Here’s your match report. Thanks, and bye!
Michael Keane speaks to Sky:
It’s a special feeling. It’s a target of mine I’ve been looking to get. I just needed a few set plays. It came at a good time, settled us down and we never looked back from there. I think we’ve got better depth in our squad now, we’ve got better belief this time. [Asked about Defour, who’s standing next to him] He’s a brilliant player. You can see the technical ability he’s got and that calm influence he has on the team.
Burnley will win a few points if they can play like that regularly. Just horrible to play against, and if they didn’t exactly create a lot from open play, they didn’t exactly need to. Watford looked like a team that had just beaten West Ham and Manchester United before spending six days reading the glowing reports and inflating their egos.
Final score: Burnley 2-0 Watford
90+5 mins: Heaton boots the ball upfield and the referee blows his whistle. This won’t have delighted many neutrals, but Burnley complete a deserved win.
90+5 mins: The last kick of the game – bar Heaton’s goal kick – is a shot from Success that flies high and wide.
90+4 mins: Watford are launching all sorts of long balls and hoping for a lucky bounce. This time, though, they just vie away a free kick.
90+3 mins: Burnley’s second substitution sees Gudmundsson go off and Kightly come on.
90+2 mins: Arfield shows Prödl that he’s not the only one who can pull a shirt, and Watford win a free kick deep in their own half.
90+1 mins: Into stoppage time, of which there will be four minutes. Obviously.
87 mins: The last five minutes or so have been good for Watford. So that’s something.
85 mins: Success has probably had more touches in Burnley’s penalty area than any other Watford player. He dances his way to the byline, but his pull-back finds only defenders.
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84 mins: Kenedy’s corner is dreadful but the clearance is straight to Behrami on the edge of the area, who shoots just wide.
83 mins: Oooof! Success carries the ball from the left into the area, goes past Keane and slides the ball across goal and just wide of the far post from a silly angle. Someone must have touched it, as a corner has been given.
82 mins: Burnley make their first substitution, Defour coming off after an excellent shift in midfield and of course the two assists, and Scott Arfield coming on.
81 mins: Vokes’ shot rebounds back off a defender, back off Vokes and through to Boyd, who shoots when he might have squared to the unmarked Hendrick, and Gomes saves.
81 mins: He was 40 yards away from any other player at the time, but still, he touched it, so that makes it one of Watford’s best moments of the half.
81 mins: Heaton has just touched the ball.
78 mins: Ighalo has contributed approximately – and I’m rounding down only a little – absolutely nothing to his team today, so far as I can tell.
76 mins: Watford make their final substitution, replacing the nearly-sent-off Pereyra with Kenedy.
75 mins: Burnley are letting Watford have a lot of possession, but are absolutely all over them the moment they get close to a key area. The home side continue to work like hounds, and have made very few mistakes. If anything they’ve been more impressive this half than the last.
73 mins: Pereyra fouls Hendrick in midfield, and Turf Moor demands a second yellow card. The referee doesn’t oblige, but he must have considered it.
70 mins: Andy Hinchliffe, handling co-commentary duties, continues to insist that “this could very easily be turned round”, but there continues to be very little evidence that Watford are about to turn anything, except for TV viewers off football altogether.
67 mins: There didn’t seem much in that, either in terms of intent or contact – though it was certainly a free kick, I’d say – but Ward stays down for a good while, prompting Mazzarri into some angry watch-pointing.
65 mins: Success wins a header, but the arm he raised to lever his way airwards connects with Ward, and he’s booked for his troubles.
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64 mins: Success is fouled by Marney and Watford have a free kick 30 yards out, which Pereyra blasts into the wall. It rebounds to a Watford player, whose shot falls to Deeney, whose mishit first-time effort is turned wide by Heaton.
63 mins: A lovely ball into the area from Pereyra finds Deeney momentarily unmarked, but his header towards the far post is weak, and also wide.
61 mins: Oooh! Another free kick is sent into the Watford box, pings around a bit and then Defour slams in a shot that Gomes flaps back out. Vokes and Mee descend on the loose ball, take each other out and Gomes claims. Very nearly a third there.
60 mins: Vokes and Prödl battle for the ball. Prödl tries to pull his opponent’s shirt, and when that doesn’t quite do the trick just kicks him. Free kick.
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59 mins: Watford slip into their third formation of the evening, with Success joining Ighalo and Deeney at the top of a 4-3-3.
58 mins: A second substitution for Watford sees Amrabat depart, and Isaac Success arrive.
