WOLVES 0-4 BURNLEY
- Goals: Chris Wood (£6.3m) x3, Ashley Westwood (£5.3m)
- Assists: Matt Lowton (£4.4m), Dwight McNeil (£5.7m) x2, Wood
- Bonus: Wood x3, McNeil x2, Westwood x1
CAN’T SEE THE WOOD FOR THE THREES
Chris Wood (£6.3m) now boasts nine attacking returns in six starts since Gameweek 26, having plundered a first-half hat-trick against Wolves in Blank Gameweek 33.
Having been sidelined through injury between Gameweeks 22 and 25, the striker returned to the Burnley starting line-up in the Clarets’ second instalment of Double Gameweek 26.
Six goals since then have brought Wood to 10 Premier League strikes for the season; his fourth campaign in a row achieving that feat.
Harry Kane (£11.8m), Mohamed Salah (£12.6m), Heung-Min Son (£9.5m), Alexandre Lacazette (£8.4m) and Jamie Vardy (£10.3m) are the only other players to have scored at least 10 goals in each season since 2017/18.
Burnley have a mixed run-in over the final five Gameweeks, facing West Ham (H), Fulham (a), Leeds (H), Liverpool (H) and Sheffield United (a). On his in-form striker, Sean Dyche said:
There are still things that he can improve, with his hold up play. There are certain things in football that you can’t coach and he finds a way of finding a chance.
On a big three points in Burnley’s battle for survival, the Clarets chief added:
It feels like an important three points. There are still more games to play and more points to gather.
The season is never over until it is over. A very strong performance today doesn’t owe you the next one.
NEW ZEAL FOR CHRIS
Wood opened the scoring after 15 minutes, latching on to a long ball that Willy Boly (£5.4m) failed to deal with before turning Conor Coady (£5.0m) inside out to then fire past Rui Patricio (£5.3m).
Six minutes later, the New Zealand striker was again the beneficiary of a Wolves error as Adama Traoré (£6.1m) played a blind ball into his own penalty area.
The alert Dwight McNeil (£5.7m) picked up Traoré’s loose pass before setting Wood up for a simple finish.
And it was from McNeil’s corner just before half time that Wood completed his hat-trick, rising above the Wolves defence to head home.
The New Zealander’s ongoing fine form could, in turn, continue to be beneficial to McNeil’s FPL prospects: 63% of the winger’s orthodox Premier League assists in his career have been for Wood.
Post-match, McNeil remarked on his team-mate:
He knows what I would do and I know what he wants to do, and I know it’s been a while since he’s scored and I got an assist, we were speaking about it yesterday and today.
So I’m just happy I set up two of his three goals. I thought all of his finishes were amazing and he deserved the hat-trick.
The 2%-owned forward did not stop there, however, as he picked up a late assist for an Ashley Westwood (£5.3m) strike to take him to 20 points for the Gameweek.
On his partnership with Matej Vydra (£4.8m) – who had a goal ruled out for offside in the second half – Wood said:
Our partnership is working very well; it’s the first time I’ve played with Vyds in a consistent run and it’s working well.
And of course the man who is providing the assists (Dwight McNeil) is an outstanding player and he’s got a bright future ahead of him.
WOLVES PRESSED INTO SUBMISSION
Nuno Espirito Santo’s side could not live with Burnley’s pressing over the 90 minutes at Molineux, as Dyche’s tactics paid dividends in terms of shots and big chances.
The Burnley manager explained:
The main thing that pleased me was the second half because when you are in that position, do you almost allow them to get some sort of foothold in the game because teams react in the Premier League but we didn’t allow that.
We stayed on the front foot with our pressing lines and shape and some of our quality. As the game wore on, we started to make chances and look effective again. That comes with a bit of organisational know-how and equally with the way the team grows and their understanding.
Dyche also gave insight as to why Johann Berg Gudmundsson (£5.4m) was benched and an update on Ashley Barnes (£6.0m):
Johann keeps getting these niggles and had another one after the Man United game with a minor tear in his oblique, so he was not quite fit. We keep putting these players at risk, we are not trying to of course but we have had to. We have players coming back fit as well so I thought we didn’t need to stretch it.
Barnesy was involved today but probably needs another week’s training, if the truth be known.
Nuno, meanwhile, was unsurprisingly aghast at an awful showing from his side:
Very bad performance. Too many things (went wrong), hard to explain. Bad defending, not the right decisions under pressure.
Burnley pressed us, we didn’t have movement to go out of that pressure. We defended very bad every time.
We allowed Burnley to get into the game, we were not practical, we lost second balls and we were always under pressure and never comfortable.
We lost our focus and things got worse and worse. We were very bad and we didn’t do what we wanted to do – not even one time in our offensive game.
Wolves take on West Brom (a), Brighton (H), Tottenham (a), Everton (a) and Manchester United (H) in their final five games of the season.
Those who invested in players such as Coady may be looking to jump ship soon, while Spurs assets may be even more prominent in the Gameweek 36 captaincy debate.
Wolves XI (3-4-3): Patricio; Saiss, Coady, Boly; Ait-Nouri, Dendoncker, Neves (Vitinha 69′), Semedo (Fabio Silva 58′); Podence (Gibbs-White 69′), Willian José, A Traoré.
Burnley XI (4-4-2): Pope; Taylor, Mee, Tarkowski, Lowton; McNeil, Westwood, Cork, Brownhill; Wood, Vydra (Rodriguez 73′).
