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As the team news came through we found out that Gabriel Martinelli had shown enough to Mikel Arteta to keep his place in the team. Perhaps surprisingly, Lacazette also kept his place and we started with him up top and Gabi on the right flank, Auba on the left and Ozil at 10. Mustafi started and Torreira was left on the bench.

In the second minute Mustafi played a good ball out of defence to Ozil, who turned infield and spread the play wide to Auba. His cross was met by Lacazette whose header went wide. If he were in better form it was a chance he would expect to bury. We had started the brighter side and in the fourteenth minute Luiz played a lovely ball over the top to Aubameyang who had timed his diagonal run from wide left towards goal expertly. He control was good but his shot was shanked wide. We should have been two goals ahead. Would we rue these missed chances?

Almost immediately after this Burnley began to grow into the game. They pressed better as we struggled to play out from the back and we misplaced too many passes in midfield, with Ozil, Laca, Xhaka and especially Guendouzi guilty of careless moments. Burnley’s play was the same as always- all long balls and crosses from wide. Their first chance was a long range shot from Rodriguez just shy of twenty minutes in. Unlike us, they had now registered a shot on target.

Saka was struggling with a knee injury and his reduced mobility robbed us of an attacking outlet that had, in truth, looked less effective with Aubameyang ahead of him than it has recently done with Martinelli. He struggled on to half time but if we were not already playing our third choice left back we would surely have subbed him off. Mustafi won a good header which the Burnley fans thought was a foul. They began singing ‘Same Old Arsenal’. I would have thought they appreciated a brave header but apparently that’s only from one side. Mind you, as their team hoofed long balls and crosses from any and all conceivable angles they repeatedly broke out into chants of ‘anti-football’ in reference to a David Luiz comment. If it was meant ironically then it missed its mark. As they jeered and booed our injured players I doubt I was the only one thinking they are not my favourite set of fans.

Auba was played through by a Xhaka ball that was a carbon copy of the one from Luiz. His control was not so good and he was too close to the keeper when he shot, although it apparently counted as our first shot on target. Ozil had started well but began to find less space and fade out of the game. We lost all control in midfield and were chasing around with energy but without much knowhow. Gabi was finding it hard to get into the game and Lacazette even more so. Defensively we looked less and less confident dealing with the aerial bombardment and there were a few hairy moments in our box when Burnley applied a lot of pressure and could easily have seen something find our goal or fall kindly for one of their players. Rodriguez in particular got a tiny flick on a knockdown that Leno gratefully clasped to his chest. Had he got a little more on it the keeper would have been stranded. Halftime came as a relief to us, the match had swung firmly towards the home team.

For the second half Saka was replaced by Torreira and Xhaka slotted in at left-back. Left-back has become such an important position for us since  Arteta took over that Saka’s injury cost us dearly, Xhaka’s qualities will never run to bombing up and down the flank, making overlaps and crossing from the byline. We could not shift our play the to the other side, Hector not able to overlap, leaving us with big problems getting the ball from the base of midfield into wide areas and on into the box.

Burnley started the second period more brightly than us without creating any clear cut chances. In the 57th minute Torreira found himself joining Xhaka and Ozil on a yellow card and this reflected the fact that they were still the team applying all the pressure. Soon afterwards Hendrick beat Xhaka in the air but the attentions of our makeshift fullback were enough to prevent him burying a good chance.

We began to find our way back into the game and looked more assured. Martinelli and Aubameyang swapped sides which immediately looked more comfortable for Gabi without reducing the threat Auba posed. We had a spell where we were back on top, although we were not creating chances. I was hoping we would take off Lacazette, who worked hard but had a tough game, bring on Pepe on the right and put Auba up top. The way Burnley defend in banks means they leave big spaces for a pacy player who has beaten his man, so I thought Pepe would be perfect for this game, but my wish was not granted and both our wide men struggled to go past the Burnley fullbacks who had good games.

