The Rise of the Clarets: an unoriginal SAF challenge

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August 2017

5th of August 2017
Premier League

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Not off to a very good start in our opening game of the season but I definitely saw some positives in this game and I mean, they are the reigning champions. Up next we've got last year's runner-up, Liverpool. At least we get two of our toughest games out of the way early on! It's definitely going to be a hard game but we just have to perform otherwise we'll find ourselves in a very hard position early on and it could be irreversible.


13th of August 2017
Premier League

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On a positive note, we're scoring! And against very good teams as well. With our upcoming match against Derby, that makes me feel confident. We did deserve to lose this match against Liverpool though and the only thing to really say is, we go again! We're not performing badly, we're just getting a bit unlucky and I think if we can play like that against weaker teams, we could really aim to be well away from the relegation zone.


19th of August 2017
Premier League

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Finally our first win of the season! It wasn't convincing at all but we got 3 points in the bag. I have to say though, as of right we're 3rd in terms of highest net transfer spend with 49 million pounds spent and 6 million in revenue and we're not really getting results to show for that which is a tad worrying. It's still early on in the season but we're going to have to do much better if we want to show that our signings were worth it. At least Nouri proved everyone why he's such a highly rated youngster in this match!


23rd of August 2017
EFL Cup 2nd Round

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Win was definitely deserved, no complaints there! The goal we conceded put us in a dangerous position for the last 15 minutes but again a new signing coming through and scoring the 2nd goal! It's very nice to see and I hope it can continue now. We're through to the EFL Cup 3rd Round which is really nothing to shout about just yet but if we get lucky during the draw then who knows? We might be able to put a nice little cup run together.


27th of August 2017
Premier League

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As I seem to always say nowadays, a draw is better than nothing. Bournemouth played very well and deserved at least a point from this game so I'm not too disappointed. I'm not disappointed especially because Hughes scored! So in 5 matches so far this season, we've scored 6 goals and 4 of them have been from new signings (Stanislas is technically a new signing since his future fee from last season's loan was activated automatically)! So that's all very pleasing and I hope going into next month we can keep up those good results.


Premier League table and upcoming fixtures

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After 4 games, we're 15th. Look, to be fair to us, we played our first two teams against the champions and the runners-up from last year so we can't be disappointed with our start. In our other 2 games we won one and drew one so we're undefeated against teams outside of the usual top 6. It's still very early in the season so I'm sure with a couple of good results we can really edge away from the relegation zone and maybe set new expectations in January to finish a bit higher up the table, perhaps mid-table or something? We'll have to wait and see. We've got 4 pretty tough games in September against the likes of West Ham, Everton and Stoke in the league, as well as a game against Sunderland in the EFL Cup. It should make for an interesting month for sure and let's hope we can get as many points as possible.

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Burnley Player of the Month

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#2 Thomas Meunier
Right-back
5 games, 0 goals, 2 assists
Average rating: 7.28

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Most like the rest of the team, other than in the 2 opening games of the season, Meunier was absolutely fantastic. To think we signed such a quality player for just 2.5 million is beyond me and if he can keep this up all season, we'll definitely have one of the better right-backs in the league! He's also the only player other than Michael Keane who has an average rating higher than a 7 so again, this is very pleasing to see.
 
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September 2017

9th of September 2017
Premier League


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What a comeback! We gave away a very early penalty but a wonderful formation change at half-time got us 2 late goals and all 3 points against a strong West Ham side! It honestly was a very even game and could have gone either so I'm really happy the game edged in our favour. Let's hope we can gather a few more points this month now, starting off with our next game against Everton at home. That home advantage will be very crucial and I'm confident we can get a good result.

16th of September 2017
Premier League

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What a game!!! When I said I thought we could get a good result in our next game after last week's match against West Ham, I wasn't expecting such a good one! We were leading 3-0 at halftime, 2-0 after 8 minutes and won the game 5-1 in the end. I mean, wow! And all the goal scorers were new signings too! To be fair, Hughes, Meunier, Nouri and Zivkovic have been by far the best of our new signings so far and I can only hope that they'll keep performing like that.

20th of September 2017
EFL Cup 3rd Round

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For a minute there I thought we were going to bottle it! Gray started this game as I decided to start him in cup matches and what a game he had! I mean to think we were a goal down until the 45th minute and then managed to win the game 4-3 with 10 men for 25 minutes is a great result so the 3 goals we conceded are just irrelevant. We're now through to the 4th Round, which is better than what the board set as their expectations for us this season in the competition so we're already off to a great start this year!

23rd of September 2017
Premier League

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Just like the West Ham game, it was a very even match. Could've gone either way but went no one's way instead. We get a point which is more than good enough for me and continue our great run of form. In 4 games this month, we managed to win 3 and draw one. I'd say that's a pretty good record for a team favourite to get relegated this season (again).

Premier League table and upcoming fixtures

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Seven games, 7th in the league. Tell you what, if we manage to finish 7th this season after 38 games I'll be incredibly proud of this team. The fact that we managed to turn around our average start into this is amazing already and I can't to see how the lads do next month. We're facing arguably much stronger opponents overall as most teams we're playing are definitely a tier above us but considering how well we did against Everton for example, I wouldn't rule us out just yet. Let's hope we can get the same point return from our 5 games in October and who knows? We could finish in the top half of the table this season!

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Burnley Player of the Month

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#21 Bertrand Traoré
Attacking midfielder
4 games, 2 goals, 6 assists
Average rating: 8.10

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WHAT A MONTH the loanee has had! Honestly, I only picked him up because Chelsea listed him on loan and I thought oh, he'd be a good "super-sub" of sorts, let's sign him. That was about it! But this month, he's made me change my mind completely and think that I need to start him every game because an 8-goal contribution in 4 games is just ridiculous and I can only hope he'll keep this up against Arsenal, Man City, Leicester and the likes of Newcastle and Brighton. ****, let's hope he manages to play this well against every team in the league! And in the leagues under us too!
 
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