Harry Wilson had a goal and two assists as Fulham handed former boss Scott Parker and his Burnley a 3-2 defeat at Turf Moor on Saturday.
Wilson’s fifth goal of the season came after cuing up markers for Calvin Bassey and Emile Smith Rowe, as Fulham moved into 13th on the Premier League table with 20 points.
WATCH — Burnley v Fulham full match replay
Lesley Ugochukwu and Oliver Sonne scored for the Clarets, who are in the middle of a historically-bad run with six-straight top-flight losses.
Burnley’s 10 points have them in 19th place, five points back of 17th-place Nottingham Forest.
Burnley at risk of breaking
Teams check a lot of boxes on the way to fulfill or fail their season hopes, and Burnley boss Scott Parker saw his team check the “How did we lose that?” option on this season’s list. The Clarets won the possession battle at 53% percent, out-attempting their guests 16-6 and rang up a nearly-absurd (for a 19th-place team) five big chances that helped deliver an expected goals total of 2.52. And they lost 3-2, leaving the field to boos from the Turf Moor faithful. The crowd was probably bewildered as well. The defending was quite poor on at least two of Fulham’s goals and Martin Dubravka didn’t rescue his backs. Bernd Leno was good between the sticks for the Cottagers, too. But these three points dropped feel like a tough pill to swallow because Burnley know that they’re going to lose games to big name clubs away from nTurf Moor. Taking a loss when they are superior to a fellow bottom-half side at home has a real sting to it. Scott Parker’s gotta get this team to rebound mentally so they can produce again physically.
What’s next?
Burnley are off to Bournemouth at 10am ET Saturday, while Fulham have two matches this week: a Wednesday visit to Newcastle for an FA Cup quarterfinal before a 3pm visit from Nottingham Forest on Monday, December 22.
Burnley vs Fulham final score: 2-3
Emile Smith Rowe 9', Lesley Ugochukwu 22', Calvin Bassey 30', Harry Wilson 58', Oliver Sonne 86'
Oliver Sonne goal — Burnley 2-3 Fulham
Calvin Bassey can only half-divert Hartman’s cross from the left, and Sonne settles it with his chest to slot inside the far post and get Burnley back within one in the 86th minute.
Burnley subs
Lyle Foster and Florentino are off for Marcus Edwards and Ziann Flemming.
Harry Wilson goal — Burnley 1-3 Fulham
It’s his day.
Smith Rowe leads a charge down the middle and moves it out wide to Samu Chukwueze, who opts against Antonee Robinson’s overlapping run and sweeps the ball to the other side of the 18.
Wilson settles it, eyes up the far corner and drops the ball into it.
Halftime — Burnley 1-2 Fulham
Neutrals will have loved a lot about the 12-shot, 2.95 combined expected goal first half.
Burnley have probably been a bit better, as Ugochukwu looks electric, but Fulham have twice scored off corner kick routines (and their reloads).
Leno with a brilliant save
Ugochukwu takes down a cross in style, the bounds a low hard shot for the far corner only to be undone by the diving Leno.
Calvin Bassey goal — Burnley 1-2 Fulham
The Cottagers’ big Nigerian back delivers a second goal.
Harry Wilson’s corner is blocked but he darts back onside and reaches the reloaded effort.
His cross finds Calvin Bassey, who created space with a shoulder to Axel Tuanzebe. It’s a close-range header for 2-1.
Wilson with two assists.
Lesley Ugochukwu goal — Burnley 1-1 Fulham
Really smart finish as Ugochukwu gets his goal with this chance.
Josh Cullen finds the French-born midfielder in stride and Ugochukwu surprises by snapping his first touch inside the nfar post.
Fun goal.
Burnley nearly answer!
Lesley Ugochukwu gets into the box and would be level at one if not for a surging block from Bernd Leno.
Emile Smith Rowe goal — Burnley 0-1 Fulham
Quilindschy Hartman has been quite good for Burnley his season but he was very poor here.
Harry Wilson sweeps in a low corner kick and Hartman simply has to knock it out of play for another corner.
Instead he misses the ball and Smith Rowe simply needs to direct it toward the gaping goal mouth.
Burnley lineup
Dubravka, Hartman, Esteve, Tuanzebe, Ekdal, Ugochukwu, Bruun Larsen, Florentino, Cullen, Foster, Broja
Fulham lineup
Leno, Tete, Andersen, Bassey, Robinson, Berge, Iwobi, Wilson, Smith Rowe, Chukwueze, Raul
Burnley vs Fulham preview
Parker played for Fulham from 2013-17 and was their manager from 2019-2021, getting the Cottagers promoted to the Premier League in 2020. He’s since boosted Bournemouth and Burnley last season to the top flight.
He’ll have little time to truly enjoy the occasion if things go poorly, as Burnley have lost six successive Premier League matches after starting with an acceptable 3W-1D-5L record. And the losses have not told the same tale. There are three home losses without a goal scored, but they’ve also taken West Ham to the limit in a 3-2 loss and fought through a red card last week before falling 2-1 at Newcastle.
Fulham enter in no great shakes either, though. It’s been fits, starts, and streaks for Marco Silva this season. They’ve twice won back-to-back games but followed the first pair with four-straight losses and have fallen 5-4 to Man City and 2-1 to Crystal Palace after the second two-win run.
On paper Fulham are favorites to get all three points, and Silva knows he’s got a run of Festive Fixtures which give the Cottagers a chance to move up the table; Nottingham Forest visits next, followed by games at West Ham and Crystal Palace.
Burnley team news, focus
OUT: Axel Tuanzebe (unspecified), Lucas Pires (suspension), Kyle Walker (suspension), Zeki Amdouni (knee), Jordan Beyer (knee), Connor Roberts (knee), Bashir Humphreys (muscular)
Fulham team news, focus
OUT: Ryan Sessegnon (hamstring), Rodrigo Muniz (thigh) | QUESTIONABLE: Antonee Robinson (knee)
Burnley v Fulham prediction
Injuries and suspensions have hit Burnley hard at the moment, and the club is relying on veteran goalkeeper Martin Dubravka to keep them in games. Fulham do not have a powerful attack but have been improved of late. Burnley 1-2 Fulham.
How to watch Burnley v Fulham live, stream link and start time
Kick off time: 12:30pm ET Saturday
Venue: Turf Moor — Lancashire
TV Channel: NBC
Streaming: Watch live on NBC.com