Hector cut inside and hit a left foot shot over the bar. For just a moment we were dreaming of a repeat of his recent strike at Chelsea. Then Lacazette fashioned a wonderful cross which Auba should have scored from. For a moment I thought he had but it went the wrong side of the post. Then came the chance of the match. They played in a high and loopy cross which Leno might have come for but he left it and so did the rest of our team. Auba showed his defensive weakness on the right, letting their number 11 win the knockdown unchallenged only for Hendrick to volley it into the bar. It rebounded down onto the goal line but the technology clearly showed that our initial despair was unwarranted, the whole ball had not crossed the line. We had well and truly got away with one.

Could this be a lucky moment that we could capitalise on, as has happened so often at Burnley in recent years? Unfortunately not. Laca was belatedly brought off for Eddie Nketiah to get four minutes of play. It was strange that he was not brought on sooner. There were no more clear chances and the match ended with both teams fighting hard but lacking cutting edge.

Burnley were tough and physical but they were not dirty today. Mikel Arteta had said before the game that he had no problem with their usual tactics and, unlike Stoke teams I remember, they executed them robustly but within the laws of the game. We stood up fairly well to what we knew was coming. I have the feeling that under our former coach we would have lost today. However, we were not clinical with our chances and after the Saka injury left us imbalanced I thought the boss could have moved more swiftly and decisively to change the patterns of our play. He is still the right man and he is learning his team and his job. His players all worked hard for him and all of them had decent games without anyone being particularly good or bad and a draw was a fair result. As he gets a lot of (deserved) stick on his bad days I will say that Mustafi had an unexpectedly good game, just to leave us on a high note.

I’ll make it two high notes… we don’t have to go back there for another year.

I’m with John Cooper Clarke about that place.  

50 Drinks to “I’ll Tell You Now and I’ll Tell You Firmly…”

  1. 1
    Esso says:

    Drink!

  2. 2
    bathgooner says:

    Well in Esso. Thecond!

  3. 3
    Esso says:

    Cheers GSD! Good and fair review. Maybe too fair. They weren’t too dirty today but are fully paid up members of ‘cunt corridor’? So fuck ’em.

  4. 4
    Countryman100 says:

    That’s a top report GSD. I agree with all of it.

    Thirteen games to go. 10th. Five points off fifth. Seven points off relegation. Two weeks off. Barcodes up next.

    Time for a period of reflection.

  5. 5
    bathgooner says:

    Excellent and astonishingly speedy report GSD.

    Much as I saw the game and I think your analysis of the reason for our first half decline being Saka’s injury is spot on. I do think you are over fair to a team that used most of the known black arts throughout as I have listed in the ‘other place’. I also include the two deliberate assaults on Sako that of course went without a card and conclude that Dyche had made the same conclusion as you about our most effective attacking flank and its most effective creator and deliberately targetted him for a reducer. A similar but less destructive strategy was taken with Gabigol.

    It was Rodriguez who fortunately blasted the nailed on chance onto the cross bar.

  6. 6
    Pangloss says:

    Good stuff GSD. A word of warning however – I don’t think the fans will stand for this level of balance, fairness and good old-fashioned common sense for ever.

    Another two weeks for Mikel to work with the team. I am confident he will use the time wisely and well. However, after the past three or four years I have (much) less faith in the fans’ patience than I once did.

    COYG

  7. 7
    countryman100 says:

    Make that six points off fifth.

  8. 8
    TTG says:

    Very comprehensive, fair and interesting report GSD. I agree re Saka and I agree that Burnley didn’t overstep the bounds of reasonable behaviour – but they did tread on the edge, but then that is what they do and what Sean Dyche is all about.
    This is such a disappointing and unenjoyable season . The only consolation is that we are not losing games I suspect we would have lost with Emery in charge. But we are not winning any of them either. It isn’t as good a squad as I suspected it was at the start of the season and some players are having poor seasons notably Lacazette who can’t buy a goal away from home. Regular observers will know my reservations about Xhaka and how his lack of mobility restricts our ability to build quickly from the back. After Saka went off we were hugely handicapped because it is hard to imagine a left back with polar opposite skills to Saka than Xhaka! But he committed to the team effort and didn’t let us down . We are defending better as a team and you are right that Mustafi played solidly .
    I note Pangloss’s reservations about the ‘fans’, many of whom are idiots whose tweets suit the agendas of websites that like to post controversial remarks. There are several suggesting that ‘ Arteta is worse than Emery ‘ which beggars belief but shows the attention span and lack of understanding of many modern fans. Arteta has been handed a shit sandwich and I think in most ways he has done a very solid job. We’ve dropped points at home which we shouldn’t have but we’ve gained several away from home we wouldn’t have previously. But we face a lot of work in the summer to make this team competitive. Our main focus this season has to be the Europa League – as long as we can stay up !

