{"id":12178,"date":"2025-11-01T20:08:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T20:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12178"},"modified":"2025-11-03T20:44:35","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T20:44:35","slug":"less-is-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12178","title":{"rendered":"Less Is More"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Pre-match we learned that Arteta, the wily old fox, had been leading everyone a merry dance regarding the fitness of Saliba, as he was picked to start alongside Gabriel at the back in very much a first choice back 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raya<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Timber Saliba Gabriel Calafiori<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eze Zubimendi Rice <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saka Gy\u00f6keres Trossard<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bench betrayed the fact that we have so many players missing up top, with only Merino along with the 15-year-old Dowman and 18-year-old Nwaneri being forward players. And Merino is more a Swiss Army knife than an out and out forward.  Ned in his preview had the Burnley team spot on, apart from Ekdal being replaced by Anthony in the starting line-up. They have the battering ram that is Ashley Barnes, along with Broja and Bruun Larsen as strikers available from the bench along with Marcus Edwards, with more than a whiff of pondweed about him, starting his career as he did at the Marshdwellers before finding fame and fortune at Sporting Lisbon. A stark contrast in forward numbers from the bench. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burnley lined up with a back 5 and just Flemming as a striker, making the likelihood of the usual low block look rather high. The referee was Kavanagh, with Taylor on VAR. Least said… <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Ned pointed out in his preview<\/a>, Burnley have less trouble scoring than defending, conceding nigh on 2 goals per league match and so it was to prove. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal started in a measured way, which was all they needed to do given that Burnley were not pressing high and were happy to defend from the half way line. Calafiori was making sure that the numbers up front were somewhat evened up by getting forward ahead of Trossard as often as possible.  The possession-based pressure was beginning to tell towards the end of the first 10 minutes and led to the first corner of the game on 12 minutes. Like clockwork, a ball banged to the far post by Rice was, perhaps fortuitously, perhaps not, knocked back by Gabriel for Gyokeres to head in from 2 yards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Burnley 0 \u2013 Arsenal 1<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The already loud away support, despite the handicap of not being accompanied by C100 and son, now boomed out the Gy\u00f6keres song heartily.  Pressure was continuing to be piled on and a shot from 12 yards by Calafiori was partially blocked with the resulting looping ball palmed over for a corner. From this the ball was put right underneath the crossbar by Rice, but a free kick was called. A minute later Saka broke through one vs one with the keeper but could only hit it straight at him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now Burnley had to come forward and leave space, and Cullen was booked on 26 for taking Eze down as he broke through the midfield line and threatened. Kavanagh correctly gave him a yellow. Burnley were getting fractious now, not least, and least surprisingly, Walker who was being tested by Trossard and Calafiori and regularly coming up short. On 31 minutes, Trossard had a shot from inside the box cleared off the line after magnificent work from Rice to win the ball back. Eze and Gyokeres had progressed it quickly, initially leading to a Saka shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a brief period of Burnley attack, Arsenal scored on 35 minutes.  Burnley had 2 long throws into our box, both on our right-hand side and both taken by Walker, both monstered out by Gabriel, who couldn\u2019t have jumped higher had he been propelled by a trampoline.  The second one led to a fast break, with Walker out of position looking to recover from being on the wrong side for the throw in.  Trossard crossed and Rice headed home from 6 yards.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burnley 0 \u2013 Arsenal 2<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were now all over them and on 37 another fast break led to an Eze shot being deflected out for a right sided corner. From which we should have scored again, after a short corner ploy which should have been finished off by Trossard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A blistering first half from Arsenal, a taste if what we hope to see in the second half of the season once Arsenal really get going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Half Time Burnley 0 Arsenal 2<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal came out for the second half, somewhat surprisingly, with Gy\u00f6keres taken off and Merino in his place. To my mind, that was the best game Gy\u00f6keres has played for us by far. On 49 minutes, a good period of possession was punctuated by Timber not quite being able to get onto a ball chipped into him in the Burnley box in another very well-worked move. On 54 minutes, Flemming was booked for an, ahem, over enthusiastic challenge on Gabriel, as Burnley collectively showed their frustration at not being able to get on the ball for any period of time. On 57 minutes, Walker stretched out his arm, reaching for Calafiori and elbowed the HIB in the face. Predictably the locals were up in arms but fortunately, Kavanagh was having an excellent game and ensured the correct decision was made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 61 minutes, Burnley took off Ugochukwu and Anthony \u2013 who apparently spent 10 years at the Arsenal academy – for Bruun Larsen and Tchaouna. It was beginning to look to me that we might need to bring on a sub or 2 to freshen things up. Saka in particular was very quiet and really didn\u2019t look right. Burnley were coming into the game and it was the right time for Arteta to make changes when, in the 72nd minute he took off Calafiori, who had been excellent, and Eze, for Hincapie and Nwaneri. A minute later Burnley had their best opportunity when a ball pumped to the back post resulted in a header 2 feet over Raya\u2019s crossbar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 76 minutes, Broja and Hannibal \u2013 minus his elephants \u2013 came on for Burnley in place of Flemming and Laurent.  Burnley were now looking to add energy and this was countered by Arteta immediately bringing on N\u00f8rgaard for Zubimendi.  Arsenal were looking to manage the game out, continuing to frustrate the re-energised Burnley side. Burnley brought on the aforementioned former Marshdweller Edwards.  The away fans burst into a song suggesting that now the Burnley fans had seen Arsenal, they were free to go to their places of residence. The Marshdweller hit the post from an excellent freekick but that was the last kick of the game. The afternoon was completed with a stirring rendition of \u201cStadiums are empty, everywhere we go.\u201d Harsh. But fair. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final Score Burnley 0 Arsenal 2 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In truth, Arsenal rather went through the motions in the second half, with the exception of Rice who could only be described as ubiquitous and was my man of the match, for what it\u2019s worth. It was another win, comfortably delivered with excellent performances for the most part.  As above, I thought Saka was off and it was disconcerting to see Gy\u00f6keres go off after 45 minutes.  Hopefully, both are okay, at least for Sunderland away next weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pre-match we learned that Arteta, the wily old fox, had been leading everyone a merry dance regarding the fitness of Saliba, as he was picked to start alongside Gabriel at the back in very much a first choice back 5. Raya Timber Saliba Gabriel Calafiori Eze Zubimendi Rice  Saka Gy\u00f6keres Trossard The bench betrayed the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12178"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12178"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12194,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12178\/revisions\/12194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}