56 mins: Lowton wins the ball well in midfield and slides Vokes into space in the penalty area. The striker is offside by a distance, but Watford continue to be outrun and outfought in key areas.
4 - Steven Defour has been involved in four of Burnley's five goals in the Premier League this season (scoring one, assisting three). Key.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 26, 2016
54 mins: Watford continue to wobble, Britos this time deciding not to move towards a ball that is passed gently towards him, instead letting a Burnley player run three times as far to take it away from him.
53 mins: Watford will be wanting to sort this out at some point.
'Just cross the ball lads'.
— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) September 26, 2016
Watford's last 7 goals conceded in the #PL have all come from crosses. #BURWAT : https://t.co/z3FrIYpOGi pic.twitter.com/FnGioIYqn5
52 mins: Watford’s defence don’t appear to be big fans of heading.
GOAL! Burnley 2-0 Watford (Keane, 51 mins)
The corner is cleared, crossed back in again and this time Keane wins the header at the back post, and Burnley double their lead!
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50 mins: Defour is found in all sorts of space in the middle of the pitch, runs forward and finds Boyd, who cuts inside and then shoots across goal – it looked like it could have been heading in, until Prödl slid across to deflect it wide.
49 mins: Heaton makes a save! Amrabat is tackled and the ball rolls to Deeney inside the area, who takes a touch and then blasts it goalwards, but it’s beaten away!
46 mins: Peeeep! Watford get the second half under way. Zuniga looks to have gone to right-back in a back four, with Amrabat on the right wing in front of him.
Watford are to make a half-time substitution: Camilo Zuñíga is coming on, and Craig Cathcart is going off, which suggests a change of formation.
On Sky, Jamie Carragher reckons Hendrick fouled Holebas before heading in the goal, hence the killer-seagull-style flinch.
Walter Mazzarri has been pretty good at inspiring second-half improvements from his side this season. And he’s going to have to do it again.
.@BurnleyOfficial have lost once in 13 @premierleague games when leading at half time. Only defeat was 3-2 v @CPFC in January 2015 #MNF pic.twitter.com/LFsGHmJq87
— Sky Sports Statto (@SkySportsStatto) September 26, 2016
It must be said that the world has witnessed finer halves of football, but at the end of it Burnley just about deserve their lead.
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Half time: Burnley 1-0 Watford
45+3 mins: It’s headed into the box, headed out of the box, and before it comes down to earth the half-time whistle is blown.
45+2 mins: Lowton is booked for obstructing Holebas, and Watford have another free kick.
45+2 mins: An effort on goal from Watford! The free kick is played down the right, Pereyra crosses and Ighalo heads at goal. The ball was a bit behind him, he was quite a way out and it would have taken a catastrophic goalkeeping error for it to go in, but still, it was a shot on target.
45 mins: An excellent half from Burnley – fighting, working, playing to their strengths and nullifying their opponents’ – comes towards its conclusion. Two minutes of stoppage time will start with a free kick to Watford, though, after Capoue is fouled.
42 mins: I really want to know what happened to Holebas when that corner was taken. At precisely the vital moment he ducked and threw his hands up above his head as if trying to protect himself from a nonexistent flock of vicious man-eating seagulls.
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41 mins: Replays show that Marney wasn’t offside in the move that led to the corner that led to the goal.
40 mins: And nearly another! Burnley have a free kick deep on the right, which is hoisted into the penalty area, won by Mee and Vokes throws out a leg and diverts the ball into Gomes’s chest.
GOAL! Burnley 1-0 Watford (Hendrick, 38 mins)
The corner’s headed in! It’s sent to the far post, where Holebas is supposed to be marking Hendrick, but just as the ball dips towards them the Greek bizarrely and inexplicably ducks, and Hendrick sends his free header past Gomes!
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37 mins: Gudmundsson’s wayward shot hits Marney, who chases the ball down, sends it low into the penalty area and wins a corner. Watford think Marney was offside, and presumably made their point a little forcefully, as Holebas has been booked and I can’t think of any other reason.
35 mins: Watford have had 61% of possession in the last 10 minutes, we’re told. I can’t think of a single notable touch inside Burnley’s penalty area at any stage of the game so far, though.
34 mins: Watford have the ball for a while, pass it this way and that, and then Britos needlessly gifts it to Gudmundsson.
33 mins: For some reason, though, the home fans seem very angry about it. Perhaps Sky’s microphones are just in the wrong places.
31 mins: A third of the way through, and though there has not been a lot of quality from either side, Burnley’s five-man midfield, Boyd’s workaholic tendencies and Gudmundsson’s left-footed delivery from the right wing make them the most likely to make a breakthrough.
