West Ham United 5-3 Burnley: Raining Goals At Upton Park

West Ham United 5-3 Burnley: Line-up/Stats
Premier League Fixtures/Results

West Ham United managed to register a 5-3 victory against Burnley at Upton Park to pull themselves further away from the relegation zone.

Goals from Jack Collison, Junior Stanislas, and Guillermo Franco combined with two penalties - one each from Carlton Cole and Luis Jimenez - saw the Hammers cruise to a win on home soil. A late comeback from the visitors saw Steven Fletcher bag a brace, but it all came a little too late as even a third goal from Chris Eagles was not enough to scrape a point.

The visitors were expected to be the ones struggling at the basement of the Premier League, but had turned out to be a revelation so far. But their form away from home has been woeful, and Gianfranco Zola's men would have expected to capitalise on the travellers' poor away record.

The Italian boss made three changes to his squad, as skipper Matthew Upson and Valon Behrami missed the encounter owing to injuries, while Julien Faubert was benched for the battle between the Clarets. Radoslav Kovac, Jonathan Spector and Herita Ilunga were the ones to make the starting line-up in place of the aforementioned three players.

Meanwhile, Owen Coyle showed faith in his men by fielding the same side for a fifth consecutive game.

The early stages of the game showcased some scrappy play, as neither side could hold on to the ball for long enough to mount an attack. But as the game progressed, Burnley began to press hard for a goal as the crowd at Upton Park witnessed a spell of defensive play from the east London club.

After seeing off a few attacks, the hosts grew into the game to take their game into the attacking third, and the results came swiftly, as Collison sent one into the back of the net, after a quick free-kick from Scott Parker.

Things were about to get worse for the team from Turf Moor, as Stanislas got his name on the score sheet  after a superb pass from Franco.

With a two-goal cushion, the home side assumed command of the game and began to dictate play, and an all too familiar atmosphere was seen at the away end.

With only minutes to go before the half-time break, Spector was taken down in the area, and the man in charge pointed to the spot. Cole stepped up to take the penalty and put the game beyond all doubt.

The hosts continued their positive play into the second period, and went up by another goal when a cross from Stanislas saw Franco nod the ball past the goalkeeper from close range.

Everything that went wrong for Burnley was captured in one moment, when 'keeper Brian Jensen took down Jimenez in the area for the referee to point to the spot for a second time. The 25-year-old Chilean took the spot-kick himself, and stroked the ball home to give hand his side an unassailable lead.

With a little over 20 minutes to go, the travellers finally got a consolation goal to calm the fires of fallen pride when a superb cross from Eagles from the left ensured that Fletcher had little to do but to send the ball home. Six minutes later, the pair salvaged a little more pride for their side through a goal that almost a copy of the previous one.

However, by this point the visitors were only playing for pride, and the Hammers were beginning to relax having only a few minutes to see out, before sending the fans home in a happy mood.

With less than a minute to go before the referee brought the game to a halt, Eagles pulled one more back, as he scored from inside the area into the middle of the goal.

As the man in charged brought the curtains down on the game, the two sides walked away holding their heads up high. But it was West Ham who took all three points from the encounter.

Adithya Ananth, Goal.com UK