BURNLEY, England (Reuters) -Burnley produced a dazzling display to crush 10-man Sheffield United 5-0 at Turf Moor on Saturday and secure their first home points of the Premier League season.
Burnley had started the game bottom of the table and were the only team in the top four divisions without a home point, but victory moved them up two places to 18th as United dropped to 19th.
Burnley and United were involved in a title race in last season’s Championship, but as it was in that campaign, Vincent Kompany’s side possessed more quality and dominated from start to finish.
Just 20 seconds into the game and with fans still settling in their seats, Burnley snatched an early lead as United failed to deal with Charlie Taylor’s cross and Jay Rodriguez directed a glancing header into the back of the net.
Rodriguez’s goal made him the first player in Premier League history to score in the opening 15 seconds of two separate matches, adding to his strike for Southampton in 2013 against Chelsea.
Jacob Bruun Larsen doubled Burnley’s advantage in the 29th minute after racing on to Dara O’Shea’s long ball, which he controlled with an excellent touch before dispatching a tidy finish past Wes Foderingham.
United’s frustration at their dreadful performance shone through when Oli McBurnie was shown a yellow card for swinging his elbow into O’Shea’s face and was sent off for again elbowing O’Shea before halftime.
Manager Paul Heckingbottom made a triple change at the interval, bringing on Benie Traore, William Osula and James McAtee, but the substitutions changed little as Burnley proved even more dominant with a man advantage.
United’s best chance came in the 68th minute, when Gustavo Hamer went on a mazy run and played Osula through on goal, but Burnley keeper James Trafford was quick off his line to make the save.
If that chance instilled any hope of a comeback in the travelling section of fans, it was quickly snuffed out as Zeki Amdouni and Luca Koleosho scored in quick succession to complete the rout for Burnley.
Captain Josh Brownley added the icing on the cake in the 80th minute with an emphatic side-footed finish from the edge of the area which sealed the Lancashire club’s biggest-ever Premier League win.
The win was also the joint-biggest by a team who were bottom of the table, matching Sheffield Wednesday’s 5-0 hammering of Bolton Wanderers in 1997.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond)
