LONDON: Two seasons after Leic­ester City’s improbable title triumph, another football fairytale might be unfolding in the English Premier League.

They are unlikely to emulate Leicester in winning the league, but the players and coach of unfashionable northwest club Burnley are starting to dream of playing in the Champions League next season.

Ashley Barnes drilled home in the 89th minute to snatch a gritty 1-0 win over Stoke City at Turf Moor on Tuesday as Burnley climbed into the top four of England’s top flight for the first time since March 1975.

Supposed candidates for relegation after selling two of their best players in the offseason, Burnley have won nine of their 17 games, conceding just 12 goals, and currently sit above Liverpool, Arsenal, and Tottenham Hotspur with nearly half the season gone.

They’ve already beaten Chelsea away, and drawn at Tottenham and Liverpool.

“Leicester blew the roof off the dreams of football,” Burnley manager Sean Dyche said. “Now, no bold statements from me about that, by the way, I must make that clear. But there’s an open-mindedness to the group.

“If you are going to dream, you have to be prepared to make the dreams come true. That’s what we are trying to do.”

A founding member of the Football League in 1888 and the English champions in 1921 and 1960, Burnley haven’t finished a season higher than sixth place since 1974. A downturn saw the club drop out of the top division for 33 years and, in 1987, almost fall out of the professional leagues.

Burnley are in their second season back in the top flight, having avoided relegation only because of their strong home form. Now they are hard to beat home or away, with Dyche molding a hard-working, well-organised and defensively compact team.

All this after selling defender Michael Keane and striker Andre Gray for a combined $65 million over the summer, helping the club return a profit of about $20 million when most of the rest of the Premier League was spending freely.

“I keep reality because this division will eat you alive,” said Dyche, who was a no-nonsense centreback as a player and is one of the characters of the Premier League with his distinctive gravel-toned voice.

“We’re having a real go at what we can achieve this season. I’m not being negative. I’m a realist. There’s a lot of challenges coming our way. The fans and the town have got to enjoy these times. Why wouldn’t you?”

CHELSEA GIVE CONTE CHEER

Burnley are four points behind third-placed Chelsea as the latest midweek round of Premier League games began with the champions responding perfectly to head coach Antonio Conte’s claim their Premier League title hopes are over with a convincing 3-1 win at Huddersfield Town.

Tiemoue Bakayoko opened the scoring midway through the first half with a deft clipped finish, offering an answer to supporters who have criticised him for a series of poor performances following his July move from Monaco.

Willian headed in a second goal shortly before half-time and Pedro made it three to leave Chelsea provisionally level on points with second-placed Manchester United.

“A good win,” Conte told BT Sport. “From the start we played good football.”

Conte, who has cut an increasingly grumpy figure this season, said after Chelsea’s surprise 1-0 defeat at West Ham United that his side had no chance of catching leaders Manchester City in the title race.

For Chelsea’s fourth game of nine in a packed December, Conte was without his 10-goal top scorer Alvaro Morata because of a bad back, but Eden Hazard shone as a false nine and was ably supported by Willian and Pedro.

“I have decided for this solution,” said the Chelsea manager. “It’s not the first time to play with these type of players — Hazard, Willian, Pedro. I think they are very good technically. They are very fast. They played very well.”

Huddersfield grabbed a late consolation through substitute Laurent Depoitre.

Crystal Palace are out of the relegation zone for the first time this season thanks to a dramatic finale in a 2-1 home win over Watford.

Watford were leading 1-0 when midfielder Tom Cleverley was sent off in the 87th for a second yellow card. The visitors conceded an equaliser to Bakary Sako in the 89th and Palace clinched victory in the second minute of injury time when James McArthur scored from a cross by Wilfried Zaha.

Palace moved to fourth from bottom, continuing their recovery under Roy Hodgson after he took over from the fired Frank De Boer just four games into the season.

Watford took the lead through Daryl Janmaat in the third minute.

“When you win a game in the last minute, it says a lot for the players’ character and it’s great for the fans,” said Hodgson. “We’ve got an awful long way to go, but we are making a fist of it.”

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2017