A horror injury sustained by Burnley’s Ashley Westwood overshadowed what was a very poor performance from the Hammers on Sunday.
The two sides played out a 1-1 draw at the London Stadium but for large parts of the game, the Irons looked remarkably lethargic, and were lucky not to go 2-0 down, when a penalty was conceded and missed with the score at 1-0.
Burnley’s Nick Pope had a great game in goal and made a couple of superb saves, first denying Jarrod Bowen after just 12 minutes.
The Hammers were arguably on top in the first half but Westwood’s injury changed everything.
He attempted to win a tackle with Nikola Vlasic but came off worse and pictures since have showed that he sustained a broken ankle. Vlasic was in tears after seeing the extent of the injury.
Burnley actually rallied afterwards and took the lead, as Wout Weghorst headed home after Jay Rodriguez was denied by the crossbar from a corner.
And it could have been two at half-time when Maxwel Cornet was fouled by Lukasz Fabianski, but he dragged the resulting penalty wide.
Jay Rodriguez then flashed an effort wide early in the second half before, in the 73rd minute, the Hammers levelled, with Tomas Soucek getting on the end of a free-kick and smuggling it home.
West Ham had chances to win it late on, as Antonio was twice sent through on goal, and he was twice denied by Pope, while the goalkeeper also made a genuinely world-class save from an Issa Diop header from six yards.
This will prove a valuable point for Burnley as they bid to stay in the Premier League. For the Hammers, it needs to be all eggs in the Europa League basket. What a shame.
