Burnley 0-2 Arsenal: Cruise control

Match report – Player ratings – Arteta’s reaction – Highlights

Two goals in a dominant first half were enough for Arsenal to make it five wins in a row in the Premier League against a Burnley side who, while dogged, couldn’t really live with us in that opening 45 minutes.

The team was pretty much as expected, although William Saliba, a pre-game doubt, was fit enough to start. Straight away you could see the pattern, Burnley sat off, refused to press the centre-halves when we were in possession, but reacted really quickly whenever we shifted the ball wide to close down the space out there.

Without the live blog (which serves as my way of recapping the game afterwards), I was making notes on a piece of paper with a pen. Old school. Around the 11′ mark, I wrote ‘Gonna be tough!’, and then a couple of minutes later we got a corner. Declan Rice’s delivery was brilliant, Gabriel knocked it back across goal, and Viktor Gyokeres was there to nod home from close range.

It seems redundant to say it’s just what we needed, but when the opposition are set up like this, it can get frustrating very quickly. It didn’t really change the Burnley approach much, given how early it was, but it helped us relax a bit. And from there we should have put the game out of sight in the first half. There were chances for Bukayo Saka, one tame effort he should have done better with, and one from which Martin Dubravka made a good save. The follow up from Leandro Trossard, who along with Riccardo Calafiori was very lively down the left hand side, was cleared off the line.

The second goal came from another set-piece: a Burnley corner long throw. We got it away, moved it down the right hand side, and the cross-field pass from Gyokeres to Trossard was sensational. One of those that gets better with repeated viewing. The Belgian took it on, stood up a cross, and there was Rice to power home a header to make it 2-0. A brilliant counter-attacking goal, and no less than we deserved. The first half stats tell the story very well.

There was a change at the break with Gyokeres replaced by Mikel Merino after he reported a muscular issue at the break, and with no disrespect to the Spaniard, that was a bit of a shame. I think that first half was the best we’ve seen from the summer signing in an Arsenal shirt, so it would have been nice if he’d been able to continue. Hopefully it’s precautionary more than anything else, and he’s not missing for too long.

I also think it had an impact on our game. We missed his direct running and his hold up/link play yesterday was top class. Merino struggled to make the same impact, and I think that allied with the game-state itself, made the second half fairly uneventful. Burnley had a bit more of the ball and some of the territory as the game wound down, seeking a goal that always seemed pretty unlikely because of Arsenal’s defensive strength.

It wasn’t just the back four either, because I thought the second half performance from Declan Rice was outstanding. The goal, dedicated to his aunt who passed away recently, was his most striking contribution, but whenever there was even a hint of Burnley causing a problem in our half, he seemed be there to make a tackle, nick the ball, and snuff out the danger. It was a complete midfield performance from a man whose consistency is probably just taken for granted a little, so he deserves those props today.

In the end, the game finished without the opposition having a shot on target, although the late free kick which came off the post came close to being that. In four games now, Arsenal have allowed just one attempt on target, and that was basically a non-attempt when Eddie Nketiah was adjudged to have had a go, but in reality David Raya plucked the ball off his head. As I said last week, that’s a statistical anomaly.

Afterwards, Mikel Arteta said:

Very happy. It’s a really tough place to come. They’ve lost once here in 18 months, against Liverpool, with the last kick of the game from a penalty. I think we started the game exceptionally well. I think the first half was one of the best that we’ve played. Scored two goals, generated another two or three big chances and conceded nothing. That was a platform because in the second half, we dropped the standards, especially with the ball and with our intentions to take more risks and play forwards. But again, defensively, we were exceptional until the point of the free-kick. We were a bit lucky that it hit the post and we kept the clean sheet.

What’s clear is that this is an Arsenal side with some real momentum right now. Five wins in a row in the Premier League (hurrah, this means I can go and get a haircut 🤪), and nine in a row in all competitions. A bit like Declan Rice, I don’t think we should take this for granted. I always slightly regret that when we were a great team before, I didn’t stop to appreciate how hard it is to be this consistent, because you feel like it will always be thus. And we know that’s not the case.

The season is long, with lots of ups and downs, and right now we are motoring along beautifully. Yesterday felt like a team in cruise control, ready to go up a gear or two if needed, but thankfully that wasn’t the case. And that’s not to disrespect Burnley, by the way, it’s just a measure of who we are right now and what we’re capable of. I will never, ever get tired of writing ‘Had nothing much to do’ when doing David Raya’s player rating on Arseblog News, but let’s not kid ourselves there won’t be times when things are a little different.

Which is to say, I’m enjoying this a lot, and taking the time to appreciate it, but also keeping my feet on the ground a bit. I’m sure Mikel Arteta’s message to his players will be similar, but right now it’s hard to be anything other than really impressed with what this team can do in a hugely efficient way in all kinds of different contexts.

Right, I’ll leave it there for this morning. Have a great Sunday folks, back tomorrow with more here and an Arsecast Extra. Until then.