Resident Clarets Mad match appraiser Dave Thornley thinks football managers who place an emphasis on luck, whether to bemoan their team’s lack of it, or to celebrate being the beneficiary of it, always seem to me to be placing an over-reliance on the forces of happenstance, hinting at a deficiency in process, preparation, and practice. There are very few elements of play in a football match that are so random that they cannot be counteracted by individual skill, tactical planning, and sheer hard work.
On Sunday, Burnley were considered “lucky” in many quarters to have emerged from their home match against West Ham with a point in a 0-0 draw. It is easy to see why that conclusion may be arrived at; West Ham dominated possession, created more chances, had more attempts at goal and on another day would have run out comfortable winners. But benign fate played no part in the eventual result, which was instead the product of Burnley’s collective discipline, their defensive organisation, their sheer determination, and the excellence of Nick Pope in the Clarets’ goal.
Clean sheets, often to a greater extent than goals, are the currency in which Burnley trade. It isn’t always satisfying to the soul; it is often frustrating and – when it doesn’t work – it is downright annoying. But when it yields results and points on the table, it is made tolerable. Burnley’s performance in possession of the ball yesterday was undeniably poor; too hurried, too lax, too lacking in composure and vision. But out of possession, their collective never-say-die spirit was enough to earn them an unlikely but important point.
Nick Pope made three wonderfully athletic saves, and on the one occasion he was beaten, Charlie Taylor was on hand to stab the ball clear. In between times, there were corners to defend and some wayward finishing from the Hammers from which Burnley benefited. West Ham had a penalty claim inspected by VAR in the first half when Dwight McNeil, who generally had a game he would probably prefer to forget, tangled with West Ham’s Dawson near the goal line.
There was little enough in it and VAR probably arrived at the right decision before a collective breath could be let out around Turf Moor. Burnley’s only real chance came late in the game, when a hard low cross from Charlie Taylor required only the merest caress from Jay Rodriguez’s outstretched leg to divert its passage across the West Ham goal mouth and into the Irons’ net. No such touch was forthcoming, and the game finished goalless.
Watford, under the management of Claudio Ranieri (at the time of writing!) visit Turf Moor on Wednesday evening for the sort of fixture which is often described as “season defining”. It isn’t, there is too much football still to be played, but victory would lift Burnley out of the bottom three, above the Hornets, and would breathe some much-needed positivity into the Clarets’ season.

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