.png)
2 hours ago
1
Key events
75 min Burnley have been so bright going forward and so brittle at the back.
73 min Solomon cost West Ham about £5 million. Cheap at the price.
GOAL! Burnley 0-2 West Ham (Solomon 72)
Against the run of play! Kante does well to break down the right, just keeps the ball in, and squeezes in a cross, which Solomon thumps into the roof of the net.
70 min After going to sleep for 20 minutes, West Ham are back at it. They win a free kick 40 yards out which Ward-Prowse will take.
69 min The traffic is still one-way. Burnley are in the box again and Josh Laurent opts to cross from the inside-right channel, when he could have taken a shot.
67 min Castellanos is back on the field and itching for revenge on Walker. He takes it with an elbow into the back, and collects a well-earned booking.
66 min The replay shows that it was actually off the shoulder, like a ballgown.
64 min Burnley are still the better team. They bustle down the left and win a corner, which Bruun Larsen whips in. It’s – guess what – a header for Flemming, which is cleared off the line!
62 min Big chance for Burnley! Edwards jinks into space on the right and curls in a cultured left-foot cross. Flemming has yet another header and it’s his best one yet, going downwards, with intent, beating Hermansen … and hitting the post.
60 min As the hourglass flips over, the game comes to a halt. Taty Castellanos took a bang on the head as he went up for the ball with Kyle Walker. He’s back on his feet but walking off for a breather.
59 min Burnley have been the better team for the past five minutes. And they’ve had more shots overall (10-7), even theirs have included a few long ones.
57 min Do you remember Kyle Walker crossing the ball, baclk in the day? He hasn’t forgotten how to do it. He curls the ball in now, albeit from centre-back, and presents Flemming with another header, which goes over the bar.
55 min Burnley get upfield but Mejbri’s shot is well wide. This prompts a volley of alliteration from one of the commentators: “It’s hit-and-hope from Hannibal.”
54 min West Ham stroke the ball around smoothly before Kilman’s long ball is too long for Solomon.
52 min Burnley show some purpose. First Edwards and Sonne combine down the right, only to see Orford clear; then Bruun Larsen sends in a delicious cross from the left, which Flemming heads crisply – but straight at Hermansen.
50 min Nothing doing for a couple of minutes, which will suit West Ham fine.
47 min Ward-Prowse hits his first dead ball now, curling in a corner from the left, which Max Weiss clears with a confident punch.
46 min Scrap that – Bowen has moved inside to play as a second striker, so it’s as you were. With Ward-Prowse on the field, West Ham’s set pieces should be even more dangerous.
The players are out there and among them is an old friend of the home crowd. James Ward-Prowse, now back with West Ham, is on for Pablo. That’s a midfielder for a striker, so it looks as if Nuno is switching to a 4-2-3-1.
HALF-TIME! Burnley 0-1 West Ham (Kilman 10)
The whistle goes and the scoreline doesn’t lie. It’s been like watching a Championship play host to a Premier League club. Burnley have been bright on the break, but wayward with their shots. West Ham have had 63 per cent of the possession and almost all of the class.
45+1 min We’re into the one and only added minute. Bowen’s corner leads to another, but this time there’s no cheap goal on offer.
45 min Bowen is on manoeuvres again, as Castellanos drops deep to send a lovely through ball round the corner down the right. Humphreys tracks him and shovels the ball out for a corner.
42 min Right on cue, Solomon jinks through the box and finds enough space to take a shot, but it balloons into the crowd.
42 min As a cross comes in from Manor Solomon on the left, Bowen can’t quite get a touch. Everybody’s been saying that Bowen is going to be the best player in the Championship, but Solomon is not to be underestimated. When he was at Leeds a couple of years ago, he did a lot to get them promoted with 22 goal involvements.
40 min Before that, a replay showed that Bowen was the filling in a sandwich, as Walker and Alleyne converged on him, but he wasn’t fouled. Not just a sandwich, but a Man City sandwich.
39 min Another promising counter-attack from Burnley as Mejbri dribbles from his own half into the box, but you can see him not knowing what to do next and his flick fails to reach the nearest claret shirt.
36 min Bowen goes down as he tries to get on the end of Walker-Peters’ low cross. The West Ham fans want a penalty, but Josh Smith is not inclined to agree. Where’s VAR when you need it?
35 min Buoyed by Humphreys’ solo voyage, Zian Flemming tries a long shot and it’s a rasping one that goes just wide.
33 min Bashir Humphreys does well, dribbling through mid-town in a bid to get Burnley upfield, and drawing a cynical foul from Mohamadou Kante, who goes into the book.
31 min Bowen spins to send in a cross with his weaker foot, his right, then sends one in with his left. Neither strikes gold but there’s soon a shot from Castellanos, just wide. West Ham are looking very comfy now.
27 min Mejbri and Edwards combine to work their way through the middle of the park in a move that ends with yet another shot for Aaron Ramsey. The good news is that it’s on target; the bad news is that it’s a bit limp.
24 min The cameras find a face in the crowd: David Moyes. This game would surely not be happening if he’d stayed at West Ham.
22 min West Ham almost get away but Max Alleyne, making his Burnley debut, shows pace and composure to see off the danger. This may be one of the best things done by a Man City player today.
19 min Here is a collector’s item: a header from outside the box. It’s Oliver Sonne, taking a punt with his head after Mads Hermansen comes out of his area and shanks a clearance. For a moment it looks as if it’s going in, which would have made Sonne’s name instantly.
