Recalling our journeys and the exhausting drive to Bournemouth

Tomorrow, we’ll go on one of the season’s longest road trips to travel to the Dorset coast for our away Premier League match against Bournemouth.

We have a one-point lead over them going into the game, but we’re both in the bottom three. It implies that this will be a crucial game for us and that, should either team win, it will provide a significant boost to both.

The performance at Brentford last week has been the subject of a lot of discussion. We may have had our poorest game of the year, and that made it harder for us to keep the ball out of our own net. The three we conceded have taken the total to 23 in just nine Premier League games and that’s some way more than in any other season in this league.

It hasn’t helped with all the defense adjustments we’ve had to make, especially after Jordan Beyer’s injury, but the issues haven’t just affected the defenders, who have occasionally had minimal support from their teammates.

If it means anything, the club we are visiting has a solid track record recently. In addition to winning the FA Cup in the third round last season, we have won our last three league games there. To try and move this season forward and assist us get out of the bottom three, a similar outcome would be ideal.

Sander Berge, a midfielder who was part of the team that Brentford defeated last week, is optimistic that things will get better. It’s just a learning curve, he remarked. We simply need to pick up on the new system quickly as a team and keep doing what we know we can do on the field because we have a young, new squad.

Everyone tries to support one another. While it’s common knowledge that promoted teams are frequently the underdogs and that nobody expects them to win every game and score three points, our goal is to always compete well and leave with a win.

Three days before the season began, Berge signed a contract with Sheffield United. He entered the team right away and has since appeared in nine Premier League games, starting seven of them. That would indicate that he is probably going to start tomorrow, but because I said the same thing about Josh Brownhill last week, I won’t guarantee that he will start.

It’s anyone’s guess as to who will initiate play. Since some of the injured players aren’t quite ready to play again, Vincent Kompany has stated that the team on duty at Brentford will start. However, there will need to be one alteration as Connor Roberts was sent off last week and will need to sit out the encounter to serve a one-match ban.

Just to refresh your memory, the following players played for us at Brentford last week: Josh Cullen, Zeki Amdouni, Wilson Odobert, Josh Trafford, Connor Roberts, Ameen Al-Dakhil, Dara O’Shea, Charlie Taylor, and Lyle Foster. Arijanet Muric, Luca Koleosho, Josh Brownhill, Jacob Bruun Larsen, Anass Zaroury, Jay Rodriguez, Hannes Delcroix, Jack Cork, and Nathan Redmond were the substitutes.

At the conclusion of the 2021–2022 season, Bournemouth switched places with us and made a two-year comeback to the Premier League. Scott Parker oversaw them, but he left early in the previous season, and Gary O’Neil took over.

They were in the relegation zone as late as mid-March last season, but they had six victories in nine games to turn things around and secure their spot with three games left. Although we may never fully understand how another club operates, even our own, it was shocking when O’Neil was let go in June and Andoni Iraola was chosen to take his place. Even if it was because they had dropped their last four games, it seemed like a pretty rash choice.

This season, under Iraola, is now. Despite adding nine new players, it hasn’t gone as well as they may have planned. They are still to win a game and have that 19th place in the table just behind us with three points from three draws.

Two of those draws occurred last month, at home against Chelsea and against West Ham on the first weekend of the season. They took a point at Brentford in the match prior to Chelsea’s tie, doing what we were unable to.

They have lost four games since the last point against Chelsea, including away to Brighton and Everton as well as at home to Arsenal and Wolves, with the final encounter coming against the group that O’Neil currently manages. They had the lead in that game, but they lost 2-1 after giving up a goal in the 88th minute.

They also had Lewis Cook sent off in that match, thus similar to us, they are missing a player due to suspension. They continue to be without injured trio Tyler Adams, Ryan Fredericks and Emiliano Marcondes.

Additionally, the management has announced that Neto, the team’s captain and goalie, suffered an ankle injury during practice that will keep him out until the new year. He stated that Andrei Radu, a summer acquisition who made his way from Auxerre, will take his position. Radu will make his debut for the team. But since Iraola said that, Mark Travers (shown above) has been called back by Bournemouth from his loan at Stoke. He has played for Bournemouth in more than sixty league games, primarily in the Championship.

Neto, Max Aarons, Illia Zabarnyi, Lloyd Kelly, Milos Kerkez, Alex Scott, Lewis Cook, David Brooks, Philip Billing, Marcus Tavernier, and Dominic Solanke were the Bournemouth players that took on Wolves last week. Andrei Radu, Joe Rothwell, Ryan Christie, Adam Smith, Justin Kluivert, Kieffer Moore, Antoine Semenyo, Marcos Senesi, and Dango Ouattara were the substitutes.

LAST TIME WE WERE THERE

We won 4-2 at Bournemouth in January of this year in a third round FA Cup tie but it is heading towards four years since we were last there for a league game in what proved to be Eddie Howe’s final season as their manager.

On that occasion, we beat them 1-0 with a Jay Rodriguez goal in the 89^th minute. It proved to be Sean Dyche’s fiftieth Premier League win as Burnley manager and we recorded three successive away wins against a team for the first time in this league.

It started well for us in the opening ten minutes or so and was convinced had we scored then we might have recorded another comfortable win there. We didn’t and it became potentially one of the least exciting games of that season.

It really did look to be heading for a draw but then came the goal just as we were all settling for a point. Aaron Lennon and Ashley Westwood linked up on the right with Westwood crossing for Rodriguez to head home. There was a long wait while VAR looked for a handball to rule it out but alas it couldn’t; a Bournemouth defender had was the player to have handled it.

The goal stood and we were winners, the second of seven away wins in the season.

The teams were;

Bournemouth: Aaron Ramsdale, Jack Stacey, Simon Francis, Chris Mepham, Diego Rico, Lewis Cook (Callum Wilson ht), Philip Billing (Dominic Solanke 86), Jefferson Lerma, Dan Gosling, Ryan Fraser, Josh King. Subs not used: Artur Boruc, Andre Surman, Junior Stanislas, Jack Simpson, Gavin Kilkenny.

Burnley: Nick Pope, Phil Bardsley, James Tarkowski, Ben Mee, Charlie Taylor, Jeff Hendrick (Aaron Lennon 65), Ashley Westwood, Jack Cork, Dwight McNeil (Robbie Brady 82), Ashley Barnes (Jay Rodriguez 75), Chris Wood. Subs not used: Joe Hart, Kevin Long, Erik Pieters, Danny Drinkwater.