Burnley shot down by the Gunners
Back home after an improved performance at Liverpool a week ago, we were at our worst yesterday when Arsenal visited and went home with all three points having beaten us 5-0.
Most teams visiting Turf Moor this season have picked up wins against us and most of them have fully deserved those wins with West Ham the obvious exception, but as good as Arsenal are, they didn’t really have to be in this fixture against a Burnley team that all but surrendered.
I have to admit to not being too confident ahead of the game. I never am when it’s Arsenal given our record against them in the Premier League, but in football, always expect the unexpected and as it was pointed out to me before the game, they never really turn us over on the Turf and many of their 1-0 wins, as we all know, have come through some poor refereeing decisions.
Vincent Kompany named an unchanged team with just two alterations on the bench from the previous week that saw fit again pair Charlie Taylor and Jóhann Berg Guðmundsson replacing Hjalmar Ekdal and Han-Noah Massengo. Recently, we’ve been moving ever closer to naming a team of players signed by Kompany with Josh Brownhill, who became the fifteenth player to play a hundred Premier League games for us in the recent draw against Fulham, the one exception. It hadn’t registered with me until yesterday afternoon that Brownhill was the only player in this line-up who was with the club when we lifted the Championship title last May. That’s a staggering turnover of players and the mainstays of the promotion team are generally either playing their football elsewhere or are no longer considered for the team.
Arsenal had won at West Ham 6-0 last Sunday so thankfully that one was out of the way, or so I thought. They named a strong team and it wasn’t long before they got themselves in front. It was just too easy as Gabriel Martinelli pulled a ball back for Martin Ødegaard just outside the box. No one made anything like a serious effort to close him down so he just stroked the ball left footed into the bottom corner.
It was far too easy for him but that was to be the pattern of the afternoon. There was no response worthy of mention from Burnley and we were perhaps fortunate to still be only a goal down when referee Jarred Gillett awarded them a penalty for a foul by Lorenz Assignon. It was soft, if a penalty at all, and I am confident that it would not have been given at the other end, not as though we ever got in a position to test that theory all afternoon.
