Dave Thornley gives us his post-holiday analysis of how he thinks the Clarets are going on about getting back to the English Premier League…

On the back of a run of four consecutive victories, Swansea City were no doubt in a confident frame of mind, when they alighted from the team bus at a blustery Turf Moor for Saturday’s Championship match against Burnley.

By the time they boarded that same bus for the journey home that confidence was shattered and their impressive run a distant memory.

All the indicators pre-match pointed towards a tight, hard fought, nip and tuck game with little to separate the two teams. As it transpired, a rampant Burnley turned in their most impressive display of not just this season, but of several seasons past.

The Clarets have, in many of their previous games, dropped a few hints that their collective lockers contained the sort of performance we supporters were treated to yesterday. The 5-1 win over Wigan was emphatic, but that game was tight until the last twenty minutes and in any event, Wigan were a struggling side.

Yesterday however, everything clicked into place and Burnley demolished a team who hitherto were in and amongst the teams jostling for position near the top of the table.

From Aro Muric, whose authority and composure in goal have improved to an impressive extent, through to Jay Rodriguez enjoying the sort of service which has enabled him to add a further two goals to his burgeoning season’s tally, every player in a Claret shirt was at, or near, the top of their game.

Some early Swansea possession in the opening exchanges yielded little in the way of credible threats on the Burnley goal, but after that, Burnley swept the visitors aside. They took the lead on fif**** minutes; Ian Maatsen’s left wing cross picked out Vitinho arriving at pace and unmarked to head in at the far post.

After half an hour it was 2-0; Jay Rod, also at the far post, prodding in another left wing cross, this time from the impressive Annas Zaroury.

Then, as the referee was poised to blow for half time; a slack back pass from a by now befuddled Swansea defender was seized upon by Josh Brownhill who slid the ball to Zaroury to apply a simple finish.

Swansea were finished too; at 2-0, their manager, Russell Martin, may well have taken the break to rally his players and urge them on to greater efforts and mount a comeback, but Zaroury’s goal quashed such a notion.

On the hour a move of slick, precise passing down the Burnley left found its way to Josh Cullen on the edge of the Swansea penalty area. Implored to shoot by the Burnley faithful, Cullen instead had a better idea; sliding the ball to Rodriguez to shoot into the corner of the net from an angle. A brilliant team goal it was too.

Cullen is a player whose contribution is not always eye-catching but is nevertheless immense. It was his ball which found Nathan Tella for the winning goal at Coventry last week and his pass to Rodriguez for Burnley’s fourth yesterday further illustrated a midfield player who has the calmness and clarity of vision to provide many more such opportunities as the season progresses.
Burnley were scoring, it seemed, every quarter of an hour and with a further thirty minutes still to play, Swansea must have feared a complete rout.

The visitors were ragged and disorientated and that can lead to irritation, anger, and loss of discipline and so it was that a raft of yellow cards for their players was trumped by a red shown to Joel Piroe for kicking out at a prostrate Cullen.

Despite the delay for the red card and a slew of substitutions, the referee, presumably out of sheer compassion for the plight of the visitors, added only a minute of stoppage time, denying Burnley who were playing with swagger and toying with their opponents, the chance to add another goal that the expected extra four or five minutes would have afforded them.

Such considerations however are insignificant and even a little churlish when set against a performance as complete and dominant as the one we had just witnessed. This was a statement victory, a laying down of a marker, a gesture of intent.

The victory, along with other results falling kindly, enabled the Clarets to leapfrog the three teams above them and occupy the top of the table on goal difference. Meaningless at this stage of the season of course, but a boost in confidence ahead of a testing run of fixtures.

On to Birmingham and Sunderland the Clarets must now go, let’s hope for another six points before the Canaries visit Turf Moor. (TEC).

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