  9. 9
    bt8 says:

    A match report of the highest quality, GSD. Now it’s 2 weeks with the oil sheiks to see if we can find a richer vein of form, or a firmer form of riches.

  10. 10
    scruzgooner says:

    thanks, gsd, well done. we saw pretty much the same game. what pissed me off most, besides our faffing about with good chances, was dyche and his pustulent mouth oozing at the 4th official in constant complaint. that we earned more yellows is a bit of a joke.

    we’re getting better at managing under pressure, especially extended pressure. those gutting goals we gave up in losses against brighton or sheffield u aren’t being given up under mikel, and we look off the pace yet, not lost as we did.

    i have hopes of europe, still, earned through place in the table.

  11. 11
    Uplympian says:

    Thanks for a very thorough and express report GSD. Unfortunately ( or maybe fortunately) I was unable to watch this afternoons proceedings. After reading your’s and other’s take on the match I don’t think I’ll be desperate to catch up watching it in full later.

    My fears of late is our inability to create many goal scoring chances – our midfield is not firing on all cylinders as far as this aspect of the game is concerned. This is not helped by our strikers often not taking up the few opportunities that come their way. One of the few pluses of late is the tactic of pushing Saka further up the field using his attacking skills to great effect ( with Xhaka filling in the space left vacant ). This has now been observed by opposing coaches and Burnley had no compunction to apply “reducers” on him to initially minimise his effectiveness and sadly ( for us ) eventually leading to his withdrawal through injury for the second half.
    There is still much for the new coach to work on – the entire squad needs de-emerysing and as well in some cases replacing. There is much to look forward to in the watching the progress being made over the remainder of the season. Some wins would come in handy nonetheless.

  12. 12
  13. 13
    TTG says:

    You’ve coined the perfect term Uply. This group of players need ‘de-emerysing ‘ . So confused were they for the last few months that we haven’t got a part of the team that is working properly . The defence has improved markedly. Luiz and yes seriously, Mustafi , are playing with much more solidity and certainty. I still get kittens watching us ‘ building’ from the back and we pass back far too much losing momentum ( we are not alone there, most teams seem to) and this is the area which has shown real improvement but we don’t dominate attacks in the way good defences do , the midfield as you say Uply lacks creativity. I think it is because unlike under Wenger we don’t move the ball quickly or aggressively enough and because of this we don’t make many chances. Perversely , we had some really good opportunities today but missed them all. Watching us at Palace we were completely on top in the first half , scored and then scarcely created anything else. We got two at Bournemouth but we saw the same effect as at Palace and again today where we dropped off physically in the second half and failed to score. Bizarrely our only recent second half performance of note away was against Chelsea where the circumstances prompted a heroic comeback .
    This group is nowhere near the one I think Arteta wants to work with but he is getting a response from them and that’s greatly to his credit .

  14. 14
    bathgooner says:

    Uply @11, neologism of the year, sir. A glass of HP18 on the bar with a drop of water.

  15. 15
    Uplympian says:

    Cheers Bath, I’m not sure it’s worthy of such an honour but it would be foolish in the extreme to turn down a most prized bevvy.

  16. 16
    North Bank Ned says:

    Top match report, GSD. I love your headline…

    We saw much the same match. I, too, would have taken Saka off earlier. His hip injury was restricting his mobility, and we could have reorganised with 11 fit players even if putting Xhaka at left-back meant an end to our left-wing marauding. I like your thinking about switching Lacazette for Pepe, and moving Auba up top. At some point, Laca is going to rediscover his shooting boots. Once he does, some team is going to be on the receiving end of a hammering.

