Vincent Kompany insisted Burnley were not getting the rewards their performances deserve after they slumped to a top-flight record sixth straight home defeat to start the season, losing 2-0 to Crystal Palace at Turf Moor.
A mistake from Jordan Beyer allowed Jeffrey Schlupp to put Palace in front in the 22nd minute and, despite dominating the ball and having 16 shots to Palace’s four, Burnley could not find an equaliser before Tyrick Mitchell doubled the visitors’ lead in stoppage time.
Defeat means Burnley are off the bottom of the table on goal difference alone, having already played a third of their home fixtures without reward.
When they suffered relegation in 2021-22, Burnley lost eight home games all season, but could conceivably reach that number before Christmas this time around.
“It’s tough because you want to call out the facts which is a mistake cost us but at the same time you don’t want players to lose their confidence,” Kompany said.
“They’ve worked really hard in every game, today as well, worked really hard behind the scenes, they’re getting the performance for it but to get the rewards of winning you’re just going to have to stick at it.”
Asked how worried he was about the home record, Kompany said his side’s problems extend beyond Turf Moor.
“When you have four points, it’s away and home form,” he said. “It’s not because we’ve got four points I can go and say we’ve got unbelievable away form. It’s tough.
“Like I’ve told you even in the home games we can’t all of a sudden think that this is going to be an easy game but the performance was good, the result was not good.
“I won’t deviate and take myself into anything other than making sure that we stay on plan, we stay ready to get the best out of our team.”
Kompany side’s stormed to promotion last term, losing only once at Turf Moor and lighting up the Championship with their possession-based attacking play.
To say that translating that into the Premier League has been difficult would be an understatement, but Kompany is full of belief that his side can turn things around.
“It’s not in my style to get knocked off the ball,” he said. “You have to have an idea as a manager, whatever that idea is. Whoever says that style is the solution is a fool.
“The solution is good coaching. The solution is better players – I’m not saying we need better players, it’s players getting better or having the best players. These are the foundation.
“Some of those are sometimes solved by having good finances. They are the foundation of what decides results more than anything else.”
The results may not be there for Burnley but Palace boss Roy Hodgson was impressed by their performance and backed Kompany’s side to turn it around.
“Burnley were good and we thought they would be,” he said. “We’ve been watching them in our preparation and we weren’t surprised in the way they played, the quality of their play.
“I thought they defended extremely well and prevented us from taking as much benefit from our winning of the ball as I would have liked to have seen us do, but the good thing is that even during that period we kept our shape, we kept working hard.
“There aren’t going to be too many teams who get away from here with three points, I can tell you that now, not if Burnley keep playing the way they are playing.
“We’ve got to be delighted with our discipline, our determination, our efforts really got us the three points.
“We’ll go back to London happy and I’m sure Burnley will feel very aggrieved they didn’t get more from their performance but if they keep playing like that they will.”
