Looks like Burnley is off to a terrific start under new coach Scott Parker with the huge 4-1 win v fellow Premier League relegation team Luton Town at Kenilworth Road. The first half was easy to say Burnley with two goals out in front ahead of half-time. Yes, Luton may have found one back a few minutes at the restart thanks to Tanith Chong in the 55th minute.
But Burnley went all the way though to extend their lead with another two goals that put themselves right up within the Top 2 promotion spots alongside Sheffield Wednesday after Round 1 of 46 in the new 2024/25 EFL Championship season.
Yeah, it’s not the same for Burnley when they returned straight to the 2nd tier after their poor Premier League term campaign last season under previous head coach Vincent Kompany (now managing Bayern Munich). But at least retaining most of the crop would help Scott Parker get up and running for the huge task that proved to be the real real where goals were shared amongst the whole team, while playing possession-based attacking football was a huge plus too in the way Burnley wanted to play their soccer from here where they last topped the Championship table under Kompany two seasons ago (2022/23 term).
There’s still a long way to go so Scott can achieve yet another promotion back in the PL but this time it would have to be the 1st place, having achieved 2nd place before with Bournemouth & Play-Offs for Fulham in the past. Other than that, it was good seeing Burnley function as a whole unit with more to come going into this weekend v Cardiff City as it progresses.
Looking at Luton, they simply just couldn’t handle the dominant Burnley side on their first game back in the 2nd tier. They went with five defenders and a narrow front attacking three; Although they had a good moment or two after half-time, it’s been disappointing to hear that the Luton are not up to the task needed to fight off a side that already has Premier League experience. There’s still 45 odd matches left with League 1 champions Portsmouth next up, but time will tell if Luton can at least be challenging Top 6 between now and season’s end come May. A play-offs isn’t bad having been won that path before last season in the 2022/23 term but a straight promotion would mean a lot to this small team under coach Rob Edwards.