Lincoln City shocker could be start of tricky patch as Burnley hit the road

Burnley were the shock casualty of last weekend’s Emirates FA Cup, and the timing of their surprise defeat to Lincoln City arguably couldn’t be worse.

It may have been a rare home loss for Sean Dyche’s men, but they must now face four Premier League away games in succession.

As things stand, Burnley are heading for the satisfying and comfortable realms of mid-table, but all bar one of their points have come at Turf Moor.

Partly as a result of Liverpool’s Anfield improvements this summer, three of the Clarets’ first four games came on home soil.

Indeed, five of their opening seven contests were at home.

But while that meant the Clarets could pick up handy points early on, it’s about to come and hit them hard now.

And what makes things even worse is the situations their next four opponents find themselves in.

Three sit in the bottom six, while the other is Liverpool.

The Clarets don’t have a home game until early April, by which time their 10-point margin to the drop zone could have shrunk substantially.

First up this weekend is a trip to Hull, who have been markedly improved under Marco Silva.

The Tigers have had to play each of Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal in succession, and have done mightily well to come away with four points.

What’s more, Hull have lost just one of their last seven home games.

Next up is a trip down to Wales to play in-form Swansea.

The Swans are revitalised under Paul Clement and have lifted themselves clear out of the bottom three.

Over the last six games, only Everton and Manchester City have won more points, with Swansea even beating league leaders Chelsea for points won during that spell.

Anfield and Liverpool awaits after that, and despite their blip since the turn of the year, Jurgen Klopp’s men looked to be back on track against Tottenham.

And for the historians out there, the Clarets haven’t won on the red half of Merseyside since 1974, and haven’t even scored at the famous stadium since 1975.

Finally, a trek east to visit Sunderland concludes this run. And if we’ve learnt anything in recent seasons, it’s that you don’t want to play the Black Cats from March onwards.

Nobody knows how to perform at this stage of the season better than David Moyes’ men, who have already held Tottenham and Liverpool to draws at the Stadium of Light in 2017.

All in all, we reckon that’s a fiendish quartet of away ties at any point of the campaign, let alone in succession.

We make Burnley 16/1 to go down this season, and though it’s to happen, the Turf Moor outfit’s situation may be a tad precarious as April arrives.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing