Right then, I’ll be off. Here’s your match report. Bye!
While West Ham remain in control of their destiny, this messy effort was a reminder that survival in the short term will bring no guarantee of a brighter future. Even if David Moyes succeeds in steering them towards calmer waters in the next four games, realists will know this leaky ship will still be in danger of sinking next season.
For now the smart money is on West Ham staying up given they are four points above the relegation zone, with games against Norwich, Watford and Aston Villa to come. In the long run there is little cause for optimism.
Uncertainty gripped West Ham just when they seemed poised to pull clear and Burnley punished their frailties at both ends of the pitch, making light of their injury crisis by moving three points behind sixth-placed Wolves thanks to a clever winner from Jay Rodriguez.
Much more here:
West Ham weren’t great today, but though I can see them losing against one of Norwich, Watford and Aston Villa, they will surely win one of those games to reach (effective) safety. Soucek is a good goal threat both at set pieces and running into the box from midfield, Antonio stretches teams with his pace (when not completely knackered), Haller is back to add height to the forward line, Bowen and Yarmolenko both offer a decent threat from wide positions, and all in all they should have enough. Burnley meanwhile will just continue to Burnley their way into Burnleyable positions, as they do.
Sean Dyche has a gloat chat. He talks about “a culture and environment here that we believe in”. They sit ninth tonight.
It is a challenge when they lose their teammates, but there’s a resilience to them, there’s an honesty to them and there’s a respect in the group, and you add in organisation and you certainly add a physical prowess, and I think they’ve got more talent than people sometimes mention, and I think it’s a good mixture.
Fair play to them, they’ve asked a lot of questions of us. But we defended well when we needed to and we had a few moments when we could have got our nose even further in front. They’ve had a couple of golden moments and our keeper was there to save the day when he was needed.
Nick Pope, who had a fine game in nets and kept his 14th clean sheet of the season, is chirpy:
From the front we defend properly. You see at the end our lads running until they can’t run no more. They’re putting their bodies on the line for us and it runs through the team, it really does. I’m really pleased [with the 14th clean sheet]. It’s a great achievement. We’ll see how many we can get and it’s now an opportunity to build on that. We’ve got stuff to play for and we’re really pushing to win every game. It was a bit of an aerial assault, the crosses just kept coming in, it seemed like wave after wave towards the end. Sometimes in the Premier League you have to do that. They’re not going to give up and West Ham are fighting really hard.
Final score: West Ham 0-1 Burnley
90+6 mins: It’s over! Three wins in four for Burnley, and every one of them by the same scoreline.
90+5 mins: West Ham have 90 seconds to conjure a clear chance. They’ve only had two so far, one moments after the goal and another moments after Haller’s introduction.
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90+3 mins: Antonio chips the ball into the mixer, and it looks destined for Bowen until Pope runs out and punches it away.
90+2 mins: West Ham win a corner, which somehow bounces through the six-yard box without anyone getting a touch on it!
90+1 mins: Brownhill has recovered, and returns for the start of six minutes’ stoppage time.
88 mins: Bowen hammers a shot into Brownhill’s head, and he goes down and stays there. It’s hard to tell, in the circumstances, if he’s genuinely troubled or just keen to waste a few minutes.
87 mins: West Ham take off Fornals and bring on Ajeti.
85 mins: West Ham are attacking the same way a third-rate covers band might play Stairway to Heaven. The right chords, but none of the magic.
82 mins: Burnley have only made seven substitutions since the restart, which is an illustration of their various woes. And they’re heading for a third win in four.
80 mins: Save! Burnley threaten on the break, Wood running onto a long pass forward and beyond Diop, cuts onto his right and hits a powerful shot towards goal, but Fabianski stops it!
80 mins: West Ham are pushing with increasing pace and desire, but no more precision.
Updated
77 mins: It was indeed offside.
75 mins: GOAL! But it’s disallowed! Bardsley slides in a low pass, Wood turns it in, but he was just beyond Diop! VAR will have to check this.
72 mins: The game restarts, and after the ball bobbles around Burnley’s area Bowen has a shot, which bobbles wide off a defender. Sometimes the Hammers look like they’re trying to do heart surgery with a trombone.
68 mins: Burnley send a corner to the far post, where Long tries to challenge Fabianski and is harshly judged to have fouled the keeper. And that’ll be drinks.
66 mins: Chance for a second! Taylor’s cross from the left flicks off a defender’s head and falls to Wood, who diverts it straight to Fabianski.
64 mins: Nothing comes of it, Burnley break, and Fredericks gets booked for trying to stop them.
