Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Burnley and Swansea City at Turf Moor as Vitinho, a Jay Rodriguez double and Anass Zaroury sealed a comfortable win for the Clarets.
Saturday 15 October 2022 18:48, UK
Jay Rodriguez struck twice as Burnley despatched 10-man Swansea 4-0 to step up their Championship promotion push.
The Swans' run of four-straight wins was brought crashing to an end by goals from Vitinho, Rodriguez and Anass Zaroury, and their misery was completed by a straight red card for top scorer Joel Piroe for violent conduct with 15 minutes remaining.
The Clarets extended their unbeaten run to 12 games in all competitions as Vincent Kompany got his tactical plan spot on in a match billed as a battle of two of the Championship's more cultured sides.
Burnley, who moved top of the table as a result - took control early on, thwarting the Swans' attempts to play out from the back and exposing a vulnerability on their flanks.
With Vitinho causing panic on the Swansea left - and Ian Maatsen and Zaroury doing the same on the other side - the visitors were constantly opened up.
When Maatsen swung a dipping cross across the face of the six-yard box after 15 minutes, the defence hesitated and the ball bounced up neatly onto the head of the inrushing Vitinho, who despatched it past Steven Benda.
Vitinho also played a big part in the second goal after 24 minutes as he snapped up a loose ball and drove infield, deep into Swans territory.
He released Maatsen in space and when the Dutch wing back moved the ball onto Zaroury, the winger whipped another ball to the far post, where Rodriguez's volley was confirmed as being over the line by the Hawkeye goal decision system.
Swansea struggled to cope with Burnley's smart pressing and their frustration brought first-half bookings for Matty Sorinola, Ben Cabango, Jay Fulton and Joel Latibeaudiere, all for fouls on sprightly Burnley attacking players Vitinho, Nathan Tella and Zaroury.
Josh Brownhill was denied a third when his snap shot from 25 yards was superbly tipped over by Benda, but in time added at the end of the first half, the Clarets did score again.
The Swansea defence had looked increasingly nervy and when Cabango underhit a pass as they tried to play out against more clever pressing, Tella pounced. The ball broke to Josh Brownhill, who calmly laid it left for Zaroury to drill in his first goal for the club.
Rodriguez bagged his second in the 57th minute when another slick Clarets attack culminated in Josh Cullen sliding a pass down the inside left channel, the England international slipping his marker and shooting left-footed into the far corner.
Swansea's frustration boiled over after 76 minutes when Piroe tried to turn away from Cullen, who pulled his shirt.
After the Burnley man fell to the ground, Piroe stamped on him to earn an instant dismissal and three-match ban.
Burnley's Vincent Kompany: "The performance was good and filled with energy. One of the things I put forward as much as the result is to give the fans something to be happy about. We played against a completely different opponent and that's the beauty of this league - we had Coventry last weekend or Stoke and they were completely different games. We have an attacking threat on the pitch, always. If you look at our starting 11, I could pick a lot of players whose mindset is attacking.
"It's important when these guys perform well that we have had good performances from other players in the same position, and that's what I am after. I am glad but not over the top. We played really well, maybe we can be more dominant but my key concern in every game is to be threatening and we were threatening without the ball and threatening with it as well. The team is a work in progress, a lot of young players with room for improvement."
Swansea's Russell Martin: "I haven't seen it back enough yet. He told us he hasn't meant to do it, that he tried to get out of the lad's way and we have to trust Joel on that because he is such an honest, brilliant lad. We will have to have a look to see if we can appeal it because I trust Joel and trust what he tells us. It depends on how it looks on the pitch, but I was surprised a red card came out, really surprised having been in there and watched it."
"It hurts. We started the game really well and to go in 3-0 down at half-time is ridiculous from five shots. We started the second half brilliantly with two chances we didn't take and got punished. It was a tough, tough day for us, the worst we have had this season. Their four goals summed our performance up - a mistake, lack of application, not taking responsibility. I had an idea in my mind of how we wanted to come here and adapt a couple of bits but when you're not winning, it's difficult."
