WheelTalkSport: Burnley vs Aston Villa 27th January 2021

Wood grabs winner at Turf Moor as Burnley mount second-half comeback to go three games unbeaten

A trio of second-half goals saw Sean Dyche’s Burnley come from behind to beat Aston Villa 3-2 at home and continue their good run of form.

Burnley were full of confidence coming into the game after thrashing Fulham 3-0 on Sunday. However, it was Villa who had the better of the early stages and they took the lead through Ollie Watkins 14 minutes in.

Matt Targett drilled a ball across the box and Watkins got in front of Ben Mee to stab the ball in the opposite corner. Dean Smith’s striker has been in good form recently, scoring in his last outing against Newcastle and his goal against Burnley was his 10^thof the season.

The away side nearly doubled their lead on a number of occasions before half-time first through Ross Barkley, whose volley bounced off the bar after Watkins was denied a second goal by Pope. Tyrone Mings then had his shot saved by the Burnley goalkeeper in the penalty area to prevent the men from the Midlands from scoring a second before the half-time whistle.

Burnley were able to find a goal of their own six minutes after the break through their centre back Mee when he headed in his 2^nd goal of the season on his 179^th Premier League appearance.

Ashley Westwood aimed his corner towards the far post and the Burnley skipper got above Ezri Konsa to place his header in the top left corner of the net.

The Clarets confidence grew from this goal and they almost scored another 14 minutes later. Eric Pieters had the ball at his feet in the box and the former Dutch international pulled it back to Chris Wood who hit a first-time shot but he was unable to direct it past Emiliano Martinez.

Jack Grealish was to make Burnley pay for this missed opportunity when he put his side back in front on 68 minutes. After picking the ball up 25 yards from goal the Villa captain combined with Douglas Luiz to create room in the box and tap the ball into the gaping goal.

Dyche’s men pulled together though and responded within seven minutes in the form of a Dwight McNeil goal. McNeil appeared to send in a low driven cross but the ball bypassed everyone and made its way into the bottom corner.

The England under 21 international was to be involved in the final goal of the game as he got the assist to end Wood’s 6 game goal drought. Wood got on the end of McNeil’s cross to squeeze his header inbetween the post with 11 minutes to play. The Burnley forward loves pitting his wits against The Villains having now notched in four of his last five league starts against them.

Burnley are finding the back of the net at the minute scoring three goals for the second game in a row and the win sees them move to 15^th on 22 points. More importantly they have also opened up a nine-point gap between themselves and 18^th placed Fulham ahead of Sunday’s trip to Stamford Bridge to face Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea, after the German replaced the outgoing Frank Lampard on Tuesday evening.

Villa drop one place to 10^th on 29 points and have a trip to the South Coast on Saturday as they come up against Ralph Hasenhüttl’s Southampton looking to go above Arsenal with a victory.