Roy Hodgson’s side take all three points as Vincent Kompany waits for elusive home win
VINCENT Kompany spent most of last season setting new records in Burnley’s charge to the Premier League.
In this campaign, he is starting to set even more – although not in the way he or Clarets fans would want.
Jeffrey Schlupp’s first half goal and a late second from Tyrick Mitchell condemned Burnley to a new mark as the first team in top-flight history to open a season with six successive home defeats.
And this, considering it was out-of-form Palace in town, may prove to be the most damaging as the former Manchester City legend tries to keep the Clarets up.
In 2021-22, Sean Dyche took the club down with eight home defeats all season – a total which this year’s team might match before Christmas.
There are upcoming clashes at Turf Moor against West Ham and lowly Sheffield United in the next month but the clocks have only just turned back and the Clarets are already running out of time in their bid to stay up.
The latest disaster struck for Burnley halfway through the first period and, not for the first time this season, the damage was largely self-inflicted.
Defender Jordan Beyer tried to bring the ball out from the back but succeeded only in losing it to Jordan Ayew.
The defender then compounded matters by falling on his backside as the winger sped past and drilled over a perfect cross for Schlupp to force the ball over the line.
The game was over by the 94th minute when Dara O’Shea lost the ball to Eberechi Eze and the sub set up Mitchell for a simple second that sealed the win.
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It was a devastating blow for home fans who have not seen their team win any sort of game – league or cups – for 180 days, since the end of last season in the Championship.
And the afternoon, for once, had started brightly as, despite the mounting doom and gloom, the hosts made a strong opening.
Zeki Amdouni was picked out by Johann Gudmundsson after barely a minute and planted a free header wide.
And there seemed to be a realisation among Kompany’s under-achieving squad that, even this early in the campaign, they are entering must-win territory.
Five home games this season had ended in five home defeats and a 4-16 goal difference – more goals than they let in during the whole of last season’s promotion campaign.
But, as the half progressed, Burnley fell into old ways with a Will Hughes free-kick finding Joachim Andersen who headed straight at keeper James Trafford.
Odsonne Edouard picked up a yellow when he clattered into Trafford a few moments later, with a VAR check confirming there was no need for a red.
At least Burnley’s’ response to going a goal behind looked promising, as a cross from the lively Luca Koleosho almost picked out Jay Rodriguez before Gudmundsson nodded Charlie Taylor’s ball just wide.
And Taylor played Koleosho through on goal only for Andersen to make a superbly-timed tackle to stop the winger in his tracks.
Still, it was not until first half injury-time that San Johnstone had to make his first real save, tipping over a long blast from Koleosho from a quickly-taken free-kick.
That set-piece actually saw Palace rattled for the first time – although not until ref Peter Bankes blew for the interval.
Ayew and Marc Guehi were both booked for arguing with the ref as they prepared to leave the field and had to be pulled away by team-mates to avoid making it worse.
It took Burnley nearly ten minutes of the second half to remotely threaten the Palace goal, Rodriguez heading wide with a diving effort from O’Shea’s cross.
And Kompany’s mood cannot have been helped by the sight of Eze, out since the end of September with a hamstring injury, coming on.
Gudmundsson had a sight of goal soon after, but rolled his shot the wrong side of the far post after more good work from Koleosho.
Rodriguez had the ball in the net, but was clearly offside, and then headed through for Koleosho to lash a wild shot over.
Finally, in the 80th minute, Johnstone was called into serious action when he tipped over a curling effort from Josh Brownhill.
And, from the corner that followed, he did even better to block a close-range Rodriguez header with a fine reflex save.