Opposition View: Burnley

Having produced one of the most surprising Premier League campaigns in recent memory when finishing seventh last time out, Burnley have gone from playing in the Europa League to slugging it out at the bottom of the top flight so far this season.

Juggling European football with trying to stay in the Premier League with a small but talented squad was always likely to be a challenge for Sean Dyche and the Clarets, but there will be plenty of observers who are quite shocked by just how much Burnley are struggling so far in this campaign.

Ahead of Brighton’s trip to Turf Moor, we spoke to Tony Scholes from Burnley fan site Up the Clarets for his take on what’s going on at the club this season, whether Burnley can survive, just how great Dyche is and how Burnley’s four former Brighton players are getting on in Lancashire.

Burnley enjoyed one of the most surprising seasons in recent Premier League history last time out. What were your highlights and just how good was it to be a Clarets fan?
There were so many highlights and it all started on the first day of the season when we went in 3-0 up at half time at Chelsea. The start to the season was terrific with eight points from the first four away games and later in the season we had another outstanding run of five successive wins that all but ensured we’d get into the Europa League.
I’ve been watching Burnley a long, long time and have seen European football before. A few years ago I didn’t think I’d ever see us play in the top flight again but to get into Europe, albeit just for a short time, was something very special.

Things obviously aren’t going quite as well this time around and you’re currently positioned towards the bottom of the table. Why have performances and results tailed off so dramatically?
That’s a question to which, so far, no one has found the answer. We’ve had our fair share of injuries, we’ve had the Europa League games and playing on six successive Thursdays in and around the start to the Premier League hasn’t helped. It would be nice to say that we’ve been hard done to with some of the results but that’s not really been the case and there have been a couple of shocking performances recently. But we are a decent side and I do think we will come good sooner rather than later.

As much as us neutrals would all have loved to see Burnley potentially taking on the likes of AC Milan and Sevilla in the group stage of the Europa League, given your struggles so far this season do you think it is a blessing you missed out on trying to juggle European competition with Premier League survival?
I’m sure some would say it’s a blessing. I went to Aberdeen and Olympiacos and would have really enjoyed getting some more European football to watch. A trip to the San Siro would have been incredible for us but it wasn’t to be. So many other clubs have suffered because of continuing in Europe but I can’t imagine our Premier League results could have been worse had we stayed in and we should have done. Quite how we didn’t beat Olympiacos I will never know.

Burnley are one of the better run clubs in the Premier League, a model of stability in a division where most clubs push the “sack manager” button at the first sign of trouble. Is there any danger than Sean Dyche could lose his job if results don’t turn around?
I would hope he wouldn’t lose his job and I don’t think he will. He’s been incredible for us since his appointment over six years ago. Of course, like at any other club, there are some fans who think a change might be a good idea but this is his first difficult spell, other than a short period just after he came in. All you need to do is look at where the club was when he arrived and where it is now.

There have been no shortage of entertaining games between Brighton and Burnley down the years – your 1-0 win when we played for 75 minutes with nine men always gets a mention at our end. What are you favourite memories of games with the Albion?
I’ve seen Burnley win down in Brighton three times, all by 1-0 scorelines and all at different venues, at the Goldstone, Withdean and more recently, the one you refer to, at the Amex. I can assure you it won’t be one of the games at the Withdean, I can’t imagine anyone having fond memories of that place, but I’d probably go for my first visit which was in 1972/73 when we won with a goal from Martin Dobson. That was in the old second division; we were on our way to winning it that season and had an outstanding team. The 2011 game was good fun though. What I always remember is seeing that second red card come out and thinking the referee was going to even things up. Someone by the name of Ashley Barnes I think.

Speaking of someone by the name of Ashley Barnes, you’ve actually got a fair few ex-Brighton players in your squad. What do Burnley fans think of him, Stephen Ward, Sam Vokes and Chris Wood?
Wardy has been out injured for a while having had knee surgery. I think we are really missing him to be honest. As for the strikers, Wood has a lot to do yet to get full approval for the Burnley fans while Vokes and Barnes have already done that.

Which players should Brighton be wary of ahead of Saturday’s game?t
We are very much a team rather than individuals, but, on form, the likes of Robbie Brady and Jόhann Berg Guðmundsson can certainly catch the eye in wide positions. I does look likely that Steven Defour won’t have recovered from a knee injury and won’t play.

If you had to sign one player from the Albion, who would you take to Turf Moor?
It’s easy to say Dale Stephens given that he’d all but signed for us in 2016 and only a late change of mind from Brighton put a stop to it. However, Pascal Gross is a player who always seems to impress me.

Finally, how do you see Saturday going? And a score prediction please.
We were so much better against Liverpool last night than we’ve been recently. We need to continue with that sort of performance and I’m sure the results will come. We haven’t beaten Brighton since the 2011-12 season so it’s due. I’ll take a 1-0 win but I’m confident so will go for 2-0.

Thanks to Tony for answering our questions ahead of the game at Turf Moor. You can see his take on Burnley this season over at Up the Clarets