Burnley and West Ham played out a 1-1 draw in a feisty encounter at Turf Moor.
The Hammers took the lead on 18 minutes when Joe Hart’s long goal kick reached Antonio, who after some terrible defending from Ben Mee rounded Nick Pope and slotted home.
West Ham’s celebrations were cut short however as less than ten minutes later Andy Carroll was sent off for two yellow cards, received only 100 seconds apart.
Both sides had strong physical starts to the game with a number of fouls flying in early on. The referee, Stuart Atwell, did well to keep the game under control but had no choice but to administer Carroll with the two yellows.
The sending off naturally had an effect on the tempo of the game Bilic seemed to set his team up with what looked like a back 6 as they attempted to cling onto their lead for the next 70 odd minutes.
There were protests when Burnley should have had a penalty with Hart bringing down Wood without getting a touch on the ball, Atlee however signalled for a corner.
As the first half went on Burnley were pushing and pushing for a goal. However, they were finding it too hard to break through West Ham’s defence. They really should have scored in the 45th minute but Defour could only guide his shot over the crossbar.
Dyche made a double substitution at the start of the second half with Vokes and Gudmundsson coming on for Hendrick and Arfield respectively. For West Ham Obiang came on for Arnautovic.
The Hammers started the half strongly with Lanzini whipping a ball across the face goal which Antonio just missed.
Not long after that Antonio again had a glorious opportunity to score when after a lovely West Ham one-touch passing move he found himself in on goal but ultimately fluffed his chances.
Burnley usually pose a great threat from set pieces but today Robbie Brady didn’t seem to have the right boots on. It felt as if most of his corners and freekicks were over hit or off target. Burnley could have potentially walked away with more than a point today if some of these set pieces were more effective. Any Chelsea fan will tell you about the damage that Brady can do with a deadball.
West Ham managed to hold onto their lead until the 85th minute when Wood netted the equaliser with a header from a great ball in from Gudmundsson. Slaven Bilic had a look of disbelief on his face as he tried to work out how his team had just let the lead slip with five minutes of the match remaining.
Ultimately, a point shared is probably fair for how both teams played. It is well known how hard it is to go to Turf Moor so Bilic will not look back on this result with too much disappointment (obviously depending on their final place in the table).
This result sees West Ham move up to 14th whilst Burnley remain at the lofty heights of 6th. It remains to be seen whether these league positions will change drastically by the end of the season, but with Burnley playing Manchester City at the Etihad next week, I know who I would put my money on to fall down a few rungs by the end of the next game-week.
Written by Dom Clarke.