28 mins: Capoue tries a high, long crossfield wonderpass, which floats gently into the arms of Heaton.
26 mins: Capoue chips the ball to Holebas on the edge of the area, but his wild left-footed yahoo flies into a defender.
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25 mins: Watford win a corner, their first. Burnley have had four.
24 mins: Gudmundsson cuts inside before lashing a low shot just wide of the near post. Burnley are still on top here, harassing Watford during the brief moments of away possession and having a near-monopoly of decent attacks.
23 mins: Prödl v Vokes is the duel of the day here. This time the defender wins the battle to reach Gudmundsson’s cross, but concedes another corner. Which is cleared.
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22 mins: Boyd and Pereyra run together down the left, and eventually Boyd quite deliberately steps across into Pereyra and falls over. The referee gives him the free kick, and Pereyra angrily shouts his way to a totally unnecessary yellow card.
20 mins: Boyd hares around the pitch as Watford attempt to play their way downfield, eventually forcing someone to lump the ball aimlessly forward.
18 mins: Lowton crosses from the right, Vokes wins the header but the referee decides that it flicked off Prödl, and it’s another corner.
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17 mins: Watford do seem fond of the occasional kamikaze penalty-area pass.
16 mins: The home fans seem a little worked up about Prödl’s occasionally muscular defending, but the referee doesn’t seem to mind it.
13 mins: Watford have a bit of a go down the right again, but neither of Amrabat’s crosses find a team-mate. Burnley are owning the centre of the pitch at the moment, but the wings hold some potential for the visitors.
10 mins: Watford are at sixes and sevens here. The second corner goes straight to a defender, but the clearance is skewed, Cathcart gets the ball and immediately gives it away, and it’s all exceedingly messy if not, in the end, costly.
9 mins: Oooh! The corner bounces off Deeney’s foot to Boyd, whose powerful shot is tipped over by Gomes!
9 mins: Half a chance for Burnley, as Gudmundsson crosses from the right wing with his left foot, and Vokes looks to get to it first. Apparently he didn’t, because the referee has given a corner.
7 mins: Britos hoists it forward again, aiming for Deeney. This seems to be his key instruction. This time Burnley win the ball.
Amrabat = Benzema anyone? #lookalike
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) September 26, 2016
5 mins: Amrabat momentarily has the ball, but Boyd slides it away from him, and in his eagerness to win it back the Moroccan swipes away Defour’s legs and is very lucky to escape without a booking, reward perhaps for the outpouring of apology with which he showered opponent and referee.
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4 mins: Britos hoists the ball forward, Deeney beats Mee to the header, and the referee blows his whistle for a push. “Yes, those photos are oddly arousing,” agrees Mike Blackwell. “I thought it was just me, so I’m happy you’ve led the way in confessing your lustful feelings towards pre-winter football imagery.”
2 mins: A good move for the visitors ends with Amrabat being released down the right and, a couple of short passes later, crossing too close to Heaton.
1 min: Peeeeeeeep! Burnley get the game under way!
I’ve received nine pre-match photos of players warming up, and every one of them is of Watford players, with their opponents getting totally ignored. Seems that if you beat Manchester United, you’re treated like Manchester United. Anyway, it’s about to start!
I’m not sure he can defend, but I do like Nordin Amrabat. He seems exceedingly cheerful.
Sky have been so busy letting Jürgen Klopp talk about whatever he wants for as long as he wants to that there’s been no time for any manager interviews. Still, he’s now left the studio and the players have left the dressing rooms – they are now on their way onto the pitch and actual football is but moments away.
Sky have started to talk about Burnley and Watford – by asking Klopp about when Liverpool played them. Still, it’s a start, and he’s very enthusiastic both about Sam Vokes and the Watford front two of Troy Deeney and Odion Ighalo.
I find these photos curiously arousing.
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The downside of the increasingly short days is that it’s undeniable evidence that winter is coming. The plus side is that you get to enjoy proper night-time football.
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This is Jeff Hendrick’s first home start for Burnley – he came on for the last 15 minutes against Hull a couple of weeks back, and played the whole 90 minutes of the 3-0 defeat at Leicester.
A few interesting pre-match stats:
3 - Watford are looking to score 3+ goals in three successive league games for the first time since January 2011 (a run of four). Potent.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 26, 2016
5 - Burnley have conceded just five goals in their last 16 home league games, and never more than once in a match in that time. Moored.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 26, 2016
The only member of the Burnley squad to score against #watfordfc in the Premier League is sub goalkeeper Paul Robinson.
