Maintaining momentum
Plus: An unnecessary pile on
Hi everyone - another good week with four points from two games to look at!
Maintaining momentum
Burnley are Burnley again. After hope seemed to be lost a few weeks ago, the strong jaw is back, Burnley are battling and Sean Dyche has restored the stingy defence.
Last week’s brilliant win at home to Tottenham was followed by a hard-fought draw at Crystal Palace, ensuring the Clarets took nine points from their six games in February.
A home loss to Liverpool was the only black mark on our month and the Reds - who are in brilliant form - needed a scrappy set piece to find their way past Nick Pope.
While others like Brentford, Everton and Leeds United are in various shades of crisis, the Clarets are on the up. At 1.5 points per game in February, the great escape is on.
Leicester’s visit on Tuesday is absolutely massive and another chance to get a big three points under the lights at Turf Moor. Chelsea will be something of a free hit ahead of a huge trip to Brentford, which already has the look of a key six-pointer.
If Burnley can maintain a points per game ratio of close to 1.5 for the rest of the season, then the great escape will be well and truly on. Burnley have 14 games to play, so that would give us another 21 points, taking us to 42 overall. That would be enough.
In fact, Burnley might only need 15 or so points, given Norwich City are on a losing streak again and Roy Hodgson is struggling to turn around Watford’s own poor form.
No conclusions can be made yet, but Norwich and Watford are two teams Burnley will have to finish above if we are to secure another season of Premier League football.
You can take your pick of the third team we need to climb above, but even a draw against Leicester would take us out of the bottom three, providing a big mental boost.
It is already becoming something of a cliche to say it, but our goal difference is essentially worth an extra point. Our goal difference is easily the best in the bottom seven, though Newcastle United are at the top of that group and on their way to safety.
Dyche has been insistent in saying for most of the season results have not matched performance levels. While Burnley have had some bad games, I think he is right to say we could probably have more points on the board but for sloppiness in both boxes.
We are also finally benefiting from a bit of luck. We deserved a draw at Palace - but it did come thanks to an own goal - and while we dominated Spurs, they were appalling.
Momentum is on our side and our history of successful relegation battles is also crucial. Most of our players have been there, done it and bought the t-shirt before.
You cannot say the same about Leeds, who stayed up without a scrap last season and will now have to adapt to a new manager after Marcelo Bielsa (and his bucket) were shown the door. Brentford are newcomers to the Premier League and the Bees are in severe danger of extinction, having taken a single point from their past eight games.
The new Everton boss - a risky appointment who is quickly looking like a disaster - is already cracking up, having overseen three defeats in four league games yet decided refereeing decisions are ultimately to blame for the Toffees’ continued poor form.
Burnley cannot count chickens yet, but our chances of survival are suddenly good.
An unnecessary pile on
One of the strangest things that happened over the last week, since the previous newsletter I sent out, is the abuse that a Palace fan got for tweeting something silly.
Yes, I know that happens alllll the time on Twitter, but this was particularly daft.
For those who are not quite as online as me, this is what happened: A Palace fan saw what they thought was a Russian flag in the away section at the game, and posted a tweet about it. You can probably guess it was actually a Dutch flag, not a Russian one, and she deleted the mistaken tweet very quickly after realising the error she made.
That did not stop a completely over the top reaction from our fans, who continue to spam her mentions with insults and abuse now, TWO DAYS ON. This morning, someone tweeted at her, calling her a “silly bitch” because she made a stupid error.
I have been on the receiving end of one of these pile ons. It is extremely unpleasant. You may argue she brought it on herself, but have you never made a dumb mistake?
I actually received a text message from a friend who was at the game, shortly before kick off. He also thought he had seen a Russian flag in the away end. He also realised his mistake quickly, but the difference was he shared it in a small group chat, where we laughed at him, a lot, not on Twitter where anyone could see it (and screenshot it).
For me, it was all completely unnecessary. She later explained herself - even if it was not a particularly good ‘apology’ - but that just led to even more abuse. She locked her account from people replying to her tweets about the flag error, but it is still not stopping people tweeting “wanker” at her today. There are dozens of quote tweets from Burnley fans, which even if they are not abusive, are contributing to the pile on.
Some with very big followings drew attention to her error by posting a screenshot of the tweet, even after the mistake was rectified within a few minutes by deleting it.
She should have known better but it is understandable why she leapt to that mistaken conclusion. We are the same club that had so-called supporters flying a “white lives matter” banner over a game. To my knowledge, booing the knee has not happened at other Premier League grounds. Only Turf Moor. We have a reputation for a reason.
Abusing someone over posting a regrettable tweet is hardly going to help matters. I understand why Burnley fans were upset about it, but acting like a mob is needless.
Sometimes, I think we all need to take a step back, calm down, and maybe not tweet.
Podcasts and quiz questions
Double Ben Mee quiz today. For this one, listen back to the Palace preview pod:
How many headed goals has Ben Mee scored for Burnley, and how many of them were scored at Turf Moor?
And the answer to this one will be in the preview show for the Leicester game:
Mee played his 350th league game for Burnley at Palace, but how many other players, who have played for Burnley since Sean Dyche took over as manager, have made more than 250 Burnley league appearances in total, and can you name them?
Birthdays and anniversaries
Today is the 43rd birthday of Burnley legend Remco van der Schaaf, one of the oddest signings in the club’s recent history, while Wes Fletcher is 31 today. Fletcher came through the youth system and had a decent spell at York City a few years back.
It’s fair to say February 28 has not been kind to us, with 0-4 and 2-4 reverses against Tottenham and Sheffield Wednesday #OnThisDay. I’ll spare you the archive footage.
Thought for the day
I’m not the jinx! Woooooooo! I don’t feel bad about buying a Leicester ticket now…
That’s it for this week. As ever, any letters or comments or feedback are welcome.