    Props to Mustafi, who had another good game.

  17. 17
    OsakaMatt says:

    Cracking report GSD.
    To be honest the game,
    like my dinner, was a bore.
    However, a point is a point
    I suppose.

  18. 18
    OsakaMatt says:

    A tip of the hat to Xhaka and
    Mustafi – both did fine in
    difficult circumstances.

  19. 19
    OsakaMatt says:

    Ned, GSD.
    Thanks it was a great dinner
    🦐🐠🐽
    The hangover after the drink
    mix plus 2 hours of single malt
    supping is less great 😓

  20. 20
    OsakaMatt says:

    A goal and an assist for ESR
    yesterday.

  21. 21
    North Bank Ned says:

    Too late for the Ukon no Chikara, so it will have to be the Pocari Sweat, OM.

  22. 22
    Gunnersaurus Stunt Double says:

    Cheers Holics.

    I think Arteta is trying to get rid of any blaming culture and get the players to take full responsibility for their performances and results. I’m on board with that, so I thought I’d do my match report in the same spirit. We used to have teams that were a joy to watch yet would still head to Bolton away and give as good as we got and take all the points. That’s what Arteta is aiming for and it’s been a while since we had anyone at the helm whose sights were set so high and who I believe can get us there.

    I’ll give Burnley more pelters when our own affairs are in order. I was thinking of Bolton and Stoke as I watched the match, and Burnley were not in their league yesterday. I also thought the team were less awful than Dyche and their support, both of which were shameful.

  23. 23
    Gunnersaurus Stunt Double says:

    Ned @16.

    Thanks for the inspiration!

  24. 24
    Gunnersaurus Stunt Double says:

    There was one moment when we had the ball and the ref stopped play because we had a player injured in their box after a typically robust challenge. When play restarted the stadium booed us for not giving them the ball and Dyche whined at the fourth official.

    What? What are you all doing with yourselves? WE HAD POSSESSION. We were about to put a cross into the box. The rule is not that at any drop ball possession has to go to the other team.
    (Although why the drop ball was taken about thirty yard behind where play was stopped escaped me too.)

    Anyway, from my TV view I thought the Burnley fans were extremely unimpressive. And if Esso wanted to phrase that differently I’d wholeheartedly agree.

  25. 25
    OsakaMatt says:

    I’m a strict black coffee man
    myself Ned
    Anyway, Calpis is better than
    Pocari Sweat 😉

  26. 26
    Gunnersaurus Stunt Double says:

    I’ve seen a lot of reports saying that Burnley should have won based on their chances. I can’t agree with that. We also had excellent chances, including the first two at least. And scoring first makes a big difference. And if I had to chose who I would want a chance to fall to I’d pick Aubameyang over Rodriguez. They missed the best chance but on another day it could have been 3-3. A draw was fair enough.

    Us getting more yellows was not fair at all. How some bloke in their midfield got away with hauling Guendouzi down in injury time and then stopping him take the freekick is beyond me.

  27. 27
    Gunnersaurus Stunt Double says:

    I tried out Pocari Sweat as a hangover cure last year. Not bad. Had to be very cold though.

  28. 28
    bathgooner says:

    GSD, I admire your objectivity in your report all the more because of its speed of production because I was still fuming about the behaviour of Stoke manqué when it appeared.

    I like the yellow boxes around your posts. Artur, could this be generalised as a trial style? An alternative might be alternate background shading?

    I do like Pocari Sweat as a post-excess therapeutic measure. Failing that being available, Irn Bru is the Celtic equivalent.

  29. 29
    bathgooner says:

    Doh! I see the shading is already there. I should go back to bed. 🤕

  30. 30
    North Bank Ned says:

    GSD@26: I was taken aback that the BBC report was headlined Burnley miss chance to punish Gunners and opened by saying we ‘escaped from Turf Moor with a point’ and went on to suggest that Burnley should have won. It also said that Dyche’s team ‘outfought a Gunners side who were rarely without a player complaining, limping, or rolling around on the floor’ without a hint of suggesting why they were limping or had been knocked to the ground. Not the game I saw. Both sides were wasteful of their chances, but a draw was a fair result in the circumstances.

