Introduction It’s been a bit rare of late for any match previewer to have the luxury of coming in off a win… and not just any old scruffy ugly battle against a relegation candidate or lower mid table straggler but the glorious overhaul of a pretty decent top 4 team. Well last night was indeed a glorious victory, having for the first 45 minutes outplayed one of the best teams in this country and for the succeeding 45 minutes showing the true grit of a team fighting for their fans and teammates against what was eventually a pretty toothless onslaught. In some ways, last night’s Arsenal game has summed up our season to date. A fantastic positive opening period against a really good team, followed by a stuttering start to the second half, topped off by a rugged and staunch defensive and entertaining display until the end for eventual safety. And that result certainly put us a long way to achieving safety with the Hornets picking up some key unexpected bonus points and maintaining a healthy gap to those at the bottom who also gained valuable points themselves, making our victory even more crucial. Burnley So to Saturday and the return of Burnley to the Vic for the first time since April 2014. Burnley are the over performers of the season. You could say this season’s Watford. Promoted and initially expected to struggle, they find themselves sitting in a very healthy 9th place after 23 games having just beaten last season champs Leicester City 1-0. The January transfers in of Barton and Brady are pretty strong additions to an already solid first 11, the latter being someone I’d have liked us to have had a cheeky nibble at. 4 places currently separate the 2 teams but only a mere 2 points meaning a victory will see us leapfrog them and could well see us back into the top 10 (a bet I placed on us at the start of the season). Burnley last 5 at home: Burnley 1 – 0 Boro Burnley 4 – 1 Sunderland Burnley 1 – 0 Southampton Burnley 1 – 0 Leicester Burnley last 5 away: West Ham 1 – 0 Burnley Spurs 2 – 1 Burnley Man City 2 – 1 Burnley Arsenal 2 – 1 Burnley Head to head – 36 games: Watford – 11 Burnley – 16 Draw - 9 Head to head- last 5: 03.03.2012: Watford 3 – 2 Burnley 15.12.2012: Burnley 1 – 1 Watford 29.03.2012: Watford 3 – 3 Burnley 03.12.2013: Burnley 0 – 0 Watford 05.04.2014: Watford 1 – 1 Burnley 26.09.2016: Burnley 2 – 0 Watford They are a seriously solid unit at home but have lost their last 4 away, though looking at the opposition it wasn’t an easy run of matches and they did manage to score in all but one of those tough games. Something we should be mindful of and I expect them to have plenty of chances on Saturday. They come into this match off a pretty good 1-0 win vs Leicester, albeit from a blatant handball that should probably have been disallowed. Forum links: http://www.uptheclarets.com/messageboard/viewforum.php?f=2 http://www.thefootballnetwork.net/boards/list/s37.htm Played for both (shamelessly stolen from Coldbrain’s reverse fixture write up): Chris Iwelumo, Lloyd Dyer, Marvin Sordell, Michael Kightly, Micah Hyde, Clarke Carlisle, Chris Eagles, Gifton Noel-Williams, Nathaniel Chalobah, Jon Harley, Rick Holden, Jack Cork, Alexander Kačanikli*, Craig Armstrong, Paul Atkinson, Charlie Bishop and Lee Grant (both on our books but didn't make an appearance) Team I'd put out: I’m not afraid to say formations and line-ups are probably one of my weaker points. I watch other posters place formations and players and quite frankly I just agree with the majority of them. What I think we all agree on is a big no-no to a back 3 as it just hasn’t seemed to work for us. So to this weekend. Can Success and Niang both play in the same team? Will Amrabat be back and can he and Janmatt work well together up the right wing? Can Okaka show some of the form he displayed at Everton but has since been lacking? We need to persist with 4 at the back in my opinion. I guess I’d like to see something very similar to Arsenal: Gomez Cathcart Kaboul Prodl Holebas Berhami Janmatt Capoue Cleverly Niang Deeney Bench: Success, Amrabat, Britos, Okaka, Zuniga, Kabasele, Dacoure, Zarete It’s at this point where I think, bloody hell that’s a pretty decent starting 11 and we’ve still got players like Dacoure, Success, Britos, Zuniga, Zarete and Amrabat left to come off the bench if and when needed. Our apparent “injury crisis” appears to be coming to an end and we have an unbelievable squad available for Walter to work on now with no excuses. So to Walter. For me the jury is still out. I did say on the Arsenal thread that I'd take a 3-0 and Mazarri not being sacked. In hindsight, I would also have take 2-1 and Mazzarri not being sacked. But one game doth not a good manager make. It's all well and good the players being fired up for Arsenal, but he needs to prove he can get them to do it on a wet and windy Saturday afternoon at the Vic vs Burnley and the forecast is exactly that. I pulled out this quote by hornetto on another thread that struck a chord with me: "He's got a long, long way to go to demonstrate that he's a good fit for this club, and so much will depend on whether he learns the lessons from this performance before the Burnley game. Last night seemed to be a bit of a "perfect storm" with the players fired up and hungry and perennial underperformers like Capoue and Kaboul suddenly looking like world beaters and Arsenal forgetting how to defend. With