EFL Championship leaders Burnley will play host to Birmingham City in their race for promotion. Vincent Kompany has transformed the team and is leading a new Burnley side to promotion back to the Premier League. Birmingham City are sitting in the bottom half of the table and they will be looking to move up in the league table.
Burnley sits at the top of the table with 13 wins, eight draws, and two losses. They have managed to score 46 goals with an average xG rate of 1.38. The defence has conceded 24 goals with an average xGA rate of 1.18.
Birmingham City sits 14th in the league table. They have won eight, drawn eight, and lost seven matches this season. The Blues have scored 26 goals with an average xG rate of 1.15 and conceded 22 with an xGA rate of 1.29. We now look at some of the stats of both teams that could predict the outcome of the match.
Burnley have been the top performers in the league this season. The above viz shows the percentile rank of the team in comparison to other teams as well as each other. Burnley like to keep hold of the ball and averages around 64% possession per match. They are ranked high for attempting key passes and scoring goals. Birmingham City, on the other hand, have a decent percentile rank in most of the departments. They like to press high and have one of the highest percentile ranks in that department.
The unbeaten home run
Burnley are the only team in the division who are yet to lose a match at home. The Clarets have won eight and drawn the other four games. They have scored 26 goals at home with an xG rate of 1.72 and conceded 11 with an xGA of 1.03.
The Clarets take 11.9 shots per match and have an accuracy rate of 42%. These shots usually come from the average 30.09 positional attacks and 1.65 counterattacks that they create during the match. At home, Burnley takes 13.58 shots with a 41.8% accuracy rate. They create 32.83 positional attacks and 1.67 counterattacks per match.
Birmingham’s away record
Birmingham City are not a very attack-minded side. They create 26.6 positional attacks and 1.65 counterattacks per match. From these attacks, the team attempts 9.78 shots and has an accuracy rate of 31.1%. On their travels, the positional attacks go down to 24.7 positional attacks and 2.09 counterattacks. The shot average is 9.09 shots with a 31% accuracy rate. This shows that the visitors would focus more on hitting the counters.
Birmingham City have only conceded ten goals in 11 matches on their travels. They conceded the second-lowest number of goals in the division. The above viz shows the defensive territory of the team. They have won 61.4% of defensive duels and 46.2% of aerial duels. The team conceded most of the free kicks in the attacking half. Birmingham City’s defence will look to be at their best in this match.
Key Players
Benson Manuel has come to life at Burnley. He has scored eight goals and five came in the last two months. He attacks from the right side and carries the highest threat for his team. Burnley will look for more contributions in the coming match.
Team news
Burnley have no new injury issues in the team.
Scott Hogan is likely to return to the team.
Burnley will be the favourites to take three points away from this match. They are on a five-match winning streak and will look to make it six wins in six matches.
Visuals via TFA data viz engine
