Opinion: Brighton draw proves Burnley are finding new ways to leave points on the table

After a rare stroke of good fortune went in their favour for Josh Brownhill’s opener 14 minutes from time, for a brief moment Burnley’s survival hopes appeared well and truly ON.

With Nottingham Forest held to a draw at home to Wolves, and Luton Town well beaten by Manchester City, the gap to safety would have been cut to just four points ahead of next weekend’s trip to bottom side Sheffield United.

A nervy ending to the game was to be expected given what is currently on the line at the business end of the season, but what transpired was simply unthinkable.

Just five minutes after Brownhill broke the deadlock, with a similar effort that went against the Clarets last week in the defeat to Everton, Burnley found a way to shoot themselves in the foot in simply spectacular fashion.

Sander Berge, dropping in at centre-back for the second game running following the withdrawal of Hjalmar Ekdal, played a harmless pass back to Arijanet Muric in the Burnley goal.

There was no pressure, no Brighton man had gone to close Muric down, which makes what happens next even worse.

The Kosovan, for some reason, attempted to control the ball with the front of his boot, rather than using his sidestep. By the time he had realised, the ball had trickled underneath his foot and over the goalline to the horror of those standing open-mouthed in the terraces. An audible groan followed.

Mistakes are to be expected, especially for a goalkeeper like Muric who prides himself – and rightfully so – on his brazen approach with the ball at his feet. It’s all about risk-vs-reward.

Assistant Craig Bellamy, standing in on media duty for Vincent Kompany following his touchline ban, is right to leap to the goalkeeper’s defence and point out that it is this confident, bordering on arrogant approach that leads to Burnley creating chances at the other end of the pitch. There can be no doubt Muric has enjoyed a positive impact since replacing James Trafford last month.

But this wasn’t any old mistake, this was a glaring one. This, more than anything, was an example of poor technique.

Costly

We’ll never know if Burnley would have held on for the three points, but – coupled with the error against Everton last week – you could argue that Muric has cost the Clarets four points in the space of just eight days. Burnley really aren’t in the position to be leaving anymore points out there, there’s been far too many already.

By the same token, it’s too harsh to be laying the blame solely at Muric’s feet for Burnley’s failure to beat Brighton.

It must be pointed out that Kompany’s men played well against the Seagulls, their performance merited three points. Than in itself is noteworthy, given the quality of opposition.

Whether it’s too little, too late is still to be determined, but Burnley’s displays have been of a good level in recent weeks. Before this game Kompany suggested Burnley could easily have won six out of their last, which is a bit of a stretch, but they’ve certainly been in all of those games and perhaps deserved more than they got.

There’s only been one defeat in those six games, which is still a step in the right direction. Of course there’s been far too many draws in there too, which won’t quite cut the mustard in this desperate fight against relegation, but it’s still better than what came before.

The Clarets are a much more tactically astute side than they were at the start of the season. They’re able to adapt to the opposition far more effectively.

Against Brighton, they adopted a risky and tiresome man-marking approach that left big gaps in behind that the away side looked to exploit. But it also allowed Burnley get into threatening positions on a regular basis and chances, good ones too, subsequently followed.

This is where Muric wasn’t helped by his teammates because Burnley could easily have been 2-0 up by half-time, but both Jacob Bruun Larsen and David Fofana were guilty of two big misses.

Lack of quality

This will be a major source of frustration for Kompany, whose side progressed through the thirds well but crucially lacked quality in the moments that mattered in the final third. Too often this season that’s been the case.

Whether it’s down to a lack of quality, poor decision-making or hesitance, there can be no doubt Burnley don’t make anywhere near enough of the promising positions they manage to get themselves into.

Nevertheless, the hosts hung in there, kept at it – even when Brighton grabbed the initiative at the start of the second-half – and eventually got their reward relatively late on. But they still couldn’t quite get over the line.

It’s just been one of those seasons, hasn’t it? Where anything that could possibly go wrong has done.

Burnley can’t afford to play the victim card though, too often they’ve been the masters of their own downfall.

They are playing better football though, they are competing far better. You just can’t get away from that nagging feeling that it’s come too late in the day though.

You just never know though, do you? Win at Bramall Lane next week and Forest lose, the gap will be down to three points with four games to play. It’s still a big ask, but Burnley aren’t out of it just yet.

It’s just frustrating that if Burnley do find themselves heading back to the Championship by the slimmest of margins, it could easily have been so different.