And that, dear friends, is your lot. Ed Aarons was our man at the Emirates today. His report has landed. Enjoy that one, and thanks for reading this one.
And now it’s Sean Dyche’s turn. He thought his team put in a “good performance” and were “excellent particularly in the first half”. He’s “disappointed” that Ben Mee was penalised for handball in the lead-up to Arsenal’s first goal, and also that the hosts were “falling all over the place” throughout the game. Pointing out that diving is only punishable by a yellow card, he argues: “That means players can cheat once per game.” He’s not totally pleased.
Unai Emery is “happy”. It was a “tough match” but he was pleased his team made a connection with the supporters. They “didn’t impose the game plan for 90 minutes”, but did some “good things” nonetheless. His new signings were “very good”.
A statement of intent from today’s match-winner Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang: “It’s good to start like this, with two wins, before we go to Liverpool. We feel confident. We feel stronger with players like David Luiz and Nicolas Pepe. We are sure we can fight for the top four.”
FULL TIME: Arsenal 2-1 Burnley
There’s just enough time for Barnes to be booked, the punishment for tugging back Kolasinac, and that’s that! Arsenal have won their first two Premier League matches of the season for the first time in a decade. Burnley were arguably the better side in the first half; Arsenal were certainly the better side in the second, and deserve the three points. But Burnley made them work and sweat.
Updated
90 min +4: Arsenal struggle to clear this one, too. But they’re let off the hook as Rodriguez attempts an overly ambitious overhead kick. It’s wild and high. And this match is surely over.
90 min +3: Pope’s up for the corner! Some head tennis. Luiz heads over his own crossbar. There’ll be another corner!
90 min +2: Pepe has a chance of releasing Aubameyang. They’re two on one with Tarkowski. But the pass is no good. Lennon breaks up the other end and wins a corner. Before it’s taken, Luiz is booked for a check on Barnes.
90 min +1: There will be four added minutes. Sokratis is booked for cynical skulduggery on the halfway line.
90 min: Willock makes good down the inside right, reaches the byline, and cuts back for Torreira, who lashes a first-time shot towards the bottom right. Pope does very well to parry. A lovely move, and a save to match.
88 min: Lowton makes a nuisance of himself on the edge of the Arsenal box. Torreira looks to shepherd the ball back towards Leno, and is shoved by the Burnley man for his trouble. He goes over and lands heavily on his shoulder, but after a worrying bout of rolling and grimacing, he’s up again, no serious harm done.
86 min: Aubameyang works his way down the right and wins a corner off Mee. Pepe takes. Barnes heads clear. The clock, a long-time Arsenal icon, ticks on.
85 min: Burnley are seeing plenty of the ball in these closing stages. McNeil whips a curler in from the left, but Barnes can’t meet it at the near post. Leno claims.
83 min: Ceballos departs to a standing ovation. He’s been magnificent today. He’s replaced by the equally popular Torreira. A feelgood moment at the Arsenal.
82 min: Lowton crosses from the right. Rodriguez is lurking, waiting to pounce, but Sokratis does extremely well to negate his threat and guide the ball back to his keeper.
80 min: Luiz blocks off Barnes, 35 yards from goal. Westwood wedges the resulting free kick into the area towards Mee, romping in from the left. But Mee can’t quite get a shot away, and Leno claims. The denizens of the Emirates are getting a little nervous now. It’s quiet and tense.
78 min: Pepe diddles Mee in the midfield - a nutmeg on the turn! He races towards the Burnley box. He’s eventually bundled off the ball by Tarkowski, but what skill. This chap is going to light up the Premier League.
76 min: Arsenal manage to escape, Maitland-Niles working his way down the right and rolling a pass infield for Pepe, who suddenly recognises the opportunity of a goal on his home debut. He strides into space near the Burnley box ... but then sends a dribbler into the arms of Pope.
75 min: Westwood sends a free kick into the Arsenal box from the right. Mee wins a header at the far post, but that one goes wide. Goal kick for Arsenal, but the ball’s soon coming straight back at them. Arsenal are struggling to get out of their own half at the minute.
74 min: Lowton crosses from the right. Barnes flicks on, but to nobody in particular. The ball sails out for a goal kick. The home fans are getting a little nervous, though, as the visitors start to ask one or two questions again, for the first time in a while.
72 min: That’s Gudmundsson’s last act of the afternoon. He’s hooked in favour of Aaron Lennon, who gets the full ex-Tottenham reception as he takes to the field. Meanwhile Lacazette is replaced by Kolasinac.
71 min: Lowton hammers a low shot into the Arsenal area from the right. The ball breaks to Gudmundsson, who crosses deep to McNeil, coming in from the left. McNeil wins a header but sends it well over the bar.
