Frank de Boer was shoved closer to the exit door as a suicidal back pass from Lee Chung Yong condemned Palace to their fourth straight defeat of the season.
Palace have still not managed a goal let alone a point, and chairman Steve Parish’s decision to bring in De Boer to shake things up is blowing up in his face. Lee’s howler came after just three minutes, as he launched the ball straight into the path of Chris Wood, who followed up his stoppage time equaliser against Tottenham with another clinical finish.
Wood curled the ball past the stranded Wayne Hennessey with a curling first time shot, and De Boer’s chances of finishing this week as Palace boss looked even more remote.
That blunder was the last thing the manager and his team needed, with the pressure already piling up after their dreadful start to the season.
The South Korean international’s brainstorm was even harder to understand as he actually collected the ball in the Burnley half, and ran ten yards towards his own goal before attempting to find Hennessey.
That was surely enough time to spot the lurking Wood, and to realise the back pass was simply not on.
A least Palace reacted positively to that setback. Dann seized onto the loose ball when Burnley failed to clear a corner, and drilled a low shot towards the far corner, only for Matthew Lowton to clear off the line. That was Palace’s first shot on target this season, but their radar quickly went on the blink again as Christian Benteke and James McArthur both headed wide from inside the box.
Sam Vokes also sent a glancing header narrowly wide of the target in a lively opening period, but the game became scruffier as both sides began to feel the tension.
Burnley lost goalkeeper and captain Tom Heaton after 34 minutes with a suspected dislocated shoulder, as he landed awkwardly after throwing himself over a posse of players to claim a cross.
That handed Nick Pope his Premier League debut, and De Boer prowled the touchline, screaming at his players to test the Clarets stopper with a few crosses.
Palace continued to do most of the pressing, but Jeffrey Schlupp and substitute Levi Lumeka both failed to hit the target - and when Benteke fired straight at Pope’s outstretched leg from a few yards out, you just knew the equaliser wasn’t coming.
From The Sun
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