Burnley

We asked you what the most irritating thing at your club has been this season, whether it be inconsistency, injuries or a player failing to deliver.

Here are some of your replies:

Meg: Kompany's team selections. It's no surprise that we played well and won against a Brentford with Muric and Cullen in the team. Breaking apart the Championship-winning team was a mistake. Kompany needs to learn.

Catherine: Why, oh why didn’t Muric get his chance at the start of the season? Too many young, unproven players in the squad. The team from last season should have been given a chance to prove what they could do in the Premier League.

Craig: I don’t understand how we are managed by a world-class defender (in his playing days) yet we can’t defend. Too many goals conceded from defenders not knowing their job properly and set-pieces.

James: I suspect you are going to get a lot of the same answer/gripe here - that is the insistence on persisting with James Trafford when he was clearly struggling. I don't think he will ever be good enough for this level. It was clear the lad needed help game after game and Vinny kept doubling down.

MDC: Not playing Jack Cork as defensive midfielder.

Image source, Getty Images

Burnley goalkeeper James Trafford has been brought into the England squad after Crystal Palace's Sam Johnstone withdrew because of injury.

Trafford, 21, helped England win the Euro Under-21 Championship last summer and this is his first senior call-up.

Defenders Kyle Walker and Harry Maguire have also pulled out following Saturday's 1-0 defeat by Brazil at Wembley, with Manchester City's Rico Lewis also promoted from the under-21 squad.

Manchester United's Maguire, Walker of Manchester City and Johnstone have returned to their clubs.

England face Belgium in a friendly on Tuesday.

As we approach the business end, we want to know the most irritating thing at your club this season.

Has it been a player failing to deliver, injury woes, inconsistent form... or something else?

Let us know your biggest gripe here

Joe Redmond
Fan writer

Suddenly, things look a lot better.

Burnley's win on Saturday against 10-man Brentford followed by Nottingham Forest's points deduction on Monday means the Clarets are just five points from safety.

The situation is no longer impossible. Improbable, yes - but there is hope now, and we didn't have that before.

The mood amongst fans has changed. Every single one of us had accepted relegation and were looking towards the Championship next season, but now fans are talking about what games we have left, who Luton and Forest are playing next, and all the different permutations that could result in Burnley staying up.

We finally have some hope, and after the way the season has gone that's all we can ask for.

We are however under no illusions - we know it will still be a monumental task to stay up from the position we are in now - but the past few days have 100% boosted our hopes of survival.

If we play like we did for the majority of the game against Brentford, if we keep Arijanet Muric in the team, and if we keep clear of any more injuries to what now finally seems like a settled squad, we're in with a shout.

We still have to play Everton and Sheffield United who are down there with us, and have home games against Wolves, Brighton and an out form Newcastle United, before what could be a mouth-watering final day clash against Forest.

We have nine cup finals left.

Joe Redmond can be found at TurfCast, external

Natalie Bromley
Fan writer

Did bringing Championship title-winning goalkeeper Arijanet Muric into the Burnley starting line-up on Saturday directly cause the Clarets to win only their fourth game this season?

Probably not. Or, if it did, that would be a pretty bold claim to try and back up with facts.

But did it give this Burnley side greater edge, more stability at the back and a drive to their play that we have not seen much of this season? Absolutely. And I am frustrated beyond words that we are only seeing him with 10 games to go.

This is a change that should have been made months ago. Vincent Kompany has made a big error in his goalkeeping selection this year - in my opinion, anyway.

As noted by many pundits this weekend, Burnley are an in-possession team and the success we had last year (albeit, I recognise, in a lower league) started with Muric's ability to hold the ball and get it out quickly.

It just alleviates so much pressure on his defenders. He did that again this weekend, and we were able to control the game, rather than have it controlled for us.

Our keeper situation is an odd one. Who gets the nod next season as number one, assuming we are back in the Championship as many expect?

Can it only be James Trafford, given Kompany's loyalty to him this season and prior refusal to change him? If that is the case, bringing Muric in now seems an odd move. But if Muric now has a claim for number one, doesn't that make the decision to stick with Trafford so long bizarre?

Perhaps Kompany has one eye on the outcomes for Nottingham Forest and Everton regarding their points deductions and therefore he hopes for the greatest of all great escapes.

Watch this space.

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

Tom Gayle
Match Of The Day commentator

Image source, Getty Images

In addition to a massive three points, Burnley also made history on Saturday. Arijanet Muric became the first Kosovan goalkeeper to play in the Premier League.

Born in Switzerland, Muric represented Montenegro at under-21 level before making the decision to play for the Kosovo national team.

Having joined Manchester City's academy as a 16-year-old and making just five appearances for the senior side, which all came during the 2018-19 Carabao Cup campaign, he made the permanent switch to Turf Moor before their 2022-23 season in the Championship.

Muric started 41 of the 46 league games which eventually saw Burnley crowned Champions, keeping 19 clean sheets along the way.

Prior to the weekend's win over Brentford, his opportunities this season had been dramatically reduced to cup competitions, with James Trafford playing every single minute in the league.

Before kick-off, manager Vincent Kompany said the 25-year-old "deserved a chance" and, from what I witnessed up on the gantry, he did more than enough to merit starting their next game away at Chelsea.

