Burnley 0 v 1 Arsenal (FA Premier League)
The Gunners arrive at Turf Moor today along with the Sky Sports camera’s for the second time in a week. The visitors manager Arsene Wenger is this weekend celebrating twenty years in charge of Arsenal which started in 1996 at Blackburn Rovers.
Sean Dyche selected the same starting eleven that beat Watford on Monday evening to collect their second win of the season. Petr Cech returned for Arsenal following their European game in midweek, but the Gunners had Olivier Giroud, Aaron Ramsey, Per Mertesacker and Danny Welbeck all sidelined.
Arsenal started the stronger of the two sides and had most of the possession during the first-half. However they failed to take advantage of their possession as they struggled to create any real efforts on Tom Heaton’s goal.
The first real effort of goal came when a Theo Wilcott pass found Alexis Sánchez on the right-hand side of the box, but his right footed shot was well blocked by Michael Keane.
On eleven minutes, Mesut Özil ran at the Clarets defence before hitting a left footed shot from the edge of the area which was well saved by Tom Heaton in the centre of the goal.
Four minutes later, Jeff Hendrick wins the ball in the centre of the pitch and plays an excellent defence cutting ball to the left-hand side of the area which is collected by Boyd but his effort to screwed wide of Cech’s left-hand post.
Theo Walcott then went close following an excellent cross field pass by Alexis Sanchez, which Walcott brought down inside the Clarets area only to see his right footed shot go across the six yard box and just wide of Heaton’s right-hand post.
On twenty-one minutes, following a headed pass from Ben Mee the ball fell to Michael Keane on the edge of the area, but his first time shot was blocked by the Arsenal defence.
The rebound fell to Jeff Hendrick who beat Monreal at the edge of the Arsenal area, but his effort was also blocked and well for a Burnley corner. From the resulting corner the ball found Matthew Lowton who tried a through ball, but Sam Vokes is caught offside.
Burnley should have taken the lead on thirty-eight minutes when Matthew Lowton sent over an excellent cross which found Sam Vokes unmarked on the edge of the six yard box, but his header went wide of Petr Cech’s right-hand post, to make the half-time score 0-0.
The Second half started at very quick pace with both sides having good chances in the opening five minutes. Alexis Sánchez started with a right footed effort on forty-nine minutes which was well saved by Tom Heaton.
A minute later, it was Burnley’s on the attack as Jeff Hendrick found Johan Gudmundsson, but his left-footed shot from outside the area was blocked by the Arsenal defence. It was then the turn of Jeff Hendrick who hit a right-footed shot from the edge of the area which went over the Arsenal crossbar.
The game then swung back to Arsenal who went on the attack and on fifty-three minutes as Alex Iwobi received the ball from Alexis Sanchez, but his right-footed shot from the left side of the box went just wide of Heaton’s right-hand post.
Alexis Sanchez was now starting to get more involved in the game and on fifty-eight minutes he found Mesut Özil but his shot was well blocked by Michael Keane.
Burnley then came back on the hour with two efforts in a minute, the first fell to Johan Gudmundsson following a Stephen Ward cross which was met with a Gudmundsson’s header. However Petr Cech tipped the ball over the bar for a corner.
From the resulting Steven Defour corner, Sam Vokes arrived in the middle of the box and sent a header just passed the right-hand post.
On sixty-four minutes, Alex Sanchez again found Mesut Özil but his left footed shot from the left side of the box was high and wide of Tom Heaton’s left-hand post.
Alexis Sanchez then went on another run down the Clarets wing before sending an excellent cross which found Theo Walcott in the area, but his right-footed shot from the right side of the box went passed Heaton’s left-hand side post.
Burnley should have taken the lead on seventy-five minutes, when Michael Keane got his head into a Gudmundsson corner from six yards, but his header come back off the bar.
In the final five minutes it was all Arsenal, with shots at the Burnley goal coming from Theo Walcott (twice), Alexis Sanchez and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain which were all blocked by the Clarets defence who were outstanding
Arsenal took the lead in the ninety-second minute, as Theo Wilcott flicked a cross to the back post were Oxlade-Chamberlin and Koscielny both went for the ball, in the end it was Koscielny’s hand that put the ball passed Heaton into the goal making the final score 1-0.
The Clarets now go into the international break in fourteenth place in the league on seven points. The club will travel to the south coast on Sunday the 16th October 2016, to take on Southampton which will again feature on Sky Sports.
Speaking after the game manager Sean Dyche said, “You have to question the time and whether the corner should be taken, then you have to question whether it’s handball.
There are a number of question marks and it was a poor end to the game, I thought it was over the allotted time, only by six seconds but that’s enough to blow a whistle. The second point is we didn’t defend the corner at all well and we should have done better.
The third point, it comes off their player who is offside and if he is not then Koscielny handball’s it into the goal. It last minute was certainly not a great moment for the referee.
We had some really good chances in the game, we hit the bar and made their keeper work and on the other end we defended well and I felt we did that very well. Organisation and belief is a big thing in this team and that was absolutely on show today.
The defeat doesn’t take the gloss off completely though because it’s a long season and we are improving. Of course, we are human and a full stadium will go away frustrated at that last six seconds and frustrated that we didn’t get a big decision go our way.
But there was a nice feel about the performance, a lot is made of our physicality and energy, but there were moments of quality today and we are going to need that over the rest of this season.
Match Details
Burnley – Heaton, Lowton, Ward, Keane, Mee, Marney, Defour, Hendrick, Gudmundsson, Boyd, Vokes (Subs) Robinson, Flanagan, Kightly, Bamford, Tarkowski, Arfield, O’Neill
Arsenal – Cech, Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal, Xhaka, Cazorla, Walcott, Ozil, Iwobi, Sanchez (Subs) Gibbs, Gabriel, Ospina, Oxlade-Chamberlin, Holding, Elneny, Reine-Adelaide
Goals – (Arsenal) Koscielny (90+2)
Attendance – 20,982
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