Burnley (A) 20/09/25

 

Burnley 1-1 Nottingham Forest

Anthony 20'         Williams 2'

 

After being knocked out of the Carabao Cup to Swansea City in midweek, the focus turned back to the Premier League. After a year out of the topflight, Burnley returned but Reds fans won’t forget that game at the end of the 2023/24 season. A year filled with stress and Forest fans could finally breathe knowing they were practically safe.

Ange Postecoglou made 10 changes in the League Cup game, allowing some of Forest’s new summer signings a chance to show what they can do. 3 of them managed to get themselves a start in the league: Bakwa, Douglas Luiz and Zinchenko with Hudson-Odoi and Sangare being dropped to the bench.

The start couldn’t have gone any better for the Reds as they took the lead just 2 minutes in. Douglas Luiz whipped in the corner from the left which bounced through the box, evading everyone until it fell nicely to Neco Williams on the edge of the box. He ran onto the ball and smashed it home beyond Dubravka. History was now looking on the Reds side as they have avoided defeat when taking the lead in their last 6 league games.

Burnley were looking resilient to get the equaliser and they came close. Florentino Luis played a long diagonal ball over the top for Hartman on the left-hand side. He took a touch before firing a volley at goal from 25 yards out. However, the angle was against him, but Sels still had to be alert to parry away. Moments later the goal did come. A ball came into the box from the left which was headed down by Tchaouna. Lyle Foster missed the ball but luckily for the Clarets, Jaidon Anthony was at the back post and he managed to find the goal. Zinchenko was on the line, desperately trying to clear but it just got tangled between his legs. This keeps Forest’s streak of 13 games without a clean sheet going.

The visitors tried to regain control of the game and get back on the front foot. Postecoglou had already got his side playing flowing, one touch football. In a brilliant move, Reds’ players played first time passes around the edge of Burnley’s area before the ball finally came to Bakwa on the right of the box. He took the shot first time looking for the far corner, but Dubravka got a strong hand to it.

Forest continued to pile on the pressure as the half continued but they had no real chances to show for it. The Clarets came the closest to taking the lead in the half striking the woodwork in injury time. Burnley found themselves with a free-kick around 20 yards from goal, to the right of the goal. Tchaouna whipped the dead ball towards the top corner and hit the crossbar with Sels having no chance. That was a pretty exciting half for a neutral!

Just as they had done the previous week, Forest came close to conceding in the opening minute of the second half. Burnley quickly broke forwards as Anthony headed down a ball for Foster who played the returning pass back to his strike partner. Anthony took a touch to better the angle but the only thing stopping him scoring was a good save from Sels.

The game started to get an end-to-end feel to it now but neither side could find the chance that would give them a lead. Postecoglou turned to his bench to make an impact and they did. Burnley had to stay resolute for the final 15 minutes as the Reds dialled up the pressure. One of the substitutes was Igor Jesus and he almost scored after a minute on the pitch. Elliot Anderson fired the ball into the box where the Brazilian headed down hoping the bounce back up would take it into the net but Dubravka stuck out a strong hand to make a brilliant save.

Dubravka was next called into action to stop Williams scoring a brace. Hudson-Odoi and Anderson linked up down the left before Anderson sent a floating ball back into the danger area. Just like his goal, Williams ran onto it from the edge of the box, this time more on the volley, and the ball looked to be bouncing into the bottom left corner. Yet again, Dubravka got down to make another good stop.

Forest kept asking questions of the Burnley defence in the dying minutes of the game. Anderson fizzed in a low ball across the box which went past both Gibbs-White and Igor Jesus but landed for Kalimuendo at the back post. He took the finish first try but it was blocked by Hartman. The Frenchman will know he should’ve buried that one.

The Reds did pin the Clarets back for the rest of the game but they had no more real chances to steal the game at the death.

From the off we saw the changes Ange is already making. We were way more attacking with our fullbacks flying forward. We were also playing some lovely football at times especially in that build up to Bakwa’s chance. However, we did look exposed at the back at times especially down our right. On a different day, we would’ve sealed that game but Dubravka pulled off some brilliant saves in a man of the match performance. I think our best players were our 2 centre halves. They looked so calm and composed on the ball as well as doing their job when they needed to.

Burnley: Dubravka; Walker, Ekdal, Esteve, Hartman; Cullen, Florentino, Laurent; Tchaouna (Hannibal 81’),  Foster (Flemming 86’), Anthony

Forest: Sels; Williams, Milenkovic, Morato, Zinchenko; Luiz (Sangare 76’), Anderson; Bakwa (Hudson-Odoi 59’), Gibbs-White, Ndoye (Kalimuendo 76’); Wood (Igor Jesus 75’)