BRIGHTON, England (Reuters) – Burnley claimed only their second Premier League win of the season when new signing Wout Weghorst scored one and created another in a 3-0 demolition of Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.
Burnley’s first away victory of the season lifted them off the bottom of the table. They remain in the relegation zone in 19th place with 17 points but manager Sean Dyche was happy to see their efforts finally pay off.
“I thought we deserved it today. It has been coming and I am pleased for the players who have stayed calm,” Dyche said.
“Six points out of five games doesn’t sound a lot but it is when you are playing those teams… The performance levels have been there, not so much the outcomes because we’ve had three draws and a loss, but the performances have been excellent.”
Burnley took the lead when Aaron Lennon released full back Connor Roberts down the right flank and his cut-back was fired home first time by Weghorst, with the Dutch striker’s curling effort squeezing in at the near post.
Brighton’s defence was in disarray with centre back Shane Duffy and goalkeeper Robert Sanchez even arguing over a lack of communication which led to a heated confrontation between the two team mates as tempers flared.
Although Brighton dominated possession, Burnley doubled the lead when the towering Weghorst controlled a long ball, held it up and found Josh Brownhill who pulled the trigger, with the shot taking two deflections to beat the keeper.
Lennon sealed three desperately needed points for Burnley in the 69th minute when he drifted across two defenders, picked up a pass from Jay Rodriguez and found the top corner from the edge of the box for his second goal of the season.
Brighton, meanwhile, are ninth after a second straight defeat dealt their top four ambitions a blow and manager Graham Potter admitted his side was poor.
“From the start I thought Burnley were good and deserved to win the game and we were not at the level to get anything in the Premier League,” Potter said.
“Today we weren’t quite where we need to be… I think Burnley played well and they were a better version of themselves than we were.”
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(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Toby Davis and Pritha Sarkar)