70 min: A little scrappy.
68 min: Luiz is forced to concede a corner on the right, hacking out Lowton’s cross. Leno flaps at the corner, but Arsenal clear their lines eventually. Arsenal have been dominant since the restart, but there’s a reminder that this isn’t over quite yet.
67 min: Westwood leans into the influential Ceballos and concedes a free kick out on the left. The set piece comes to nothing, but the 23-year-old Spaniard, on loan from Real Madrid, is making a serious impression here this afternoon.
65 min: Burnley try to come back at Arsenal, but Lowton’s cross from the right floats harmlessly into Leno’s arms.
GOAL! Arsenal 2-1 Burnley (Aubameyang 64)
What a finish by Aubameyang! Ceballos sends him away down the inside left, having won the ball off Gudmundsson. Aubameyang glides in from the wing, drops a shoulder, and fizzes an unstoppable low shot into the bottom left! Pope had absolutely no chance whatsoever.
Updated
63 min: Ceballos seems to have more time than everyone else on the pitch. He brings down the ball, almost in slow motion, has a think, and curls a shot towards the top right from the edge of the box. Pope does very well to turn the ball away.
61 min: Now it’s Burnley’s turn to throw on their big new signing. Jay Rodriguez comes on for the quiet Chris Wood. McNeil then crosses from the left, Westwood heading over from six yards. Real chances at both ends!
60 min: Arsenal stroke it around in the passive style ... then suddenly burst into action, Pepe rolling a quick pass down the inside-right and releasing Aubameyang into the area. Aubameyang takes a touch and blasts straight at Pope, who parries well but really shouldn’t have had a chance.
58 min: Corner for Arsenal on the left. Ceballos to take. It’s played short, and worked out to Maitland-Niles, who sends a shot sailing over Highbury & Islington tube. What a waste, having pinned Burnley back.
57 min: Barnes gifts Pepe the ball on the halfway line. Pepe tears down the inside right and tries to release Lacazette. Tarkowski makes sure the door stays shut, but this is much better from Arsenal, who have enjoyed 94% possession since the restart!
55 min: Pepe spins elegantly down the right, sashaying infield and thinking about a shot. He lays off instead to Ceballos, whose effort is blocked. The crowd are already warming to Pepe. Glimpses of his talent already.
53 min: Burnley probe for the first time since the restart, a few neat triangles down the left that result in McNeil lifting a speculative long-range effort well over the bar.
51 min: Ceballos and Monreal combine down the inside-left channel and tee up Aubameyang, who fires towards the top right from distance. His diagonal shot is a little too high, but Pope was worried about that one.
50 min: Pepe isn’t letting things drop, though, and cranks it up again by combining with Aubameyang down the left. It’s a determined run that leads to nothing, but gets the crowd going again. On the touchline, Emery waves his arms in the agitated fashion. He wants some high-tempo play, immediately if not sooner.
Updated
49 min: And so Burnley take their sweet time over a throw, irritating the crowd immensely. Unai Emery also seems reasonably unhappy about it, and gives the linesman a piece of his mind. There goes that half-time surge!
47 min: The corner’s played short, then worked to Maitland-Niles to the left of the D. Maitland-Niles dribbles down the left and floats a cross into the middle ... and over the crossbar. Harmless. But the home side have clearly had a talking-to. Immediate signs that they’re planning to step up the pace.
Arsenal get the second half underway. And on comes their record signing Nicolas Pepe, who replaces Reiss Nelson. He’s immediately into the action, part of a move which results in Monreal winning a corner out on the left.
Half-time entertainment. One of the stars of the summer talks to the Guardian!
HALF TIME: Arsenal 1-1 Burnley
A couple of boos as the teams leave the field. Burnley gave as good as they got during the first half. They’re deservedly level, having asked Arsenal’s defence a few questions. This is poised deliciously for the second half. Please go nowhere!
45 min +1: And now VAR chalks off an Arsenal goal. Aubameyang slips a pass down the left to release Monreal, who pulls one back towards Nelson at the near post. Nelson flashes a fine finish into the top left. But Monreal’s toenails were offside.
Updated
45 min: There was a check for offside, because VAR has to stick its neb in. Barnes was clearly on. No more than Burnley deserve.
GOAL! Arsenal 1-1 Burnley (Barnes 43)
Lacazette, on the edge of the Burnley box, considers shooting. He doesn’t get a shot away. Burnley clear and tear up the other end. Wood works his way down the left, then lays off to McNeil, who sends a low diagonal pass towards Barnes on the penalty spot. He’s totally unmarked, and after sorting his feet out, pokes the ball into the bottom left, despite pressure eventually arriving from Luiz, at his back.
