Premier League: Another Six Pointer for Kompany’s Clarets

Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Burnley

Burnley head south to Wolverhampton on Tuesday in search of back-to-back wins, while Gary O’Neil’s Wolves are desperate to avoid a third defeat on the bounce.

Following a disastrous start to the campaign, the young Clarets finally fulfilled some of their promise with a 5-0 hammering of Sheffield United on Saturday to breathe life into their survival battle. Meanwhile, Wolves lost 2-1 away to Arsenal, making it two defeats in a week.

Premier League: Wolves vs Burnley has all the hallmarks of a cracker after another all- action weekend of top flight football. Vincent Kompany insists his team has been steadily improving and the result against Sheffield United was coming, and fans at Turf Moor will be hoping the Clarets can now lift off and climb the table.

Burnley sit in 19^th place, two points from safety and eight behind the Wolves in 13^th. And for Burnley, any game against a bottom half team is a six-pointer; they need to get results against the teams around them if they are to survive. 

But Molineux is a tough place to go and, while O Neil’s men have lost their last three games on the road, Wolves beat Tottenham Hotspur with two injury time goals the last time they were on home soil.

The Premier League 2023 betting odd sback the hosts to win this fascinating clash, but Burnley’s awakening on Saturday makes this game much harder to call.     

Talking Points

Wolves aiming to get back on track  

A game away to league leaders Arsenal was always going to be tough and it looked like it might turn out to be a horror show when the Gunners raced into a two goal lead, helped by some poor Wolves defending.

But O Neil rallied his side at halftime, and he was pleased by their response, coping well with the Arsenal attacks and clawing a goal back when Matheus Cunha finished brilliantly to bag his fourth goal of the campaign.

Against Burnley Wolves, it will be more on the front foot, and both Cunha and top scorer Hwang Hee Chang will test the Clarets’ rearguard, with wingback Nelson Semedo a constant threat with his pace and delivery. In defence Wolves have benefited from the return of veteran centre-back Craig Dawson, and he will be a key figure against a lively and confident Burnley attack.

And the home fans will hope for better Premier League 2023 results and that VAR stays out of the game after O’Neil claimed the technology has cost his side seven points already this season; he received another apology after his team conceded two penalties in a 3-2 defeat to Fulham last week.

Wolves supporters unfurled an anti-VAR banner at the Emirates on Saturday, and the officials will be under serious scrutiny on Tuesday.

Kompany is getting closer to finding his formula

Cautious Clarets will warn their giddier mates that one swallow does not make a summer in England. But handing out a 5-0 spanking to any Premier League side is not the behaviour of a bottom three club and they way Burnley sliced the Blades apart was hugely impressive.

The Clarets were helped by the sending off of Sheffield forward Ollie McBurnie who was lucky to escape a straight red card for an elbow in the face of Dara O’ Shea and then, ten minutes later, he did it again. Burnley were already 2-0 up at that stage after Jay Rodriguez had scored the fastest goal of the season, heading home a cross from Charlie Taylor with just 15 seconds gone.

Over the first ten games of the campaign Kompany rotated his squad week by week in search of a formula, but he’s seen a big improvement over the past couple of weeks with a promising performance against Arsenal and then an unlucky defeat to West Ham when the Clarets led until the 86^th minute.

Kompany has tightened his team up, bringing back the experienced trio of Taylor, Rodriguez and Josh Brownhill, who sits in midfield allowing Sander Berge to pull the strings further forward. And 19-year-old winger Luca Koleosho has tormented full backs all season, while Zeki Amdoumi, ‘the Swiss Messi’ is a class act, improving week by week.               

History

These are two teams with proud histories. Wolverhampton had their golden period in the 1950s, winning three league titles and the FA Cup in 1960. Burnley won the top flight league title in 1960 for the second time, and they also won the FA Cup way back in 1914. And Wolves and Burnley are two of only five teams to win all four divisions in English football.

The head-to-head Wolves vs Burnley in the Premier League era has been keenly contested, with Wolves coming out on top by 17 wins to 11, but this is a fixture Burnley have enjoyed recently, with three wins and three draws from the last six encounters, including a 4-0 victory at Molineux in 2021.

Betting Tip

At SBOTOP, the odds are 1.83 to win. The Wolves are in the box to take all three points, but Burnley will fancy their chances at 3.40.

This game could go either way, so I’m going for a draw, and 1-1, at odds of 5.99, is the most likely score line.

 

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