Arsenal travel to Turf Moor this afternoon for their Premier League match against Burnley. As the Gunners look to end a run of three straight league draws, the Clarets will aim to make it three league wins on the bounce.
Good day all. Despite Arsenal still not having lost a league game since the turn of year, the improved performances and positive change in attitude, there’s still this sense that the Mikel Arteta era hasn’t really taken off yet.
I suppose this comes from us being closer to the bottom-three than top-four. It sure doesn’t help that we got our feet stuck in the mid-table mud. Still, this season is no write-off.
Going into this weekends fixtures, we were four points off both Man United and Spurs in 5th and 6th-place respectively. With them having a few tricky games coming up in the next game weeks, this is a good chance for us to reel them in, but we have to start turning draws, which are our main source of dropped points, into wins in order to move up the table.
It goes without saying Mikel started his tenure at a very awkward stage, smack in the middle of a very congested festive run, but things will now start to ease off a bit. With today’s trip followed by three straight home matches against Newcastle, Everton and West Ham, the Spaniard will be well aware that a result at Turf Moor could be key to generate momentum heading into last few months of this campaign.
Look, this team is in a really good place and that performance at Chelsea… followed by the young ones blowing Bournemouth away with a laudable first half display at the Vitality… we have grown in stature of late. And with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang now back in the side things can only get better. Who knows, if we string together a few wins in this next few weeks even 4th-placed Chelsea might start to look over their shoulder.
Burnley won’t roll over though. They had a dismal time since Boxing Day with four straight defeats, and heading into back-to-back matches against Leicester, Man United and Arsenal, there were real concerns they could get sucked into the relegation scrap. But boy didn’t they make some look silly; first they came from behind to beat the Foxes at home, before a 2-0 victory over the Red Devils at Old Trafford. With those games now chalked off, Sean Dyche will feel cocksure that his team can make it three league wins in a row.
I doubt it will even matter that they come into this game on the back of a disappointing FA Cup defeat against Norwich. Because for Dyche the silver lining will be that he can put all his focus on trying to get his side finishing this campaign as high as possible.
Despite some nearly moments the Clarets don’t have the best record against the Gunners though. Our 2-1 win in the reverse fixture back in August was the 11th eleventh straight one over them – a run stretching back to start of the last decade. They sure will be hopeful of beating Arsenal for the first time since 2008.
Team news
Arsenal made defensive additions of Pablo Mari and Cédric Soares this past week and there’s no doubt they should only help our cause, however, we should see them after the winter break.
We are also able to call upon the services of Auba and David Luiz, following their suspensions, with Shkodran Mustafi (ankle) and Sead Kolasinac (thigh) being assessed ahead of the game.
Prediction
Burnley got their season back on track with some promising recent results, but Arsenal are showing a different side to them under Arteta. Also Auba will be eager to get back in the goals, ergo we are favourites to grind out a result to get back in the race for a top-six spot.
As always, we need to remain switched on and got to make the most of our chances. Good luck all. COYG!
@LaboGoon
Positively Arsenal 
Just read Ozil hasn’t assisted an EPL away goal for two years, and Lacca hasn’t scored an away goal for a year. Won’t be checking this, but if true, we have a problem.
Apparently our next three league fixtures are Newcastle Everton and West Ham at home, really need to pick things up in these games
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That was dreadful, pure emeryball.
We were lucky to come away with a draw.
There must be some reason why Tereira did not start because we looked more solid when he came on but even with him, there was little if any ball-winning and too many misplaced passes.
Guendouzi has reverted to type, running around a lot and achieving nothing.
I wonder whether we did not have enough players in midfield as the front 3 rarely got a sniff of the ball.
Very disappointing.
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Meh, I wouldn’t be too concerned about that if it wasn’t for our position in the table.
We played Burnley at a bad time – they’ve just beaten ManU and Leicester with their dismal football (lost in the cup but doubt they were up for it).
But we should have been at least 2-0 up after half an hour. Had we scored we could have just picked them off.
I do think Ozil’s fallen away a little after a really strong start under Arteta.
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Dean helping Spurs, again. Looked like another pen to me with Sterling going down on the rebound.