63 mins: Bowen has a couple of shots, which are blocked by Tarkowski and Long. West Ham win a corner, which leads to another. The pressure mounts.
62 mins: And Haller nearly scores after five seconds! A long throw drops to Antonio, whose shot deflects to Haller, who suddenly has the goal at his mercy but picks out Pope!
62 mins: A change for the Hammers: Yarmolenko goes off, and Haller comes on.
61 mins: Antonio outmuscles Tarkowski, who tumbles, but then trips over the prone defender.
60 mins: West Ham win a corner, which they inevitably send towards Soucek, who heads high.
58 mins: Ouch! Tarkowski studs Bowen in the knee, not particularly violent but nowhere near the ball, and is lucky to just get a booking. Vydra, whose body language wasn’t very encouraging all evening, goes off to be replaced by Wood.
56 mins: Twice already this half McNeil has picked up the ball in a central position and run diagonally towards the left, away from anywhere interesting, before giving it away.
53 mins: A few minutes of midfield stodginess. West Ham keep finding Antonio, but he isn’t finding anyone else at the moment and that’s where their attacks are currently fading.
50 mins: Burnley make nothing with the corner but win another, from which eventually Brownhill crosses, it’s knocked down and Vydra winds up a blockbuster left-foot volley but completely misses.
48 mins: McNeil crosses low from the left, Vydra runs across his marker to meet it, and the ball deflects off Fredericks for a corner. A bright restart for the visitors.
46 mins: Within seconds Vydra gets a chance to sprint beyond the home defence, but he seems a bit tentative about it, and instead of turning on the afterburners he slams on the brakes.
46 mins: Peeeeeeep! Bubbles everywhere as the players come out and kick off.
Meanwhile it’s Manchester City 2-0 Newcastle at half time:
And Sheffield United 0-0 Wolves at the break:
And also, in the Championship, West Brom 2-0 Derby County with just a couple of minutes to play:
Half time: West Ham 0-1 Burnley
West Ham have been the better side but are losing, because Burnley.
45+1 mins: There will be two minutes of stoppage time, give or take.
45 mins: Pieters seems to tackle Yarmolenko pretty cleanly, but the referee disagrees. From the free-kick West Ham give Burnley’s centre-backs some more heading practice.
42 mins: Another save! This one is relatively straightforward, Yarmolenko cutting in from the right, jinking past Taylor and shooting with no great power towards the near post, only for Pope to palm away.
Updated
41 mins: Rodriguez chips over the defence and Vydra miscues a difficult volley, the ball bouncing harmlessly wide.
40 mins: Antonio misses an incredible chance to equalise within a minute! He runs through, has time to pick his spot, and unaccountably chooses the outside of the post!
GOAL! West Ham 0-1 Burnley (Rodriguez, 38 mins)
West Ham do all the attacking, and then Burnley take the lead! It’s a lovely cross from Taylor on the left, Cresswell limply wafts a foot at it as it comes down to land but Rodriguez nips in front of him and sends it looping into the top corner! The ball bounces down off the bar, onto the line and then up and into the net!
Updated
35 mins: Antonio cuts in from the left and crosses to Yarmolenko, who takes a touch to control allowing a mob of defenders to descend, and Taylor blocks his shot. “I’m a big fan of Mark Noble but even I have to say that the spider featured below has more legs than he does now,” writes Ian Sargeant. I fear that even at his peak Noble had fewer legs than a spider, Ian.
33 mins: I don’t know what David Moyes said to his players at the drinks break, but he should have said it to them before kick-off. Having said that, their spell of dominance seems to have broken now.
29 mins: Another save! Antonio blasts a low shot towards the near post from the right of goal, and Pope turns it round the post! Then West Ham’s corner is headed away to Fornals, who blooters his shot over the bar.
29 mins: Save! Fredericks crosses from the right, and this time Soucek runs onto it and volleys from the edge of the six-yard box, only for Pope to push it away!
Updated
28 mins: More good approach play from the home side, but Fornals’ cross doesn’t find a teammate.
27 mins: West Ham push and probe after the restart. Antonio gets into the area only to shoot at a defender, and then they work the ball from left to right but can’t find another route into the box.
23 mins: The first drinks break arrives, interrupting a game that was starting to think about maybe pondering the possibility of considering the benefits of clicking into gear.
21 mins: Burnley chip the ball down the left for Vydra, who scampers well clear of Fredericks, but the ball holds up off the turf, the forward can’t push it into his path, and all of this gives Fredericks time to get back.
20 mins: West Ham make a hash of passing the ball out of defence - Diop the main offender - but then Burnley make a hash of capitalising on it.
