Burnley 1 Crystal Palace 0 Highlights: Lee Chung-yong howler gifts Burnley win to pile pressure on Frank de Boer
Dutch boss nears Palace exit after a disastrous start to campaign with no wins or a goal in four Premier League games
Frank de Boer was shoved closer to the exit door as a suicidal back pass from Lee Chung Yong condemned Palace to their fourth straight defeat of the season.
Palace have still not managed a goal let alone a point, and chairman Steve Parish’s decision to bring in De Boer to shake things up is blowing up in his face.
Lee’s howler came after just three minutes, as he launched the ball straight into the path of Chris Wood, who followed up his stoppage time equaliser against Tottenham with another clinical finish.
Wood curled the ball past the stranded Wayne Hennessey with a curling first time shot, and De Boer’s chances of finishing this week as Palace boss looked even more remote.
That blunder was the last thing the manager and his team needed, with the pressure already piling up after their dreadful start to the season.
The South Korean international’s brainstorm was even harder to understand as he actually collected the ball in the Burnley half, and ran ten yards towards his own goal before attempting to find Hennessey.
That was surely enough time to spot the lurking Wood, and to realise the back pass was simply not on.
A least Palace reacted positively to that setback. Dann seized onto the loose ball when Burnley failed to clear a corner, and drilled a low shot towards the far corner, only for Matthew Lowton to clear off the line.
That was Palace’s first shot on target this season, but their radar quickly went on the blink again as Christian Benteke and James McArthur both headed wide from inside the box.
Sam Vokes also sent a glancing header narrowly wide of the target in a lively opening period, but the game became scruffier as both sides began to feel the tension.
Burnley lost goalkeeper and captain Tom Heaton after 34 minutes with a suspected dislocated shoulder, as he landed awkwardly after throwing himself over a posse of players to claim a cross.
That handed Nick Pope his Premier League debut, and De Boer prowled the touchline, screaming at his players to test the Clarets stopper with a few crosses.
Palace continued to do most of the pressing, but Jeffrey Schlupp and substitute Levi Lumeka both failed to hit the target - and when Benteke fired straight at Pope’s outstretched leg from a few yards out, you just knew the equaliser wasn’t coming.
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WHAT THEY SAID
Crystal Palace captain Jason Puncheon: "It is very difficult to take, we got punished for one mistake. On another day we would have got at least one point.
"Scott Dann is normally good in front of goal, it is just one of those days. I would like to think the manager is not judged on that performance, we were much improved. But we didn't get the points.
"We definitely feel we are coming together, you saw that today. We had passion and belief."
Burnley goalscorer Chris Wood: "We worked hard, we battled and we luckily came up with the points. I thrive on goals, that's what makes me tick."
Defender James Tarkowski: "It was a good day, I won some headers and blocked some shots. There were a lot of balls coming in and Benteke is a big guy, I'm battered and bruised but we came out on top."
FACTS, STATS, GOALS & LOLS
- Today was Chris Wood sixth league game against the Eagles – all with different clubs (West Brom, Birmingham, Bristol City, Millwall, Leicester and Burnley). He scored in his last league game against them, for Leicester in a 2-2 draw in April 2013.
- Lee Chung-yong made his 100th Premier League appearance today, becoming only the third South Korean player to reach this landmark in the competition after Park Ji-Sung and Ki Sungyueng.
- The record for the fewest number of Premier League matches that a permanent manager has been in charge of a club for in the competition is currently held by Les Reed at Charlton in 2006-07 (7 games).
- Crystal Palace are yet to score a Premier League goal this season as we head in to MD4. Palace have never failed to find the net in their opening four games to a league season in their history.
- Burnley won both Premier League clashes against Palace last season, their first league double over them since the 2001-02 season.
- Crystal Palace haven’t lost three consecutive league games against Burnley since February 1971 – a run of four in a row.
SOCIAL SAYS
DREAM TEAM RATINGS
BURNLEY: Heaton 6 (Pope 36,6) Lowton 7, Tarkowski 8, Mee 7, Ward 7, Gudmundsson, Cork 7, Defour 6 (Westwood, 84,6) Brady 6, Vokes 6(Barnes 64,6) Wood 7.
Subs not used: Walters, Arfield, Long, Bardsley.
PALACE: Hennessey 5, Ward 6, Dann 7, Fosu-Mensah 6, Schlupp 6, Puncheon 6, Cabaye 7, McArthur 6 (Riedewlad,81,5) Lee 5(Lumeka,65,6) Townsend 7, Benteke 6.
Subs not used: Speroni, Van Aarnholt, Milivojevic, Kelly, Kaikai.
STAR MAN: James Tarkowski