Collins makes his mark on Premier League debut
When captain Ben Mee was ruled out with an ankle injury for last Saturday’s home game against Norwich City, it meant a league debut and a first ever Premier League appearance for summer signing Nathan Collins.
Playing alongside James Tarkowski in the centre of defence, he ensured we kept our first clean sheet in the Premier League since the 2-0 win at Fulham in May and his overall performance, on a disappointing day for the Clarets, has won him both the man of the match and the player ratings.
He polled 32% of the vote for the man of the match, a clear lead over midfielder Josh Brownhill, who enjoyed a particularly good second half, who had a 23% share. Fellow defender Tarkowski was third with 16% while Matěj Vydra, despite coming off injured after half an hour, was fourth with 10% of the vote.
The top three also occupied the top three in the ratings, although not in the same order. Collins was again the winner with a rating of 6.88 out of 10 but it was Tarkowski in second place with 6.75 while Brownhill secured third place with a rating of 6.75. This time it was Dwight McNeil who secured fourth place with a rating of 6.25 out of 10.
It’s given Collins the maximum ten points towards the Up the Clarets Player of the Year with both Brownhill and Tarkowski winning five points and there was one point each for McNeil and Vydra.
That one point for McNeil has kept him on the top of the table. He’s now on 32 points with Tarkowski, our player of the year for the last three seasons, now just one point behind him. No players are within striking distance of them with Maxwel Cornet and Charlie Taylor sharing third place, both on 19 points.
With the international break, our next game, and therefore the next vote, will follow our away game at Manchester City a week on Saturday.
The Norwich result and the current table are below.
MAN OF THE MATCH
32% – Nathan Collins
23% – Josh Brownhill
16% – James Tarkowski
10% – Matěj Vydra
9% – Dwight McNeil
3% – Ashley Westwood
3% – Matt Lowton
2% – Aaron Lennon
2% – Nick Pope & Charlie Taylor
1% – Jóhann Berg Guðmundsson
0% – Jay Rodriguez & Chris Wood
PLAYER RATINGS
6.88 – Nathan Collins
6.79 – James Tarkowski
6.75 – Josh Brownhill
6.25 – Dwight McNeil
6.23 – Matěj Vydra
6.13 – Nick Pope
5.88 – Ashley Westwood
5.56 – Jóhann Berg Guðmundsson
5.38 – Matt Lowton
5.13 – Jay Rodriguez & Charlie Taylor
5.00 – Chris Wood
4.93 – Aaron Lennon
UP THE CLARETS PLAYER OF THE YEAR
32: Dwight McNeil
31: James Tarkowski
19: Maxwel Cornet & Charlie Taylor
13: Nathan Collins
12: Josh Brownhill & Ben Mee
10: Jóhann Berg Guðmundsson, Wayne Hennessey, Jay Rodriguez & Matěj Vydra
9: Matt Lowton
8: Aaron Lennon
4: Chris Wood
3: Nick Pope
2: Jack Cork
1: Ashley Westwood
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