Zarate, Niang, Cleverley and Success coming into the side I do feel a bit more confident that at least we won't be dragged down into a relegation battle." If we again underperform and look underwhelming on the pitch against Burnley then last night’s Arsenal win could soon be long forgotten and the pitchforks once again sharpened. Palace and Swansea also both winning shows what a precarious position we are still probably in. Arsenal at the Emirates was always going to be a luxury 3 points, however looking at the situation in the cold light of day, that was all that stopped us from being just 5 points from safety which is still concerning. We need to make sure we maintain the performance levels this weekend and put away a team with one of the poorest away records of the division. Lose this and we could be looking over our shoulders again and I’ll certainly be one who is paying attention to the other scores over the tannoy at 5pm and on Sunday if we don’t get a positive result. Meh!’s weather report: Storm Doris is supposed to be hitting across the south of England on Friday afternoon. Looking at all the reports, it seems to be dispersing from Friday evening onwards but there may be some residual strong winds and rain on Saturday, so wrap up warm. Meh!’s final thoughts: On 22nd September 2016 for the reverse fixture, Coldbrain was famously quoted as stating: "Dangerously, I quite fancy us to do well in this match. A fairly dour 2-0 to us with Deeney and Pereyra to score. Pudil to get booked. We'll be last on MOTD.". We all know how that turned out. So I'll just say I'll take any scrappy win you offer me and I'll be happy with 30 points on the board and last on MOTD. Probably one of the more boring non-jovial write ups of recent times but I thought it would make for a nice change of pace for today. Feel free to add in your own architecture, historical anecdotes and other funny oddities. COYH
Depends which Watford turn up - the decent one or the carp one I think it will be the decent one, home win 2-0
Depending on fitness, I'd be tempted to stick with the same side. Although if this was football manager, I'd play: Gomes Janmaat Kaboul Prodl Holebas Capoue Behrami Cleverley Niang Deeney Success
Great result on Tuesday!! Just the one change for me. Success in for Cathcart and Janmaat back to full back. I'd keep Britos instead of Holebas, just for a bit more balance The idea of Success and Niang is fantastic!
I would like to see Niang give his all in the first half and then be replaced by Success at half time to do similar. That would put massive pressure on the Burnley full backs.
What are people's thoughts on how a side can be so so good at home yet take just one point on the road? I've never seen a bigger points differential home v away than Burnley have.
A good opening post, but a bit strange having 8 substitutes and not a goalkeeper amongst them ! :doh:
I do miss the days when you would end up having an outfield player in goal, especially when they ended up pulling off great saves!
I think its indicative of Dyche's workman like percentage style football. He plays the percentages, and the percentages dictate they have a better chance of winning home games, so they put all their energy into those, and then just go away from home and play for a point. That doesn't really explain why they literally only got the one point away from home, it's certainly curious.
https://youtu.be/sG1n7a1OmQE Didn't Ipswich play a goalkeeper up front against us once in a dead rubber match because, well just because they could. Am I imagining that?
Steve Sherwood played on the wing for the reserves in the first half of a game once because he was having difficulty in shifting Andy Rankin from the first team spot!
Hopefully Walter has learnt his lesson that the 352 wasn't working and now the 433 or 4141 would be the best way forward we certainly have the personel for it.
Hopefully sticks with same formation as Tuesday. But I can see Wally going back to 3 5 2. Gomes, Kaboul Prodl.britos Janmatt Holebas Capoue Behrami Amrabat. Deeney. Niang.
Nanu das war bl*d! ... Es ist ewig her seit ich deutsch redet und "wartet" mein ich doch. Vergib meine typo .... bitte!
I'm going to be controversial and say I don't think 3-5-2 will be disasterous against Burnley, if Wally decides to implement it. I'm not a fan and generally think it doesn't work for us, but 1 point away all season suggests Burnley don't get forward much away from home, so we should be able to cope at the back and you'd like to think we'd be doing most of the attacking.
cleverley was excellent v arsenal though. I think he might have your team, but with clev for amrabat. And I'd be happy with that
Gomes Janmaat Kaboul Prodl Holebas Capoue Behrami Cleverley Success/Zarate Deeney Niang Harsh on Britos but we should be going at this lot so get the full backs bombing on. Also I'm assuming Amrabat won't be fit enough to start.
That would be sensational, but I will be amazed if success or zarate starts. I'd love it if they did though. Hopefully we will be very gentle with success, as there's no reason at all to rush him back now.
If Troy has sprained his ankle and it was so swollen yesterday, I think he'll be rested with two from Okaka/Success/Niang starting up front.
Nothing needs to be changed from Tuesday night.Why would you change it,in the first half we totally destroyed Arsenal and could of been 4-0 up at halftime.
