FT: Arsenal (1.36) 0 - 0 (0.39) Burnley
What a fitting and ironic way to start my blogging career; a painful draw at home to Burnley, coupled now with an international break to mull everything over, and lastly, the growing pains of getting this site and domain sorted. *Spoiler Alert - it is still not sorted*.
The lineup was pretty much what we all expected... as if Arteta has much of a choice these days:
Starting XI: Ramsdale; White, Holding, Gabriel, KT; Saka, Ødegaard, Sambi, ESR, Martinelli; Laca
Bench: Leno, Tavares, Chambers, Patino, Hutchinson, Oulad-M'Hand, Alebiosu, Biereth, Nketiah
I dread Burnley every time we come up against them. You know what you are gonna get and for me it is incredibly boring. A team full of ogres who claim everything in the air and really have no desire to play attacking football. The stats speak for themselves:
Arsenal : Burnley
Possession 76:24
Shots 20:10
Crosses 34:6
Passes 643:211
I know we expect this style of play every time and I know we have to be better at breaking teams like this down, but it does not make it anymore pleasurable to watch. The last five results: 0-0, 1-0 W, 1-1, 1-0 L, 0-0... BORING! And do not get me started on that whiney cry baby Dyche either. Can the league and all of it's supporters just come together and vote to relegate Burnley once and for all?
Burnley actually started somewhat lively with Ramsdale forced into action early with a shot from McNeil and then a decent take from Mee off the following corner. From there it was pretty much all Arsenal minus a few counter attacks. Controversy came in the 25' when Tierney was caught by Ashley Westwood during a late challenge, which in my opinion the player was nowhere close to getting the ball, resulting in a studded stamp on KT's calf. Cue the "if that was Xhaka, that would be red" argument. David Coote thought a yellow was sufficient enough and we move on... to the 31' when the SAME player (Westwood) elbows Gabriel in the throat. I mean the ref instantly blew for a foul, but no second caution? Westwood was shittin' himself when that whistle went. He knew. I knew. We all knew. Except Coote, mind boggling honestly. Now I am not saying we would have gone on to win with a man up because Burnley would have retreated more than normal and probably would not have even came close to sniffing the halfway line, but it felt a little hard done by.
Our best chance came in the 67' when ESR made a beautiful run around Tarkowski and set Laca up for an open net chance. It happened in slow motion, I was up off the couch when the ball was played in and I saw Laca with nobody in the net... and you guessed it, pain. It felt like it was going to be one of those days - nothing was going our way. The kind of days managers look to their bench to bring on a spark. ESR made way as the only sub used in the 77' for Nketiah, but looking at the bench Arteta really could not do much. Five academy kids, a banged up RB, and a LB in Tavares. We need reinforcements and we needed them yesterday.
Still a long way to go in this campaign and I have not lost hope in cracking into the top 4. After all, what is sport without hope. We go again Feb 2 against Wolves, with hopefully some new weapons at our disposal. Until then, come on you Gunners!
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