Updated
42 min: The corner leads to nothing.
41 min: A little space and time for Guendouzi, just to the right of the Burnley D. He considers his options before shooting low and hard towards the bottom right. Pope does well to extend a leg, diverting the ball out for a corner.
40 min: Guendouzi strides upfield and sends a pass wide left for Monreal, who crosses first time at great speed. It’s plucked out of the sky by Pope.
38 min: Burnley take a quick free kick, but Aubameyang hasn’t retreated ten yards, and is booked as a result. When the set piece is eventually taken - hoicked into the box, naturally - Barnes sends a weak header into the arms of Leno. Easy for the keeper. Barnes should have done much better.
37 min: A free kick for Burnley out on the left. McNeil’s delivery is extremely poor. Arsenal half-clear, but Willock clatters into Pieters and it’ll be another free kick on the same flank.
35 min: Nelson drives down the left and belts a rising shot goalwards. Pope makes a meal of parrying it, and is grateful for some help from Tarkowski. Burnley clear.
33 min: The toes of Ceballos twinkle again, as he embarks on a mesmeric run down the inside-left channel. He lays off to Willock, just to his left. Willock stands one up, but there’s too much juice on the cross and there’s no chance of Aubameyang meeting the ball.
32 min: Gudmundsson finds Lowton on the overlap down the right. The full back wins a corner. Another chance to stick one in the mixer. Leno punches clear at the near post, some much-needed decisive keeping amid a melee.
30 min: Ceballos performs a couple of elegant pirouettes in the centre circle. He goes nowhere in particular, but the home crowd appreciate the artistry nonetheless. A warm round of applause.
28 min: From the corner, McNeil nearly makes him pay, looking to fire a shot through a penalty-box thicket and into the bottom right. It’s blocked and cleared. But this is spirited stuff from the visitors, who are giving the home defence a thorough pressure test.
27 min: Gudmundsson crosses deep from the right. McNeil is able to trap to the left of the goal. He tries to tee up Barnes, but lamely cushions the ball to Maitland-Niles. However the Arsenal defender, toppling backwards, inexplicably hooks out for a corner.
25 min: Willock gives up possession cheaply, 30 yards from his own goal. That allows Cork to stride forward and look for the top-right corner. His shot is blocked. Arsenal clear. But Burnley have clearly got the whiff of opportunity in their collective beak. Arsenal don’t look particularly confident at the back.
24 min: Arsenal pick it up again. Maitland-Niles bombs down the right and wins a corner. From the set piece, Maitland-Niles, Ceballos and Nelson combine cutely with some crisp passing and very nearly tee up Luiz on the edge of the box. Not quite, but that was pretty play.
22 min: Burnley have done enough since conceding to put the crowd on mute. They’re the sharper side at the moment. Arsenal need to pick it up again.
20 min: An almighty scramble in the Arsenal six-yard box! Leno comes to claim the corner and flaps. Luiz eventually bashes clear, but that could have dropped to anyone. Right now, a clean sheet for Arsenal this afternoon seems far from certain. They’re a bit of a mess at the back.
19 min: Burnley have responded well to falling behind. They’ve enjoyed most of the subsequent possession. A game of head tennis in the Arsenal area, and this will be another corner for the visitors.
17 min: Westwood hooks a high cross into the Arsenal box from the right. Luiz and Leno confuse each other at the near post. Luiz is forced to head out for a corner. From the set piece, Tarkowski wins a header, then Barnes flashes one at Leno from six yards. A sensational point-blank save denies the Burnley striker, though it turns out he was offside anyway.
15 min: Burnley try to hit back immediately, Barnes latching onto a long ball and sending a diagonal shot wide right from the edge of the Arsenal box. Not a bad effort at all, though Leno had that one covered.
GOAL! Arsenal 1-0 Burnley (Lacazette 13)
The corner’s hit low towards Lacazette on the right-hand corner of the six-yard box. He shouldn’t be allowed to turn, but Pieters lets him. He’s falling backwards as he sends a snapshot towards the bottom right. Pope should block, but the ball whistles between his legs and into the net! That’s dismal defending, and the goalkeeping’s not much better. But what work by the striker, who crafted a goal out of next to nothing!
Updated
12 min: Mee handles a Maitland-Niles throw from the right. The free kick is half-cleared to Sokratis, on the edge of the Burnley box. He loops the ball back into the mixer. Lacazette heads straight at Pope from six yards. The keeper tips over. Corner. From which ...
Updated
10 min: Ceballos finds Lacazette at the near post. The striker eyebrows the ball across the face of goal, forcing Lawton to concede another corner, this time on the left. Nothing comes of the second corner, but Arsenal are beginning to impose themselves after a quiet start.
