Burnley and Bournemouth, who both failed to win a single game in February, look to get their March campaigns off to a strong start in Sunday’s Premier League encounter at Turf Moor.
Vincent Kompany’s side lost 3-0 to Crystal Palace in the second half last weekend, while the Cherries were eliminated from the FA Cup in extra time by Leicester City in midweek.
As Oliver Glasner’s reign at Crystal Palace began in ideal manner last Saturday, rumours over Kompany’s future in the Burnley dugout heated up, as the Clarets were defeated by three goals at Selhurst Park.
The newly promoted side, who had Josh Brownhill sent off in the first half, held out for more than an hour on the Eagles’ turf, but an 11-minute flurry in the second half saw Chris Richards, Jordan Ayew, and Jean-Philippe Mateta all score, handing Burnley their third consecutive league loss.
Kompany’s side has allowed a frightening 11 goals in their previous 270 minutes of top-flight football and is only kept off the bottom of the table by Sheffield United’s worse goal difference, lying 19th in the standings with an 11-point deficit to Nottingham Forest in 17th.
While an imminent return to the Championship appears to be unavoidable, the Burnley hierarchy appears to have no intention of firing Kompany before the conclusion of the season, and the Manchester City icon now hopes to repay that faith by breaking his team’s nine-game winless skid.
That will be easier said than done at a ground where Burnley has only five Premier League points in 2023-24 – the worst home record in the division – and an 11th Turf Moor defeat on Sunday would set an unwelcome club record for the most home losses in a single season.
Fortunately for a broken and bruised Burnley, future opponents Bournemouth have also had their prior golden touch elude them, as Andoni Iraola’s men are currently winless in six games after winning eight of their previous eleven.
In Tuesday’s FA Cup fifth-round clash against Leicester, the Cherries endured 120 minutes of goalmouth agony, letting several chances go begging in the absence of star striker Dominic Solanke before succumbing to an excellent extra-time winner from Foxes winger Abdul Fatawu.
As Leicester advanced to the FA Cup quarter-finals, Bournemouth were left to examine an astonishingly wasteful performance, and their lack of ruthlessness also prevented them from grabbing a point from Manchester City in a 1-0 home loss to the Premier League champions last weekend.
Iraola’s 14th-placed men are in danger of being relegated, but they have an eight-point lead over the drop zone and a game in hand on several teams around them, and they come to Turf Moor having scored in each of their previous nine Premier League away matches.
However, the Cherries have conceded multiple goals in four of their previous five top-flight away games, but owing to a 2-1 victory over Burnley at the Vitality Stadium in October, the visitors may potentially complete a league double over the Clarets for the first time.
Brownhill, who was not assisted by James Trafford’s inexplicable choice to play the ball to his under-pressure partner, will serve a one-match punishment for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity after receiving a red card for a last-man foul on Jefferson Lerma.
Brownhill is one of five certain absentees for the Clarets, who will be without long-term injury victims Luca Koleosho (knee), Lyle Foster (surgery), Aaron Ramsey (knee), and Nathan Redmond (thigh), while Jordan Beyer is still doubtful due to a thigh injury.
With Brownhill suspended, Josh Cullen should get the nod over long-serving Jack Cork to partner Sander Berge in the Clarets’ engine room, but Kompany may decide to continue with his other ten starting from the Palace defeat.
Regarding Bournemouth, Solanke watched helplessly from the stands against Leicester due to a knee ailment, while his deputy, Getafe loanee Enes Unal, barely made it to halftime in that cup match due to an undisclosed shoulder issue.
Unal went to the hospital for checks following the loss to the Foxes and appears to be fighting a losing battle to be fit, but Iraola is confident about Solanke’s availability, who was previously in contention to make the bench in midweek before being withdrawn at the last minute.
If neither Solanke nor Unal is cleared, Antoine Semenyo should lead the attack, while Tyler Adams (thigh), Ryan Fredericks (calf), Lloyd Kelly (groyne), James Hill (ankle), and Max Aarons (thigh) are definitely out.
Burnley’s likely starting lineup: Trafford; Assignon, O’Shea, Esteve, Taylor; Gudmundsson, Berge, Cullen, Odobert; Amdouni, Datro Fofana.
Bournemouth’s likely starting lineup: Neto; Smith, Zabarnyi, Senesi, Kerkez; Cook, Christie; Tavernier, Billing, Sinisterra; Solanke.
Leave a Reply