Clarets host Spurs from 11.30am on Saturday on Sky Sports Premier League
Saturday 23 February 2019 17:09, UK
Burnley duo Ashley Barnes and Chris Wood are hoping their telepathic understanding in attack continues when title-chasing Tottenham visit Turf Moor on Saturday.
Sean Dyche's side head into this weekend's game on a seven-match unbeaten run, a sequence of results that has lifted them out of the Premier League relegation zone and up to 15th in the table.
However, despite coming up against opponents who will be looking to close the gap on leaders Manchester City and Liverpool to just two points with victory this weekend, Burnley are not looking at this game - which is live on Sky Sports Premier League - as a "free hit".
"We never think of them (games against the Big Six) as free hits," said Wood in an exclusive interview with Sky Sports.
"We know if we play to our full ability, we will cause them problems. It is about employing our game plan so that we cause them problems.
"And we did that very effectively against Watford and Man Utd, two tough teams to go away from home to.
"We worked well and on another day, we would have seen them both out and got more positive results.
"But we take the two draws as they kept our unbeaten run going."
Burnley were languishing in the drop zone after a dispiriting 5-1 home loss to Everton on Boxing Day, but only Manchester United have been on a better unbeaten run since that heavy defeat.
All of which means the Clarets are now looking up, not down.
"We started off badly, but manage to get ourselves out of it and drag a few teams in and around us into it and you could end up finishing in the top half if you are lucky," said Barnes.
Part of the reason for Burnley's recent upturn in fortunes has been the recall in goal of club captain Tom Heaton, who made his first Premier League appearance in 476 days in Burnley's 2-0 home win over West Ham on New Year's Eve.
"He is a top-class 'keeper, one of five we have in the squad," said Wood. "But for him to come back in was just a breath of fresh air for him, he needed it and he came in and played positivity.
"And the team just built off him, he is the club captain and been here a number of years. So it just brought a bit of stability to the place."
Another reason, though, has been the form of Burnley's large-and-large combination up front, with Wood and Barnes having scored 15 times between them in their last 16 matches when paired together in attack.
"We work so well together and played together well at Brighton in the past," Barnes said. "We read each other's games and we do the bits that not many teams do.
"The connection is already there and we just work on it in training to improve our games as much as possible. We have had it in the past and we have linked up here and we have just cracked on again."
His New Zealand international strike partner agrees.
"We have the same type of game plan when we play, we are both half decent at playing it too feet and half decent in the air," said Wood.
"We just work well in the sense that we know where the other is going to be and we just seem to link well, and that is why it works."
The Clarets will be hoping that "connection" continues when Spurs visit Lancashire this weekend.
Burnley host Spurs from 11.30am on Saturday on Sky Sports Premier League
