Formed by Hammers supporters Jack Elderton and Callum Goodall to offer their fellow fans in-depth but accessible analysis of their team and its players,Analytics Uniteduse performance analysis and data to examine how Burnley could approach their visit to London Stadium…
Having already won three games this season, Burnley have had a positive start to life back in the Premier League. Scott Parker’s Clarets have picked up vital wins over relegation threatened Wolves and fellow promoted clubs Leeds and Sunderland. With big wins like those, Parker’s side have built a platform to compete to stay in the division, whilst still needing to secure a couple of unexpected victories throughout what remains of the first half of the campaign.
With so many new players coming into the Burnley team, things have looked different this season when compared to their style and outcomes in the Championship. Last term, Burnley conceded just 16 goals all season in the second tier, putting together a record-smashing defensive campaign. This incredible form at the back could be attributed to the excellent performances produced by the defensive trio of Maxime Estève, CJ Egan-Riley and James Trafford. Clearly, one of the biggest challenges that Burnley were set to face this season was dealing with the losses of Trafford to Manchester City and Egan-Riley to Marseille.
In goal, things have continued apace with replacement Martin Dúbravka. The Slovakian ex-Newcastle and Manchester United goalkeeper currently ranks fifth for post-shot expected goals prevented (PSxG-P) this season, a metric that gives us an insight into the quality of shot-stopping work done by goalkeepers (+0.22). His heroics have been crucial in Burnley managing one of the best levels of defensively focused data-defying work so far this season, outperforming their non-penalty expected goals conceded by 5.1, a rate that would see them finish conceding 19 goals fewer than expected if sustained. Though this would be modified downwards to eight goals fewer if we stopped factoring the rate at which Parker’s side have been conceding own-goals.