Burnley Football Club got their season off to a winning start last night when they beat Huddersfield Town 1-0 at the John Smith's Stadium.

It was a fine first Championship performance by Vincent Kompany's Clarets, who controlled the game for the most part, particularly impressing in the first half.

Ian Maatsen's 18th minute strike was the difference on the scoreline, but another player who greatly influenced the match was midfielder Josh Cullen.

Cullen joined Vincent Kompany's side earlier this month after playing under the Belgian whilst he was in charge at Anderlecht, too.

Here is a look at his display last night in numbers.

Performance in numbers

Watching the game, one thing that became clear was that Cullen is a very important cog in the system Kompany wants to play.

Making himself available to receive the ball from the defence, and then keeping things ticking over as the Clarets looked to progress up the pitch, Cullen's passing statistics were brilliant last night.

The 26-year-old made 82 passes during the match with a 93% passing accuracy.

 

 

These were not just passes sideways and back to the defence, though, with Cullen recording a pass accuracy of 93.4% when it came to his 15 passes into the final third of the pitch.

The midfielder's passes into the penalty area (5) also had a respectable accuracy of 80%, and his through balls (3) all found their intended target, with a 100% through pass accuracy.

All of the above resulted in Cullen providing two shot assists, one of which Connor Roberts ought to have done better from, and an expected assist (xA) rating of 0.33 for the match.

It wasn't just on the ball that Cullen impressed, with him doing his job defensively in the centre of the park, too.

Involved in 13 duels. Cullen won a respectable 69% of these, with a similar success rate (67%) on his six defensive duels.

The Republic of Ireland international also made 12 recoveries throughout the match, seven of which came in the opponents half.

All of the above resulted in Cullen being awarded the man of the match award by broadcasters Sky Sports, and, earned the midfielder an impressive 7.89 match rating on WhoScored.

Burnley fans will be hoping there is plenty more of the above to come this season.