— Matt Furniss (@Matt_Furniss) September 26, 2016
If you’re in need of a little pre-match reading, you could have a look at my interview with Watford’s Roberto Pereyra from a week or so ago. It’s more interesting than the headline suggests, I promise:
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The teams!
Burnley: Heaton, Lowton, Mee, Keane, Ward, Gudmundsson, Hendrick, Defour, Marney, Boyd, Vokes. Subs: Flanagan, Kightly, Bamford, Robinson, Tarkowski, Arfield, O’Neill.
Watford: Gomes, Amrabat, Britos, Cathcart, Prödl, Holebas, Pereyra, Capoue, Behrami, Ighalo, Deeney. Subs: Kaboul, Success, Kenedy, Guedioura, Zúñiga, Watson, Pantilimon.
Referee: Mike Jones
Here's how the Clarets line-up for tonight's game against @WatfordFC #ClaretsLIVE pic.twitter.com/cuUNGhZdiU
— Burnley FC (@BurnleyOfficial) September 26, 2016
TEAM NEWS: Amrabat replaces Janmaat (shoulder) on the right in #watfordfc's only change. Kaboul back on the bench after hamstring problem. pic.twitter.com/WS76BGY1Nh
— Watford FC (@WatfordFC) September 26, 2016
Some team news: Watford are as expected without Janmaat, but Holebas starts.
Tonight in Sky’s Monday Night Football random bonus pundit’s seat: it’s only Jürgen Klopp!
… which means a lot of talk about Liverpool, and nary a mention for Burnley and Watford. Still, least it’ll be interesting.
Hello world!
Since the Pozzo family bought Watford in the summer of 2012 and decided that Sean Dyche was insufficiently Italian, showing the gruff-voiced tactician the door and setting him upon the road to Burnley, these teams have met four times. Perhaps because of his deference to his former employers – Dyche continues to be held in very high regard by Watford fans, who appreciate that his 35% win ratio while at the Hornet helm was something of a miracle in unusually testing circumstances – but more likely simply because they have been pretty well matched in recent years, every one of those four games has been drawn. In fact these teams have drawn five of their last six encounters (a 0-0, a couple of 1-1s, a 2-2 and a 3-3 – they’ve covered their bases), which is one more draw than they had experienced in all of history before lateish 2011 (not a very long history, but still 29 games’ worth).
As for this season, Burnley surprised the world with a 2-0 win over Liverpool back in August, but we’re still not quite sure what that game meant. Were Liverpool displaying a familiar weakness in games they really should be winning? Did Burnley display a widely unexpected top-flight match-readiness? Or was it just a bizarre and inexplicable gag from the footballing gods in a game where the visitors had 80% of the possession, 89.7% of the shots, and 92.3% of the corners? After all, that afternoon apart Liverpool have been excellent, and Burnley a fair way below average. Only time, and games like this one, will tell.
Watford have started the season excellently, emerging from an opening five-game burst that looked exceedingly testy – four of last season’s top six, plus Chelsea – with seven points and in eighth place before this weekend’s matches (a two-goal victory here would send them seventh). They’ve also been quite good fun, both scoring and conceding in every game. For now they appear good enough only to be beaten by teams that are probably pretty decent (only Arsenal and somewhat fortunate Chelsea in the league so far), while remaining The Kind of Team You Don’t Want to Lose To (Especially At Home).
Winning here, though, might suggest an imminent upgrade to Watford’s status. “It will be very important for them to win against us. Maybe they will be a little bit aggressive towards us and I think it is going to be a difficult away game,” says Walter Mazzarri’s translator. “We have shown that we can fight against anyone, but the real step forward I want to see is how we will behave against a club like Burnley.”
Both sides will be missing key players through either injury or regrettable ancient tweeting. Watford’s Daryl Janmaat, who wasn’t always great in Newcastle’s back four last season but looks a very fine fit in Walter Mazzarri’s preferred back five, has hurt and possibly even fractured a shoulder and will probably be replaced by Nordin Amrabat, who attacks well enough but as Arsenal showed can be a liability in defence. The other wing-back, Jose Holebas, could also miss the game with a muscle strain. Burnley, meanwhile, are without the strikers Ashley Barnes, who is injured, and more importantly last season’s top scorer, Andre Gray, for whom this is the first of a four-game Twitter-related suspension.
An evening of thrills, skills and great suspense lies ahead*. Welcome!
* No guarantees
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