Alan Shearer pinpoints key to Burnley's brutal battering of 'disgraceful' Sheffield United

The Clarets ended their long wait for a first home win of the season with an emphatic 5-0 thrashing of their relegation rivals.

Vincent Kompany’s men set the tone right from the off, opening the scoring within the opening 15 seconds courtesy of Jay Rodriguez’s diving header.

Further goals were added from Jacob Bruun Larsen, Zeki Amdouni, Luca Koleosho and Josh Brownhill as the Clarets recorded their biggest ever Premier League win.

Analysing Burnley’s display on Match of the Day, Shearer felt Kompany’s side had learned their lessons from previous outings.

“I was really impressed with them, I thought they were fantastic,” he told presenter Gary Lineker. “It was exactly what they needed.

“What I thought they did best was the balance between the football they want to play and also being direct at times and being aggressive at times. That started within the first 10 seconds. To a man I thought they were absolutely superb.

“We take a look at the kick-off, and we’ll talk about Sheffield United in a minute, but Burnley go long, they win the first tackle, they win the second tackle and again they win the third tackle and all of a sudden that sends a message out. It’s a brilliant ball in and a fantastic header.

“How many times have we seen them try to pass out and getting caught on the ball? But they changed it up, not everything was long, they just did it when they had to do it. But when they did do it, they were really positive. They were creating chances, getting balls into the box.

“They were prepared to play football also. They had the possession, they had their little one and two-touches and were still able to do that and did it very well. They absolutely battered Sheffield United and you could see what it meant to them.

“I mentioned Sheffield United – if you’re a team that’s getting beat but you’ve given everything and you’ve had the right attitude – you say ‘okay, fair enough’ and the fans accept that and the manager accepts that. But they were a disgrace.

“From the very first minute, you saw they lost three tackles within three or four seconds and that summed them up.

“As the manager said, too many players let them down, in particular when they got the red card [for Oli McBurnie].”

Fellow pundit Danny Murphy added: “It’s a ridiculous red really, because he gets away with the first yellow card. It could easily have been a red but I think Dara O’Shea does him a favour by not rolling all over the pitch and tried to take it like a man if you like.

“After getting that lucky break, he decides to lead with his arm again. You’re asking for trouble.

“When your side is 2-0 down, you need everyone to pull together but as the manager said, some players have played their way out.”