Burnley 2-0 Norwich City
A friend of mine said to me in midweek, “I’m off to Turf Moor on Saturday – it’ll be over by half-time.”
This wasn’t him being arrogant.
The lifelong supporter of the Clarets has just seen this fixture enough over the years to know his side has a fine record against the Canaries and he was expecting it to continue in their first-ever Premier League meeting and first in the top flight since 1976.
Perhaps he should have had a flutter and studied the SBOBET Premier League 2019 betting odds too because he’d have been onto a winner!
Highlights of the game
This game was over inside 15 minutes.
That’s how long it took Burnley to inflict a third consecutive away defeat on Norwich City as they simply had too much nous for the new boys.
Sean Dyche’s men — who hadn’t won since the opening day of the season – struck twice in five minutes and Norwich never looked like being able to repeat their famous victory of seven days earlier.
That they never reached the heights of when they humbled the champions was largely down to Wood’s intervention.
He capitalised on some slack marking to head the hosts in front from Ashley Westwood’s near-post corner after 10 minutes.
The forward, who had to wait until November for his first league goal last term, then doubled his and Burnley’s tally four minutes later as he stroked home a driven cross from exciting prospect Dwight McNeil.
Alex Tettey’s first-half withdrawal due to injury compounded a bad day for Norwich, who started the day without a clutch of first-team regulars and never went close to producing Premier League 2019 highlights for a second successive weekend.
With Teemu Pukki announcing himself to the Premier League in style so far, and last weekend’s wholly unexpected toppling of the champions, Daniel Farke’s side had actually gone into this game a point above their opponents.
Yet this was a fairly quiet afternoon for Pukki and Ashley Barnes, who have been two of the form strikers so far this year with 10 goals between them.
Barnes, Jack Cork, and Jeff Hendrick could actually have extended the home side’s lead before the interval as the injury-hit visitors were second-best.
Into the second half, Emiliano Buendía curled an effort wide as Norwich sought a response, but the home side were closer to adding to their tally.
A crisp one-two between Barnes and Wood saw the former curl a shot just past the angle, while Wood spurned a great chance for a hat-trick by shooting straight at Tim Krul.
On reflection, both sides can be content with their first six games of the season.
Two well-run clubs who have often triumphed against the odds and held their own when facing the wealthier establishment and who have both qualified for Europe during the Premier League era.
Burnley are averaging more than a point a match, usually a blueprint for survival, while six points from as many matches is a decent return for Norwich.
Key statistics
Burnley have only lost one of their 18 home meetings with Norwich, a 5-3 defeat in April 2004.
Burnley have won five consecutive Premier League games against newly-promoted sides, their joint-best winning run against such opposition in the top flight. They also won five in a row in October 1898, September 1921 and September 1956.
Five of Wood’s last six Premier League goals for Burnley have been headed, with four of those coming via corners.
These were his first Premier League goals for Burnley since bagging a brace against Cardiff in April, ending a run of nine league appearances without scoring.
The last time they had met was in the third round of the FA Cup in January 2012 — Norwich won 4-1 at Carrow Road.
This was only the Clarets’ second win their past 10 league matches.
Burnley have hit the woodwork three times this season, the joint-most in the Premier League along with Liverpool and Norwich.
Norwich City have lost 16 and won just two of their last 18 away games in the top flight.
They have now lost each of their opening three away matches of a top-flight season for the first time since 1990.
Pukki has been directly involved in eight goals in his first six Premier League appearances, scoring six and setting up two.
The Finnish striker has scored 16 goals in his last 17 games for club and country.
What’s next?
Testing outings against Aston Villa (next weekend), Everton and Leicester City follow this encounter for Burnley.
Norwich now face four matches in a row against opponents who they will regard as potential rivals in a battle for survival, starting with the journey to Crystal Palace.
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