to replace Jacob Bruun Larsen with Josh Brownhill during half-time did little to comfort me. Why? The performance was there in the first half, and the team was working well.

Of course, you can't blame Josh Brownhill for the first goal, but how many times have we looked disjointed after the break and conceded early, this time within a minute of the second half starting?

There's no excuse for lack of concentration - prepare well during half-time and be ready well before that whistle blows.

Natalie Bromley can be found on the No Nay Never podcast , external

As the Premier League heads into the business end of the season, statisticians Opta have been putting the remaining fixtures through their 'supercomputer' to predict who will finish where in the table at the end of the campaign.

Burnley, who currently sit second from bottom of the table on 14 points, are among a number of teams fighting to keep their place in the Premier League.

They next face Brentford, before returning from the international break to play Chelsea, Wolves and fellow relegation battlers Everton.

According to Opta, the Clarets are likely to be relegated this season with on 22.86 points.

But what do you think Burnley fans? Do you agree with the prediction or have you got faith Vincent Kompany and the team can beat the 'supercomputer' and fight the looming relegation threat?

Have your say here

We asked for your views on Sunday's game between West Ham United and Burnley.

Here are some of your responses:

West Ham fans

Steve: Another lethargic performance. Hard to see where this squad goes from here. They seem to lack any ambition. So tired of watching them waste their talent. Enough, guys.

Simon: Another frustrating performance. All fans were looking for a reaction after Thursday's defeat and the first-half performance was diabolical. We deserved to be 2-0 down. A much better second half but why couldn't we play with that tempo in the first half? We could then have then rested players earlier before Thursday. Instead we were left chasing the game.

John: Absolutely poor beyond belief first half. Why can’t Moyes wind them up to come out like they did in second half from the start? Seems he wants them to be defensive until they have no choice but to play the way West Ham supporters want.

Al: I just cannot cope with the inconsistency of this team. We need to be taking all three points from games like this.

Burnley fans

Steven: Great away performance. Dug in when we needed and showed plenty of guts. Should have won it with the chances we had, especially at the end. West Ham probably should have had a penalty but we deserved a bit of luck. Keep going, boys. Another performance like that next week.

Mark: We had a great first half - played really well and controlled the game. Then, as usual, we throw it away and went back to sloppy defending. I didn't understand why Kompany brought Odobert off for a defender to defend a one-goal lead. Are we sure he used to be defender, as we most certainly don't know how to defend. I think it's time for him to go now.

Mike: A better display but with the usual shortcomings of missed chances and switching off to allow the opposition back in. However, if Kompany is here next year (I hope) and can build up this young side's skills and confidence to be promoted again, and remain a settled side, then it will not all be in vain.

BBC Sport's chief football writer Phil McNulty has been answering your questions on Monday.

Martin in Derby: Only three Premier League clubs have panic sacked their managers this season: Sheffield United, Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace. So far, none are better off, arguably worse off in Forest's case. What do you think of this strategy versus the boards who hold their nerve - a la Burnley, Luton, Everton, Brentford with the longer term learning and stability in mind?

Phil: It's a tough choice, Martin, but it certainly has not had the desired impact at Sheffield United and Forest with Chris Wilder returning and Nuno Espirito Santo being appointed at the City Ground. Far too early to make any considered judgement on Oliver Glasner at Palace.

Vincent Kompany had credit in the bank for taking Burnley up but it's been a miserable season and they seem simply resigned to going down and maybe letting him try again next season. There is no-one at Everton to make a decision on Sean Dyche even if they wanted to, which is very unlikely. Thomas Frank has done a top-class job at Brentford despite recent struggles while if the art of good management is getting the best out of what you have then Rob Edwards is doing incredibly well at Luton Town. They could still stay up.

There are considered reasons why they are all still in their jobs.

I think the prospect of relegation can induce panic and clubs must also weigh up whether there is anyone out there who could do any better. A very hard choice and only the final league table will tell if the right decision has been taken.

Mark Chapman introduces highlights and analysis from Sunday's four Premier League matches.

If you missed Match of the Day 2, you can catch up on the action on BBC iPlayer.

Listen back to BBC Radio 5 Live and 5 Sports Extra match commentaries in full:

• Aston Villa v Tottenham Hotspur

• Brighton v Nottingham Forest

• Liverpool v Manchester City

Jonathan Jurejko
BBC Sport journalist

If Burnley are going straight back to the Championship, they will go down fighting and go down playing the way Vincent Kompany wants to play.

Kompany has refused to compromise style in what has been a tough debut season as a Premier League manager.

Against West Ham, there was much to admire about his team after a first half where they led 2-0.

But their old failings returned after the break as West Ham finally upped the tempo.

Burnley dropped points from a winning position yet again and that was down to conceding at pivotal moments - less than 30 seconds after the restart and again in stoppage time.

Chances to score a third themselves went begging, too.

Kompany bemoaned his side "getting done in key moments" and it succinctly summed up their season - which still looks odds on to end with relegation.

Image source, Getty Images

Burnley manager Vincent Kompany speaking to BBC Sport: "I have to try and flip it in my head, as much as there is the disappointment of the goal conceded, in the end the team fought really hard and created chances ourselves.

"We were in the game for 100-plus minutes. It is unfortunate but we need to have the same energy in the next game.

Was the biggest regret not keeping West Ham out or taking your chances? "Both but mainly the timing of goals conceded. You can't put every chance in the back of the best, otherwise we wouldn't be where we are.

"But the timing of the goals we conceded - if you had to write as bad a scenario as you could, those two goals fall in those two moments.

"We are where we are because not been perfect all the time. but that can't be the centre of attention.

"We show fight, we show desire, we dangerous ourselves. but we get done in some key moments."

• Burnley have now scored 23 of their 27 Premier League goals from open play this season (85%). No team in the division has a higher percentage of their goals coming from open play than Vincent Kompany’s side this season (Nottingham Forest, also 85%).

• West Ham have now lost just one of their last 16 home matches against newly-promoted opposition in the Premier League (W12 D3) and are unbeaten in their last seven (W6 D1) since a 1-2 defeat to Brentford in October 2021.

• West Ham failed to register a single shot on target in the first half against Burnley today. It’s the second time in their last three home Premier League matches that the Hammers have failed to find the target in the first half (also v Arsenal). Before this run, they had gone 28 consecutive home games registering at least one shot on target in the opening 45 minutes.

• Today was only the second time Burnley have led a Premier League game by 2 or more goals at half time and failed to win the match. The Clarets had won each of their previous 12 such matches since a 2-2 draw with Manchester United in December 2017.

• West Ham forward Danny Ings has only scored more Premier League goals against Everton (6) than he has against Burnley (5). Ings has now netted against the Clarets in the Premier League for three different clubs (West Ham, Aston Villa and Southampton).