9 min: Luiz passes long, upfield this time. It’s a glorious ball that nearly releases Aubameyang down the right. Pieters is forced to hack out for a corner. It’ll be taken by Ceballos.
7 min: Burnley look pretty comfortable right now. Not so their manager, who is dancing on the touchline issuing beneficial advice to his players. He’s lost all his nine matches against Arsenal, so you can perhaps understand his agitation.
5 min: Luiz, to the left of his own goal, fires a low pass across the face of an unguarded net. He hit that at 100mph! It finds Sokratis on the other wing. Had that flown just one degree off line, it was whistling into the goal. A preposterous risk, and one of the many reasons all right-thinking football fans enjoy watching the man play.
3 min: A bit of space for Barnes out on the right. His cross is headed clear by Maitland-Niles, but drops to Pieters who has an overly ambitious dig from distance. Nope!
2 min: Lacazette swans in from the left and curls a pass towards his strike partner Aubameyang on the other flank. Aubameyang tries to lay the ball across the front of the area for Willock, but it’s easily dealt with by Mee.
Burnley, debuting their evergreen kit, kick off. The ball’s launched forward and out of play with barely ten seconds on the clock. Onwards and upwards!
Here come the boys. Arsenal are in their 80s-throwback red shirts with white sleeves, while there’s no claret for the Clarets; Burnley sport third-choice green. A bubbling atmosphere at the Emirates. We’ll be off sooner rather than later!
Updated
Here’s Unai Emery with some squad updates. “David Luiz has been hoping to play, and today he starts his first match with us. Xhaka has a small injury, but hopefully he will be OK. Mesut was sick one day this week, but I am hoping he will be OK next week.”
Burnley boss Sean Dyche speaks to BT Sport. “We got off to a really good start. We’ve had a good pre-season. There’s a nice edge to the collective, not just the 11 we played last week. We’ve had a few things go against us [when playing Arsenal] and maybe VAR will clean those things up now. But it’s beyond that, it’s about us performing. It’s a big ask. But we like what we’re doing, the players are up for it, and I like what they’ve delivered so far. So we’ll see how we go today.”
Arsenal’s new kit is lovely, isn’t it. Presses all the right buttons for football fans of a certain vintage. Here it is, pictured below, pretty much. Squint and it could almost be Unai Emery throwing an arm around Matteo Guendouzi. Better crest in those days, mind.
Arsenal welcome David Luiz and Dani Ceballos to the Emirates. Nicolas Pepe is a substitute once again. Sead Kolasinac is back in the wake of those security issues, though there’s still no Mesut Ozil.
Burnley meanwhile are in full if-it-ain’t-broke mode. They name the same starting XI sent out for last weekend’s big win over Southampton.
The teams
Arsenal: Leno, Maitland-Niles, Luiz, Papastathopoulos, Monreal, Ceballos, Guendouzi, Nelson, Willock, Aubameyang, Lacazette.
Subs: Mkhitaryan, Torreira, Pepe, Chambers, Martinez, Kolasinac, Gabriel Martinelli.
Burnley: Pope, Lowton, Tarkowski, Mee, Pieters, Gudmundsson, Cork, Westwood, McNeil, Wood, Barnes.
Subs: Taylor, Hendrick, Gibson, Rodriguez, Hart, Lennon, Bardsley.
Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral).
Preamble
If recent history is any guide, this is as close to a home banker as it’s possible to get. Arsenal have won ten games in a row against Burnley, a run that stretches back to March 2010. The Gunners have beaten the Clarets every single time they’ve played host at the Emirates, to the aggregate tune of 21-4. And Burnley haven’t won away at Arsenal since September 1974, when a goal from converted full-back Peter Noble secured the spoils in front of a Highbury crowd of only 23,586. Arsenal finished just four points above the relegation places that season, with Burnley comfortable in mid-table, but we digress.
Optimism abounds at Arsenal, with the club having splurged in the summer, and the team winning their first game of the new season at Newcastle. They’re a tough proposition at home, having won 14 out of 19 matches last season, a record only beaten by champions Manchester City and Liverpool. However, Burnley are coming off the back of a sensational 3-0 opening-day win over Southampton, so won’t be feeling too bad about themselves either. They’ll also be aware that Arsenal suffer more than most from early-season nerves; they’ve lost their first home game of the campaign in five of the last eight years.
Also, losing runs are there to be broken. With all that in mind, this looks very interesting indeed. Can Arsenal win the first two games of a Premier League season for the first time since 2009? Or can Burnley win their first two matches in the top division since 1973? It, my good friends, is very much on!
Kick off: 12.30pm BST.