17 min Correction! Burnley are playing a back four, not a back three. Kyle Walker, who is used to playing centre-back but not as one of only two, loses the ball easily, which leads to a free kick. Bowen takes it and again finds a West Ham head – Mavropanos, whose header loops over the bar.
13 min Chance for Burnley! They get forward fast and fluently, but Ramsey slips as he hits the ball from the D (again) and sends it wide (again).
11 min In his 68th appearance for West Ham, Max Kilman scores his first goal. All he had to do was wait for Bowen’s pinpoint corner and nod the ball down at the far post.
GOAL! Burnley 0-1 West Ham (Kilman 10)
A corner, a header, a shocker from the Burnley defence!
8 min West Ham need to get going and they do, putting together an intricate move on the left and eventually finding Bowen, whose shot is easily blocked.
6 min Bruun Larsen wins a corner off Walker-Peters. Mejbri’s ball is too long and too high to find a taker, but this has been a fine six minutes from Burnley.
4 min Burnley have another shot! It’s Aaron Ramsey, capitalising on some neat midfield play but sending his shot wide from the D.
3 min Both teams already showing intent, and now Burnley are in the box again, but nothing comes of it.
2 min … and Burnley race up the other end, where Zian Flemming has the first shot of the day. It’s a volley, just over the bar, from a nice chipped cross.
1 min West Ham kick off and soon get forward, finding Jarrod Bowen on the right. But his cross is blocked …
The colour scheme. Burnley are in claret and blue, naturally. West Ham are in their third strip, which is pale, swirly and makes each player look like a box of washing powder.
The players are out there and a lot of fists are being bumped.
Fun fact: both the England right-backs called Kyle Walker are playing today, but only one of them is at right-back – Kyle Walker-Peters of West Ham. Kyle Walker of Burnley, now 36, has turned into a centre-back. He’s also the captain, with Josh Cullen injured.
Not-so-fun fact: Burnley have won only one league game since last October. Among their many defeats since then, there have been two at the hands of West Ham.
Half-time in the Community Shield, and Arsenal are 2-0 up. In a turn-up for the books, the second goal wasn’t scored by a left-back.
Will Unwin
It feels like a muted start to the season for Burnley and West Ham upon their return to the Championship. The Hammers fans had plenty to cheer about pre-match as they watched Burnley Cricket Club with a pint, celebrating boundaries and the fall of wickets. They will be hoping that continues inside Turf Moor having been made favourites to go back up after a summer of relative continuity; Nuno Espirito Santo and, arguably, more importantly Jarrod Bowen have stayed and will spearhead the push for promotion.
Burnley on the other hand, lost Scott Parker before last season ended and took an age to appoint Nicky Hayen, who arrived after pre-season had begun. The most talented of Burnley’s squad had left, while few have replaced them, meaning today will be very important for the team to show they are capable of competing with the best in this league.
The Community Shield, which can be rather sleepy, has got off to a spectacular start. After 24 seconds, Riccardo Calafiori ran onto a through ball from Myles Lewis-Skelly to score what sounds like a lovely goal. About a minute later, Rob Smyth wrote: “Has Enzo Maresca taken Man City as far as he can?”
Teams in full
Burnley (probable 3-4-2-1) Weiss; Walker, Alleyne, Humphreys; Sonne, Mejbri, Raghouber, Bruun Larsen; Edwards, Ramsey; Flemming.
Subs: Amos, Worrall, Sambo, Laurent, Lucas Pires, Tresor, Hountondji, Amdouni, Broja.
West Ham (probable 4-4-2) Hermansen; Walker-Peters, Mavropanos, Kilman, Scarles; Bowen, Orford, Kante, Solomon; Pablo, Castellanos.
Subs: Areola, Veltman, Mayers, Golambeckis, Diouf, Ward-Prowse, Earthy, Ajala, Landers.
Teams in brief: West Ham
Nuno too makes just the one change from the Carabao Cup, in which West Ham fared better, beating Portsmouth 3-1. Manor Solomon, newly signed from Spurs, comes in to replace Edson Alvarez.
Teams in brief: Burnley
Max Alleyne, who arrived on loan from Man City on Friday, goes straight into the starting line-up as the man in the middle of Burnley’s back three. That’s the only change Nicky Hayen makes from the XI who laboured against Notts County in the Carabao Cup before squeezing through on penalties.
Preamble
Afternoon everyone and welcome to the Maxwel Cornet derby. Burnley and West Ham have a few other things in common too: a famous old name, a claret-and-blue strip, and a recent fall from grace. Today they meet in the Championship for the first time in 14 years.
West Ham are widely tipped to finish first in the second tier, while Burnley, according to the Opta prediction machine, are more likely to come sixth. But Burnley are the ones who know how to win automatic promotion: they’ve done it the last four times they’ve been in the Championship. And they seem the more stable of the two clubs, with no battles raging in the boardroom.
Then again, West Ham have a manager, Nuno Espirito Santo, who has already marched a team to the top of this arduous division. That was Wolves in 2017-18, and they had spent the previous two seasons languishing in 14th and 15th place.
Burnley’s manager, Nicky Hayen, has spent only six months in British football – in the Cymru Premier with Haverfordwest County (though he has won a league title in Belgium, with Club Brugge). As well as getting used to English football, he needs to end a dismal sequence. If Burnley have a bogey team, it’s West Ham, who have won five and drawn three of the past eight meetings between the sides.
So the Hammers are the favourites today, but not by much, with Burnley on their home Turf. I’ll be back soon with the teams. In the meantime, do join Rob Smyth for the match that may just keep this one off the back pages.
