Burnley may have benefited from long balls at times but showed no shortage of skill in the final third in their 3-2 win over Bournemouth at Turf Moor on Saturday.
Jeff Hendrick’s wonderful opener needed fine close control and top-class technique on the volley and George Boyd’s third was a superb finish following Andre Gray’s back-heel.
Burnley have now had 11 different scorers for their 15 goals this term – with Stephen Ward adding himself to the list on Saturday – and have twice scored three times in a game. When they went down two years ago they found the net 28 times in the entire season and scored three only once.
“It was a fantastic goal, certainly worthy of the Premier League,” noted Burnley manager Sean Dyche of Hendrick’s strike before adding a wry observation. “It’s just a shame it wasn’t Arsenal because then it would be shown a thousand times rather than maybe four.”
Comeback kings
Goalscorer Boyd said: “Last time we didn’t score as many as we should, but we’re scoring from everywhere at the minute,” said Boyd.
“It was a fantastic strike from Jeff – and we’ve got Wardy scoring too – so it’s important that everyone chips in, not just the strikers. I’m off the mark now and hopefully can add more.”
Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe has no interest in Bournemouth becoming the Premier League's comeback kings.
They twice came from two goals behind against Liverpool last week to grab a stirring 4-3 win and were battling from the back foot again at Burnley.
After 17 minutes at Turf Moor, Howe’s men were 2-0 behind and with quarter-of-an-hour left it was 3-1 to Burnley.
But Charlie Daniels reduced the deficit to one with a 90th-minute rocket and Bournemouth missed a couple of chances to steal an unlikely point before the final whistle.
Fitness levels
While that speaks well of Bournemouth’s fitness levels and spirit, it is not a reputation Howe is keen to encourage.
“We don’t want become a team that plays well when chasing the game,” he said. “That’s the easier side. We want to be the team that dominates games from start to finish, that’s leading the game and seeing it out.”
Howe found one positive in the eighth-minute ovation afforded to Harry Arter, whose wife gave birth to a stillborn daughter a year ago. "I'd like to say thank you to the Burnley fans for their reaction and what they did for Harry," he said.
