Burnley are awaiting an explanation from the Premier League for why their clash with Watford was postponed at late notice on Wednesday.
The match at Turf Moor was called off less than three hours before it was due to start because of coronavirus cases in the Watford camp, with Burnley not receiving any indication that it might happen until an hour prior to the decision being announced.
It was the second late postponement the club has had in less than three weeks after the meeting with Tottenham last month was called off due to heavy snowfall.
Boss Sean Dyche said: “We didn’t find out until 4.40pm. We hadn’t heard anything from Watford Football Club about the possible situation. And then it came to light that they had Covid cases and the game had to be cancelled. It was very late that’s for sure.”
Burnley will now turn their attention to a scheduled clash with Aston Villa on Saturday – although the midlanders have also had cases in their camp.
Dyche said: “It’s not a big drama, it’s happened, it’s dealt with, the next one comes around very quickly. I’m sure the Premier League will report to us about why it was called off because we haven’t got any of the detail yet but we move forward, it’s as simple as that. What’s done is done.
“It’s about getting an awareness of what is going to make a game called off and what’s not going to make a game be called off.”
Burnley have several current Covid cases themselves, although Dyche revealed only one is a player and they are confident he was isolated quickly enough not to have an impact on the rest of the squad.
This will be Dyche’s first experience of taking on a team managed by Steven Gerrard, and Villa are in good form, with four wins from their last six games.
The Burnley boss said of Gerrard’s impact: “Seemingly they’ve had a change of shape with what they called many years ago the Christmas tree.
“He’s brought energy. You know what it’s like, a new manager goes in, whoever that manager is, and it has an effect of some description. He’s certainly had that.
“I don’t know him so I wouldn’t know what his beliefs in the game are, the way he’s thinking about the game. He obviously had a thirst for it, went through some of the situations with the younger teams at Liverpool and then he’s gone up to Rangers and done a good job there.
“He knows the Premier League, that’s another obvious thing, and it’s how he adapts to the challenge of managing in the Premier League.
“He’s not naive, he knows it’s more than a good start in management, you need a longer period to prove yourself, but he’s started very well. I don’t think anyone’s that surprised by that. The challenge of football is how long you can keep doing it for at what level.”
Burnley remain in the bottom three but have lost only one of their last six games, although four of those have been draws.
They are likely to again be without forwards Maxwel Cornet and Ashley Barnes, midfielder Dale Stephens and defender Connor Roberts.
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