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Three things we learnt from Burnley’s 2-0 win over Watford
Burnley earned their second Premier League win of the season with a dominant 2-0 victory over Watford at Turf Moor last night. Jeff Hendrick scored his first goal for the Clarets following his £10.5 million from Derby and Michael Keane nodded in their second five minutes after the break to wrap up all three points. Sean Dyche’s men were win-less since their memorable home triumph against Liverpool last month, so the victory was most welcome and drew them level with the Hornets on seven points.
Burnley started the game brightly, pinning Watford back in an energetic first-half and despite the fact their opener came from a Steven Defour corner, carried a genuine threat from open play.
For Watford, their anaemic performance was a bitterly disappointing way to follow last week’s 3-1 win over Manchester United, which was a dynamic and convincing team display. It used to be said that teams who beat United were often vulnerable in their next game because they start to believe their own press, and Walter Mazzarri’s team looked like a side that had fallen into this trap.
As the old adage goes, they did not ‘earn the right to play’ in the early stages. It can be difficult for a team to awaken itself after a slow start, and Watford never looked like getting anything from this contest. Over the next few pages, we suggested three things we learnt from a routine home win for Burnley.
Jeff Hendrick and Steven Defour Are Definitely Upgrades For Burnley
With the exception of one rank awful performance that saw them go down 4-0 at West Brom, Burnley were competitive in the vast majority of their games during their last Premier League season. The problem was they just didn’t turn enough very decent performances into wins, with just four home wins in the whole campaign. Sam Vokes and Danny Ings were a good enough strike partnership to keep them up, but Dyche’s men did not supply them with enough service. Right-back Kieran Trippier topped their assist chart in 2014-15 which was indicative of a lack of quality from midfield and the wide areas.
This summer, after a quiet start to the window, the Lancashire outfit were slightly more aggressive in the transfer market and landed Defour and long-term target Hendrick towards the end of the window. Defour brings experience and composure on the ball, as well as an eye for a goal and the ability to shoot from distance. Hendrick was one of Ireland’s best players at the European Championship, and is the type of combative, box-to-box midfielder who will flourish in Dyche’s system.