  31. 31
    Gunnersaurus Stunt Double says:

    I saw that bullshit headline Ned and decided I couldn’t be bothered to read the article. Your snippets are enough to confirm it was a good choice. It’s almost like they have their own biases and agendas which make watching the actual game and reporting it accurately seem unimportant.

    The BBC is in steady decline.

  32. 32
    Pangloss says:

    NBN@30. Why on earth were you “taken” at the headline on the BBC report? It’s either lazy journalism – Arsenal supporters are easy to wind up, after all they haven’t qualified for the Champions’ League for a couple of seasons after twenty consecutive appearances and might struggle to qualify for next season’s Europa League – or genuine anti-Arsenal bias.

    Lamentable certainly, but not really surprising.

    COYG

  33. 33
    North Bank Ned says:

    GSD@31 and Pangloss@32: Symptomatic of a broader decline in journalism, I fear. When I read GSD’s match report, the thought had crossed my mind how much better are the reports that he and the others performing that duty here provide than those found in the public prints, let alone the airwaves.

  34. 34
    bathgooner says:

    GSD, I’ve just checked on the significance of your headline. Brilliant, sir.

  35. 35
    Gunnersaurus Stunt Double says:

    Cheers Baff. Ned reminded me of that one when he linked it in the last drinks.

    Getting the reference also makes the last line better!

  36. 36
    North Bank Ned says:

    We think we are giving our youngsters first-team opportunities, but not even Saka makes this list of the top 20 players born after Jan 1 2000 who are playing most regularly for their clubs in the top five European leagues.

    https://football-observatory.com/IMG/sites/b5wp/2019/wp282/en/

    There is clearly some serious young talent around that most of us have probably never heard of.

  37. 37
    scruzgooner says:

    interesting, ned.

    bukayo has played most of our youngsters in the prem this season, with 877 minutes of a possible 2,160 (so about 41%), by 27/1/20. he just misses the cutoff on your link; if he’d played the full 90 yesterday he’d be at 43% of our total prem minutes, and would be there right at the bottom of the first list. kind of small margins.

  38. 38
    TTG says:

    Layth Yousif and Dan from Gooner Fanzine were at Turf Moor and confirmed that even by the moronic standards of the Stokies the Burnley fans plumbed new depths in stupidity and boorishness. They were still shaking their heads in bemusement over twenty four hours after the match

  39. 39
    scruzgooner says:

    ttg, when’s your podcast coming out?

  40. 40
    OsakaMatt says:

    @Ned
    Only one on that list from the
    PL I see. Though several from the
    championship in the 2nd division
    list. All the money has made the
    PL teams risk averse or all the
    money has raised the bar too high
    in terms of quality, or the PL’s so
    physically demanding that younger
    players simply can’t play week in,
    week out. From an Arsenal
    development point of view this
    should mean that when we think
    we have a diamond that needs
    polishing with regular game time
    we should look to loans to Ligue
    Une or the Championship.
    Took a while but I managed to
    get this post to a plug for my
    forthcoming article on our
    ongoing loans 👍

  41. 41
    scruzgooner says:

    looking forward to that one, OM.

  42. 42
    bathgooner says:

    The rarity of players coming through from the kids to become established members of the first team in the last twenty years is a demonstration of either a) the high standards demanded of being a top player in a top PL team, b) a flawed club process for youth development, c) the paucity of top talent or d) a flawed club process for scouting young talent. Maybe there are other factors, I haven’t thought of?

    It’s often said that it’s hard to identify young talent though I remember playing with kids with extraordinary talent that stood out under 11 years of age. I am sure that LJW was one such child prodigy but they are clearly rare. Along the way, personal factors can get in the way of a smooth progression to the top, think JET even at a club with widely respected and long-established pastoral processes. Yet top talent persistently emerges from the lower leagues though Arsenal has been slow to pick such players up for many years. It’s not clear to me why we have been so reluctant to sign such players. Did Arsene get his fingers burnt with the likes of Laurence Taylor and Frannie Jeffers (yes, I know they were top tier – I couldn’t think of a 2nd-tier signing since the GG era) and decide it was a market he couldn’t negotiate? Or did the premium on English players make us think there was better value elsewhere?

