CLARETS AND BLUE
When Scott Parker led Burnley out of the Championship and into the Premier League last season, he did so with a side showcasing the kind of defensive resilience more readily associated with a medieval fortress, although with more expensive haircuts and less reliance on cauldrons of boiling oil. His team lost just two of their 46 matches, were unbeaten at home, kept a quite remarkable 30 clean sheets and notched up a combined total of 20 1-0 wins and scoreless draws. So while attending one of their games was about as exciting as reading an air-fryer instruction manual, they were devastatingly resolute. To nobody’s great surprise, they were immediately installed as the white-hot favourites to go straight back down before a ball had even been kicked.
