Burnley 3-0 West Ham United
Premier League
West Ham United were handed a 3-0 defeat at Burnley on Saturday, as their wait for a Premier League win extended to a sixth game.
The Hammers were below par throughout at Turf Moor, as Burnley took full advantage to end their own three-match losing run.
Ashley Barnes opened the scoring early on from a corner, before his strike partner Chris Wood got in on the act with the second just before the break.
Roberto’s own goal ended the game as a content with 54 minutes played, and a bad afternoon was only made worse for the visitors by losing both skipper Mark Noble and second half substitute Manuel Lanzini to injury.
There were only eleven minutes on the clock when the Hammers fell behind from a Burnley set-play.
The award of the corner was questionable, as the ball appeared to come off Wood last, but still Manuel Pellegrini would have wanted to defend the situation better, as James Tarkowski met Ashley Westwood’s deep inswinger at the far post, cushioning his header down for Barnes to prod home.
The Hammers were struggling to get anything going in an attacking sense, while Burnley’s gameplan of getting the ball into the attacking third quickly was keeping them under pressure.
Burnley thought they had doubled the lead 36 minutes in, when Wood met Dwight McNeil’s cross with a thumping header. Roberto was beaten, but the VAR came to the rescue, ruling the home striker offside by a hair’s breadth.
Eight minutes later West Ham weren’t so lucky, as Roberto bowled the ball out to Fabian Balbuena. His loose touch allowed McNeil to run clear in the left channel and look inside for Wood, all alone, to lash home.
Andriy Yarmolenko and Sebastien Haller had shots saved by Nick Pope as the Hammers looked to up the intensity at the start of the second period, but Burnley notched a killer third nine minutes after the resumption.
Another Westwood corner was the source, as he directed the cross under Roberto’s crossbar, where the Hammers keeper’s punch found his own net.
Roberto was called into action again shortly afterwards, diving down to his right to prevent Phil Bardsley’s fierce drive from finding the bottom corner.
West Ham introduced Lanzini and Albian Ajeti from the bench, but still Burnley looked the more threatening and Roberto had to touch Jeff Hendrick’s rising drive over the top with seven minutes left to play.
Then, to cap it all, Lanzini was stretchered off in the game’s final minute with a shoulder injury sustained as he fell following a cynical trip by Westwood to halt a break.
Burnley: Pope, Bardsley, Tarkowski, Mee, Taylor, Hendrick, Westwood, Cork, McNeil, Wood (Brady 90+4), Barnes (Rodriguez 80)
Subs: Hart, Lowton, Pieters, Lennon, Long
Goals: Barnes 11, Wood 44, Roberto og 54
Booked: Mee, Tarkowski
West Ham United: Roberto, Fredericks, Diop, Balbuena, Cresswell, Rice, Noble (Yarmolenko 20), Snodgrass, Fornals (Ajeti 63), Felipe Anderson (Lanzini 56), Haller
Subs: Martin, Zabaleta, Ogbonna, Sanchez
Booked: Fredericks
Referee: Kevin Friend