It was a performance that had everything. His athleticism helped prevent what would have been a second own goal of the season for Dara O'Shea. Then, he kept his cool to make a fine save when Yoane Wissa was played through one-on-one. As is the modern way with elite goalkeepers, he was never afraid to hold an extremely high line - at one point he was around 40 yards away from his goal, watching on as Burnley attacked.

Ball distribution was on point and standing at 6ft 5 in tall he held a commanding presence within the penalty area, not afraid to, quite literally, put his head where it hurts when on the receiving end of Ivan Toney's boot as he denied the England striker late on.

Kompany told me afterwards that the change between the sticks "wasn't a big decision, because we have two very good goalkeepers. It's a luxury position, and we chose the player that was ready for this game."

While the manager is keen to play down any future difficulties regarding selection decisions between the pair, the regular chants of "Muric, Muric, Muric" heard from the home support suggests to me they feel the Kosovo international should be the first choice goalkeeper for their run in.

Nottingham Forest have slipped into the relegation zone after being deducted four points for breaching the Premier League's profit and sustainability rules, BBC Sport understands.

The deduction leaves, which leaves Nuno Espirito Santo's side on 21 points, lifts Luton Town out of the drop zone by one point.

Burnley remain in 19th and are four points behind Forest with 10 games remaining, while Sheffield United are seven.

Everton, who were previously deducted six points, are now three points clear of Forest but the Toffees could still be deducted further points for a second breach.

Brentford remain in 15th on 26 points.

Read the full story over here

We asked for your thoughts on Saturday's game between Burnley and Brentford in the Premier League.

Here are some of your responses:

Burnley fans

Jack: This was a match we clearly would've lost if Brentford weren't down to 10 men. Kompany is the luckiest manager alive. He has to go. Again we missed chances, there has to be a reason.

Mike: Muric made the game for Burnley. His position, speed and distribution was head and shoulders above Trafford. This decision should've been made at least 10 games ago. He's probably not enough to stay up but he will help give us a fighting chance, instead of succumbing to our fate.

Shaun: That was a fully deserved win. Muric made three good saves but Fofana should've had it sewn up in the first half for Burnley.

Andy: With Kompany as our manager, we will continue to get relegated until he either learns from his many errors, which is already too late this season, or goes, which is my preferred option. To not build on last season's triumph and bring in experienced players was unforgivable, as was his treatment of Andros Townsend.

Brentford fans

Tim: Another incoherent and inept performance from a side desperately short of any sort of belief. We have been crippled by injuries for most of the season and the wisdom of our recruitment strategy is seriously in question. How Onyeka still gets a game beats me. He is slow to react, doesn't tackle and doesn't run. Get rid.

Thomas: The Bees only showed up for the last 10 minutes when Mbeumo came on. Up to that point, they had no energy, imagination or apparent will to win. I question what Frank was thinking, waiting until the 80th minute to bring on Mbeumo in a must-win game. It can't be that he was only fit enough to play 10 minutes? Poor game management.

George: A frustrating day out. That might be this season's softest red card and our optimism walked off the pitch alongside Reguilon. We lacked creativity. Brentford once had an odd habit of beating the best teams and losing to the worst. But this season, despite always digging deep towards the final whistle, we have been unable to beat either.

Dan: Yes we are in a relegation scrap, but our performances have picked up lately. I honestly feel that we would've got something today with 11 men on the pitch, even with 10 men we threatened. The back-to-back games against Sheffield United and Luton will be massive.

Image source, Getty Images

Former Women's Super League midfielder Fara Williams believes Burnley "couldn't have asked for a better debut" from 25-year-old goalkeeper Arijanet Muric, who made his first Premier League appearance in their 2-1 win over Brentford.

"He was really impressive. As debuts go, I don't think they could've asked for a better one," Williams said on Match of the Day.

"Really early on, you don't want your centre-half playing those types of passes, and [then he was] having to clear one off the line. He was obviously in that position [off his line] because his team were in possession, so it was an early one to have to deal with.

"I think his presence was felt. He had a really aggressive starting position. He was taking the ball and making big saves early on in the game. After going a goal up, he really kept his team [in the game].

"But what's also impressive is that he showed the other side of his game, the in-possession [side of it]. We didn't know much about that from him. Burnley are an in-possession team.

"You could see his team-mates at the end of the game congratulating him because he did keep them in the game in big moments."

Catch up on Match of the Day on BBC iPlayer

Gary Lineker introduces highlights and analysis from Saturday's three Premier League fixtures.

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

Listen back to Saturday's BBC Radio 5 Live and 5 Sports Extra match commentary in full:

Luton Town v Nottingham Forest

Burnley manager Vincent Kompany has been speaking to Sky Sports following the win: "It had been coming. We started the game well and there was a lot of energy in the team.

"On another day, we could have scored more. We didn't make life easy for ourselves, but we get to celebrate with three points and look forward to the next game.

"These teams are always able to do something with their quality, but we did what we had to do to manage this game.

"Fofana could've made it 2-0 [for us], but those are the things where we still have to sharpen our tools a little bit."

On Jacob Bruun Larsen’s penalty: "He is a set-piece specialist. We felt very confident with him taking [the penalty]."

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.

Follow live text coverage of Saturday's Premier League fixtures on BBC Sport

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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.

Sign up for the BBC Football Extra newsletter- delivered to your inbox every weekday.

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.