    I look forward to OM’s piece on our current loanees.

  43. 43
    OsakaMatt says:

    @42
    I think AW did feel young English
    players were overpriced, at least
    I seem to remember him saying
    so. In recent years I only remember
    Rob and Jenks coming from the
    lower leagues and Bramell from
    non-league I think.

  44. 44
    North Bank Ned says:

    Just mathematically, the odds are stacked heavily against any player breaking through from an academy to the first team.

    There was a study published in 2018 that showed that 86 Arsenal academy players over ten years had gone onto have professional careers with 15 of them playing in the Premier League that year. That was the third-best record among Premiership clubs behind Man U (100/29) and Chelsea (92/10).

    That suggests our development record isn’t that bad, at least compared to other Premiership clubs.

    Apart from Gnabry, it is difficult to think of anyone brought up by the club ‘who got away’. Players like Larsen and Hayden have had decent Premiership careers elsewhere but aren’t world-beaters. Gibbs, Wilshere, Coquelin and Szczesny and Iwobi were all academy graduates who managed to play a fair number of first-team games. In the current squad, there is Bellerin and AMN as well as the more recent graduates, Saka, Willock, Nelson, Nketiah and ESR.

    Another study, published late last year, showed the percentage of players in the Premier League who had come through Premiership academies were at an all-time low, of 11.7%. In that study, with 24% of club-trained players, we ranked second only to the neighbours (24%). Three out of five players in the Premiership are overseas players, lengthening the odds for homegrown players further.

    You can graduate with your cohort up through the age-group sides, but that progress runs into a brick wall once you run-out of age-group teams. You then don’t just have to be the best of your age, but also better than everyone in a roughly decade-long age span ahead of you. At a Premier League club, those will likely be top-class internationals. The numbers are just not in your favour. It is no coincidence that at virtually every Premiership club there is no more than a couple of academy graduates playing regularly in the first team, and they will likely have graduated many seasons apart. Man U’s class of ’92 is such an outlier and unlikely to be repeated in the modern game.

    There are lots of reasons that you might not even get to the brink of first-team football:
    you don’t develop physically or technically as you were expected to when you were recruited as a babe in arms;
    you get injured;
    you don’t have the motivation to do what it takes to be a top-level professional.

    Even if you do, your club, under increasing pressure from fans and owners to produce instant results, has to be committed to investing time in developing you (and to accept the mistakes you will make during your first-team learning curve) rather than going out and buying a proven player.

    Finally, you need a massive stroke of luck. Saka would not be playing anything like the amount of first-team football he is were we not chronically short of fit left-backs. He has taken his chance magnificently and shown he is Premier League quality. Still, if not for that stroke of good fortune for him, ill for Tierney and Kola, he would be struggling for minutes off the bench trying to dislodge Aubameyang and Pepe from the team.

    Looking forward to OM’s post on loans, as they are an important piece of this puzzle.

  45. 45
    North Bank Ned says:

    OM@43: Brammall came from Hednesford Town, currently of the Southern League Premier Central, and is now with Colchester in League Two, having been released by us. Jenks came up through the Charlton youth ranks and had been on loan at Eastbourne Borough in the National League previous to us buying him. Holding was bought from Bolton Wanderers, having played for its U-18 and U-23 teams.

  46. 46
    North Bank Ned says:

    @44: That should be 32% for the neighbours, not 24%

  47. 47
    bathgooner says:

    Ned@44, interesting stuff. Thank you. I’d forgotten about Holding and Jenks. I do hope the former makes the cut.

  48. 48
    bathgooner says:

    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

  49. 49
    Gunnersaurus Stunt Double says:

    NOOOOOOOOOO!

    I couldn’t do chevrons on my phone and by the time I got to my laptop Baff had beaten me to it.

    Bugger.

  50. 50
    Gunnersaurus Stunt Double says:

    Screw it, I’m taking the half century. I don’t care if the whistle has gone.