17 mins: Bowen scurries into space on the left side of Burnley’s penalty area, but he can’t pick out a claret-and-blue shirt with his pull-back.
14 mins: It’s been a pretty bright start, with both sides having a couple of efforts, if not yet any particularly good ones. Now Soucek heads wide after a cross in from the left.
11 mins: Burnley win a free-kick now, on the left wing. McNeil takes, Vydra heads, and Fabianski saves.
8 mins: A decent attack from Burnley, for whom Taylor crosses, Vydra controls and lays back, and Pieters hammers high when well placed. The ball had bounced up into Vydra’s arm, though, so while not a handball in the traditional sense the goal would surely have been disallowed by VAR.
Updated
6 mins: Long sends Antonio flying, and West Ham have a free-kick way out on the left. Antonio has only scored four times in 19 games this season before today, but he is to my mind the most useful forward in the bottom five.
3 mins: Brownhill gives the ball away to Antonio, does well to win it back, does badly to lose it again, and from the ensuing pass Soucek clatters a 25-yard shot way high.
1 min: Peeeeeeep! After a brief knee-taking, play gets under way.
Out come the players! Burnley are all in white, which looks like last year’s third kit. It’s certainly not the kit they wore at Aston Villa earlier this season.
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David Moyes does his stand-up routine:
It’s important to win at home. It’s not something we’ve done that often but we’ve just started to find a way of getting some points, and we’re trying to build on that if we can. I’ve been really pleased with how the players have been performing and let’s hope we get another good performance.
And Sean Dyche also has a chat:
We’ve put together some good results, especially ... we’ve had a few challenges with the squad. After the Man City game I thought we responded very well. We’ve had a good run overall taking back before the lockdown of 11 games and only one loss. The momentum’s good, the feeling in the camp’s good, and everyone’s working hard to try and get results.
A better version of the arty photograph of the day:
Arty photograph of the day:
The teams!
After a couple of impactful substitute appearances Yarmolenko gets a start for West Ham, who have Sebastien Haller in the squad for the first time since the restart. Burnley stick with the team that drew against Sheffield United.
West Ham: Fabianski, Fredericks, Diop, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Soucek, Rice, Bowen, Fornals, Yarmolenko, Antonio. Subs: Balbuena, Lanzini, Noble, Wilshere, Haller, Masuaku, Ajeti, Randolph, Johnson.
Burnley: Pope, Bardsley, Long, Tarkowski, Taylor, McNeil, Westwood, Brownhill, Pieters, Rodriguez, Vydra. Subs: Gudmundsson, Wood, Brady, Peacock-Farrell, Thompson, Dunne, Benson, Goodridge, Driscoll-Glennon.
Referee: Michael Oliver.
Yarmolenko starts and Haller is back in the squad ⚒
— West Ham United (@WestHam) July 8, 2020
Our line-up for #WHUBUR... pic.twitter.com/V0L6TOq4Vl
TEAM NEWS: Burnley line-up as follows @WestHam this evening:
— Burnley FC (@BurnleyOfficial) July 8, 2020
Pope: Taylor, Tarkowski, Long, Bardsley; McNeil, Brownhill, Westwood, Pieters; Vydra, Rodriguez.
Subs: Peacock-Farrell, Gudmundsson, Wood, Brady, Thompson, Dunne, Benson, Goodridge, Glennon
Hello world!
Four points in two games, as many as they managed in the previous 10, have taken West Ham to the brink of safety. One more win, which would take them to 34 points, would surely be enough, given that, assuming no wild fluctuations in goal difference, it would leave Aston Villa or Bournemouth needing to win three or lose no more than one of their five remaining matches and Watford to win at least one more, and those teams are all in dismal form. A total of 34 points isn’t much of a standard to aim at, and West Ham will have been expecting considerably more, but it would still feel pretty sweet if they got there tonight, and with potential for more.
The Hammers’ remaining fixtures are handy: there are only four teams below them in the league and they’ve still got to play three of them. No team has ever stayed in a 20-team top flight with fewer than 34 points, and though I think that record could very well fall this year I don’t think West Ham will be the team to break it.
Burnley meanwhile have Burnleyed their way to 10th place, were safe before lockdown, and have picked up a couple more trademark 1-0 wins since. I fear I have not caught them on any or their good days this season, and the half-dozen matches I’ve seen have been almost completely joyless in a MarkHughesian Stoke way, albeit with an added air of competence. They are often more admirable than watchable. Unsurprising statistic dept: two of their three goals since lockdown have been scored by centre-backs (the third, to be fair, was a deft header from a fine cross).
Anyway, hello! Fingers crosses for some early-evening fun, eh?