I suspect the PGMOL will do all they can to try and help them , and Utd into the top four should Chelsea or Leicester falter
We are improving and will continue to do so, there are the cups of course, but this will not go down as a vintage season overall.
This club has really shot itself in the foot recently , we need Arteta and hopefully Edu to put a stop to a lot of nonsense that has gone on.
Josh K told us to be excited about this season back in the days of summer, I have no doubt he was sincere in his optimism, hope he is sufficiently hands on these days to look objectively at some of the things that have gone on and rid the club of anyone in post that have been holding it back
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our 13 draws so far this EPL season
Spurs – home – 2-2
Watford – away – 2-2
Man Utd – away – 1-1
Crystal Palace – home – 2-2
Wolves – home – 1-1
Southampton – home – 2-2
Norwich – away – 2-2
Everton – away – 0-0
Bournemouth – away – 1-1
Crystal Palace – away – 1-1
Sheffield Utd – home – 1-1
Chelsea – away – 2-2
Burnley – away – 0-0
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Mikel Arteta was happy with the way we started and ended Sunday’s game at Burnley – but he wasn’t so happy with what happened in between.
Read on for the key quotes from our 0-0 draw.
on whether a draw was a fair result…
Depending on the moment of the game. I think we started really, really well, we could have scored at least two. We dominated the game like we wanted, we got out from their pressure pretty well, we played in the opponents’ half and we controlled the long balls and second balls. After 20 to 25 minutes, we started to concede a lot of unnecessary free-kicks, throw-ins, corner kicks and when that happens you can’t find any continuity in your play and that is not the game we want to play. I was very disappointed with the way we started the second half, the first 15 to 20 minutes we could not control any aspect of the game and we allowed a lot of crosses and second balls inside our box, and at some stages we were lucky not to concede a goal. The positive thing is the reaction in the last 20 minutes, when we started to play again, we had the courage to play and the courage to take the opportunity that they allowed. The space was there because they committed a lot of people forward but we couldn’t finish the actions well enough to score.
on what he needs to do to get a 90-minute performance from the team…
I hope it doesn’t [take long]. There have been different circumstances. I wouldn’t compare what happened today with what happened in the last four games, because for two of them we played with 10 men, which is not easy as well. We need more consistency, with the ball as well. We were fantastic in some moments, but were so sloppy and put ourselves in big trouble with a lot of unnecessary situations that we have to improve, because that gives the opponent an opportunity where there is a real scenario for nothing to happen. We need to improve that a lot.
on being ‘sloppy’ on the ball…
Well, the conditions were difficult, the grass was long. They didn’t put any water on it and obviously that’s not a very helpful thing to play football.
on whether he should have expected the playing conditions considering how long he’s been in England…
Absolutely. I didn’t water the pitch yesterday in the training ground, so I expected it! But that doesn’t make it easier to play. It’s the game, you know, they do really well at what they do. It is a strength, they are are allowed to do it, so we have to adapt.
on if he felt that his players didn’t adapt well enough…
We adapted really well in some moments and in some others it wasn’t the grass, it was the quality and what they do, they do really well and we could not cope with that in the right way.
on if he’s been impressed by the way Mustafi has responded to his error at Chelsea…
Yes. I said to him that he could make a mistake but I like his reaction afterwards and the courage he had to play and make decisions. He’s been training really well and I think you could see today how good he was.
Copyright 2020 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to http://www.arsenal.com as the source.
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Bukayo Saka started strongly against Burnley on Sunday, but he was forced off at half-time.
The 18-year-old went down after 25 minutes and, although he received treatment, he was not moving freely for the remainder of the first half.
Mikel Arteta gave an update on Saka in his press conference:
on what the injury is…
He had a knock in his knee and his hip, so we will see.
on Bukayo being missed in the second half…
He’s been a threat for us and in the way we planned the game, we thought we could exploit them with him and he did really well when he was fit. I think in the last 10/15 minutes he was carrying his injury. We decided to substitute him because he wasn’t feeling good, so tomorrow we will know how he is.
Copyright 2020 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to http://www.arsenal.com as the source.
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MÖS
@MesutOzilStats
·
3h
Mesut Özil made the most ball recoveries, created the most chances, completed the most final third passes, succeeded the most dribbles and made the most interceptions of any Arsenal player when he was on the pitch.
