Arsenal vs Burnley end result, ultimate rating and Premier League match report

As stale as a stalemate can get. As lifeless as a impasse might be.

What conclusions to be garnered from this 0-0 draw between Arsenal and Burnley on Sunday afternoon don’t precisely transfer the dialog alongside an excessive amount of given the poor end result for the previous and higher end result for the latter. Arsenal may nonetheless get into the highest 4. Burnley may nonetheless get relegated.

This felt like a recreation that didn’t must occur – all the time a risk given how little these two have performed during the last month. That being mentioned, it was one Burnley will be thankful for, if solely to make sure their run of consecutive defeats didn’t prolong to a few prolonged during the last 43 days. Arsenal had 76 per cent of the ball, they usually got most of that. They need to have accomplished extra with it, however actually ought to have transformed one in every of their 5 pictures on track. Alexandre Lacazette would end probably the most obvious miss, however not one in every of Arsenal’s gamers will depart with any satisfaction in their very own efficiency.

Burnley’s victory on this corresponding fixture on the Emirates final season was a snapshot of ghosts previous. Chris Wooden led the road in an encounter Arsenal ought to have gained, had it not been for Granit Xhaka’s pink card and Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang’s personal objective. With all three protagonists absent this time round, it was no shock the sport had a wildly completely different really feel.

That is not a Burnley to worry, backside of the league with video games in hand that really feel like magic beans. Xhaka’s suspension and Aubameyang recovering from sickness have been hardly disguised blessings. However actually the away facet felt extra like their previous selves: defending valiantly, pushing the bounds the place they might and rising with a priceless level for his or her survival hopes.

For Arsenal, a comparatively depleted squad was extra evident on the bench with 5 of the 9 substitutes having no Premier League expertise. On paper at the least, they’d sufficient within the beginning XI to get the job accomplished, even with Ben White having to deputise at proper again. And nonetheless stretched for personnel, they regarded vaguer in concepts to unlock suitably sturdy opponents. Mikel Arteta’s facet head into the two-week break with out registering a win in 2022, out of each cup competitions and now giving up extra floor within the race for the highest 4. Three factors right here would have seen them transfer into fourth.

The primary half was not too dissimilar to an episode of Query Time. Each side had their alternative to piss and moan on the different with out both arising with something worthwhile, whether or not resolution or leisure. And by the top, you understood why each these groups have rightly and wrongly restricted themselves to simply two Premier League video games in 2022.

Arsenal have been probably the most partaking, allowed as a lot of the ball as they happy by Sean Dyche who had two banks of 4 in entrance of goalkeeper Nick Pope, with forwards Jay Rodriguez and Matej Vydra, with one objective between them, holding the road relatively than main it. That being mentioned, Burnley threatened first, with Dwight McNeil’s deflected cross requiring a save from Aaron Ramsdale at his close to put up.

What was clear was Arsenal’s greatest efforts got here from merely elevating the tempo. First on 17 minutes when Alexandre Lacazette’s give-and-go with Sambi Lokonga allowed the previous to interrupt from the No10 place, beat two defenders then strike vast of the close to put up. He then had a second crack at breaking the impasse after Pope saved Martin Odegaard’s strike along with his proper foot – Arsenal’s first shot on track.

One other effort off a counter assault, this time Bukayo Saka firing vast from the proper led us into the break. However the overriding feeling throughout it was a way Burnley have been fortunate to nonetheless have eleven on the sphere. Ashley Westwood fouled Kieran Tierney with a late problem that on replay regarded way more of a stamp than at first look. VAR didn’t take a re-evaluation and Westwood was given a warning, although he may have picked up a second yellow when he caught Gabriel Magalhaes with a raised arm in the course of the pitch. Had the Brazilian bought it a bit higher, the guests might need been in additional bother.

Nonetheless, they emerged with a full complement of gamers much more focussed on holding agency. By about an hour, its had grow to be one-way visitors: pink wave after pink wave alternating from both flank.

Odergaard had a set piece sail simply over the bar after Saka had jinked in discipline and gained a free kick on the sting of the field. The Norway worldwide then pinged a nook to the sting of the penalty space for Smith Rowe to attract a sensible save from Pope, albeit having duffed contact on the trouble. Then got here the very best likelihood of recreation on the time: Smith Rowe busting a intestine down the left and squaring for Lacazette, whose exterior of the foot end went past the far put up with the objective at his mercy.

All that, by the best way, got here within the house of eight minutes that hit the Emirates and all inside it like a triple espresso. The moans had given means for encouraging roars, mirrored on the sphere by a pace of motion threatening to depart Burnley behind. Even the managers obtained caught up within the fervour, as Arteta’s protestations of time losing have been dismissed theatrically by Dyche, who was already having his personal backwards and forwards with the house followers within the stands behind his dug out.

That was to be the final of the unwavering encouragement for these in pink, as Burnley followers started shouting their workforce in the direction of that ultimate whistle. Sloppiness polluted Arsenal’s build-up from deep, with the odd pointless throw-in and nook conceded. In amongst these, Gabriel put a free header straight at Pope.

Earlier than the boos greeted the total time whistle, there have been a brace of Burnley counters, each led by the relentless McNeil. Each have been missed by the winger: a shot over the bar then a drained drag vast of the far put up. Both moving into would have been probably the most hellacious smash and seize and definitely greater than Burnley deserved. Nonetheless, they depart London with a way of pleasure that can provide them hope over the following fortnight.