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Fought hard. Could have won. Could have lost. I guess that’s life mid-table.
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Aubameyang had 2 one on one chances, and a free header and failed to score, but somehow its all Mesut Ozil’s fault that we did not win. Laca also had two very good chances, that is five big chances to score and the Burnley goalie barely had a save to make worthy of the name.
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Arsenal’s six fixtures after the mid season break:
Newcastle H
Olympiakos A
Everton H
Olympiakos H
Portsmouth A
West Ham H
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Arsenal have drawn 13 league games so far this season, we have never in a 38 game league season drawn more than 13 games.
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I didn’t see the first half but I saw most of the second. The header auba missed wasn’t that free Ed. It could be in the first half that I didn’t watch.
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Another case of should we be pleased that we didn’t lose and kept a clean sheet as pre Arteta they were realistic objectives but not aspirational in any way.
The interesting dilemma is that the attack on paper should not be a concern but we have been unable to take the scoring chances. Or to be honest to produce many scoring opportunities. Laca is struggling and maybe Mikel is trying help him find form but he really must be benched again as it isn’t working for him or the team.
I listened to the game on the BBC and they have jumped onto this bandwagon that we are going down to easily.
It is unbelievable as the media constantly have to have stick to beat the Arsenal.
The commentary implied that every foul went Arsenals way as I was out of the country was this fact, fiction or somewhere in between?
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It wasn’t awful; it wasn’t particularly encouraging. Main plus for me was probably Bellerin again. Looking much fitter last few games than did in those immediately after comeback. Sharper in attacking areas with it.
Again we made a pretty good start with our football and, as Arteta mentioned, had dangerous look about us last 20 or so. In between, struggled to get any much passing going and really got lucky they didn’t convert from a lot of dangerous crossing situations.
Thought Martinelli had a bit of a back down to earth game, although in fairness his emerging partnership with Saka had been broken up. Auba and Laca also had hard time of it.
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We actually got booted a bit less than I expected (though Laca might disagree if he got more than one of those solid clumps to head from centre backs), but I still found it a heck of a depressing sporting spectacle. Or at least in first half when had sound on, to hear that wretched crowd and lousy commentary.
Was it ever thus, crowd’s like burnley’s, and I somehow didn’t notice for a good twenty years following the sport? Or have they taken natural tendencies, especially on a bad day, or among particular fans, and cranked them up to new levels?
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Saka was taken out of it early on, he had to come off at half time due to that knock, Ref of course did not book the Burnley guy for it.
The old softner aided and abetted by the PGMOL.
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Yes, Ed, even on a relatively good, or ok day for us in terms of hard fouls, and officiating, we lost an extremely talented young player to injury from a foul, which wasn’t punished correctly, by a ref who later showed no leniency when we were in yellow card threshold.
To boot, there was a text-book demonstration of why the offside flag should be kept down on anything even fairly close, and is as a vital rule in all other VAR competitions. The linesman in question actually raised his flag with a sense of urgency, as though it was important to get it up as quickly as possible.
The replay showed it was extremely tight, firmly in the territory where only the technology can determine if on or off. Laca was clean through. Commentators mentioned it was very close, didn’t say anything on subject of whether it is right to flag in those situations, as opposed to playing on, and didn’t mention it again.
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Sadly I feel Laca may have missed currently. Lino just did what the knuckle draggers told him to do. Very late flag total bullshit
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markyb
Doubt I’ll watch again but my impression was he flagged quickly, as though haste was involved once had processed situation. Of course, that could be paranoia, confirmation bias or the like on my part.
Simple truth is, as replay demonstrated easily, he should never have flagged. They are only right to do so when there is truly no prospect of it being onside. Under VAR, the impeccable logic is the game will get back some of the goals it loses elsewhere in these situations, ie when the linesman thinks it’s probably or almost certainly off, keeps flag down, ball goes in, and replay shows it was in fact onside.
pgmol are simply not following the intended usage, nor the undeniable logic behind that usage. However, they have leeway with their way to change this at their whim, ie to keep flag down or raise it on close ones whenever they choose. Simple, shitty, and not dumb of them.
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New post is up.
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