Nick Ames was at Turf Moor. His report has landed. Here it is, you know what to do. Thanks for reading this MBM!
A dejected Mikel Arteta takes his turn. “It’s a tough place to come and a difficult pitch ... but if you don’t score the big chances that we had, if you give a goal to the opponent, and you don’t get the decision when it’s a clear penalty ... we made a mistake but it can happen when you play short or long ... someone has to explain to me what a penalty is ... we have to look at ourselves and not find any other excuses ... we should have won the game ... you have to win by two or three goals when you play like that ... if you give any hope to a team in the Premier League they are going to take it.”
Sean Dyche speaks to BT. “Overall another good point ... I was super-pleased with the physical capability of our players, who kept going at Arsenal for the whole 90 minutes ... I’m a fan of VAR ... that’s when it’s worth its weight in gold, it clearly hits him on the shoulder ... it’s a funny one about the referee, he couldn’t wait to get the red card out, just give yourself a second, absorb it, then make a decision ... he’s a fine referee in my opinion too ... our defending was outstanding, especially at the end ... and we created the golden chance of the game ... if you press them for the whole game, sometimes you get your reward ... it’s not easy to do that, trust me ... our team has a strong mentality, no doubt.”
Erik Pieters, at the centre of everything after coming on, speaks to BT Sport. “It was a good 30 minutes of me, wasn’t it?! I got a yellow, a red, a shot on goal! We defended all of us to make sure we didn’t lose this game. With a bit more luck and clinical finishing, we could have taken the three points. You hear different stories, shoulder is hand ball, shoulder is not hand ball. Our equaliser was a bit lucky, but they all count. It was a great effort from the lads. I didn’t see the scramble at the end, forget about that!” A tinder-dry interview from an extremely chuffed player. He was worth the price of admission alone.
Not entirely sure how Burnley survived that in the end. The pinball game in their box, right at the end, would surely end in a goal nine times out of ten; 99 out of 100 perhaps. But not this time. VAR also denied Arsenal two penalties for handball, though only one was the correct decision. However, you can’t win matches after giving away a goal like Granit Xhaka did, you just can’t, it’s not on. Either way, Burnley fully deserved their point after a staunch second-half display, during which they had their chances too. Arsenal stay in 10th with 38 points, while Burnley remain in 15th on 30.
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FULL TIME: Burnley 1-1 Arsenal
That was sheer lunacy. A magnificent second half. What a match!
90 min +4: This is absurd, even by this match’s circus standard. Bagatelle in the Burnley box. The ball breaks to Ceballos, who sidefoots powerfully towards the top right. But the ball crashes off the upright and clear!
90 min +3: Luiz wedges into the Burnley box. The ball breaks to Aubameyang on the penalty spot. He’s got to score, but Mee throws himself into the road of the shot, blocking and clearing!
90 min +2: As does the second. Seems that penalty/red card brouhaha has tuckered everyone out.
90 min +1: The first goes by without incident.
90 min: The ball nearly breaks to Rodriguez in the Arsenal box, but Luiz gets in the road to block any danger. There will be a minimum of 30 four extra minutes.
89 min: Arsenal have enjoyed 83 percent possession during the last five minutes. Burnley respond by taking their sweet time over a free kick, extracting some of the sting from the game.
88 min: Can this game go on for another 30 minutes, please?
86 min: Credit where it’s due, VAR did the business there. Meanwhile, as the dust settles, Rodriguez comes on for Vydra.
No penalty! No red card!
85 min: VAR spots that the ball came off Pieters’ shoulder, so Andre Marriner reverses both of his decisions. Justice is done. This game, ditchwater-dull for so long, has exploded into glorious technicolour!
Penalty for Arsenal and red card!
84 min: Saka crosses from the left. His dipping cross is met by Pepe, who volleys goalwards. The ball pings off Pieters on the goalline, off the bar, and into the arms of Pope! What an escape! But the ref thinks it’s a hand ball, so points to the spot and flashes the red card to Pieters.
82 min: Now it’s Arsenal who nearly hit the front! Tierney rolls a delicious ball along the corridor of uncertainty from the left. It reaches Pepe, eight yards out. He’ll surely whip home! But he takes a fresh-air swipe, and the ball rolls away from the danger zone. What a chance!
80 min: Vydra chests a long ball down, then exchanges passes with Wood. Vydra takes a step down the inside-left channel and slips the ball back to Wood, a gorgeous one-two-three. Wood is one on one with Leno! He slams low and hard. Leno blocks brilliantly. Well, this match has livened up!
79 min: Pieters nearly adds insult to injury by sending a sensational dipping volley towards the top left from the best part of 30 yards! Leno tips over. Vydra nearly finds the top-right with a header from the resulting corner, but steers it just wide.
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77 min: “Proximity” has been cited as the reason for the non-decision. VAR is a fiasco, like that’s breaking news.
76 min: On BT Sport, former referee Peter Walton, a company man good and true, expresses surprise that the penalty wasn’t given, which tells you all you need to know.
75 min: VAR says no. That is nonsense. Pieters had his arm extended and batted the ball away!
74 min: Pepe twists and turns down the right, in the Burnley box. He claims a handball against Pieters. Nothing doing, they’re too close together. The ball bounces up against Pieters’ right arm again. That looks more of a shout, with the defender’s arm out to the side. VAR will check. This could be a penalty, you know.
73 min: Arsenal stroke it around, but in their own half. Burnley are more than happy to let them be about their business.
71 min: Pieters comes through the back of Lacazette, who nearly razes Turf Moor to the ground with his ear-splitting screams of pain. That’s initially a worrying sound, but thankfully nothing too serious, and the striker’s soon up and about again. Pieters receives a yellow card for his clumsiness.
69 min: Pepe comes on for Willian.
68 min: Vydra wriggles on the edge of the Arsenal box and nearly turns into space. He miskicks and falls under pressure from that man Saka. Burnley want a penalty, but Vydra had kicked Saka’s shoe, and quite correctly neither referee nor VAR chappie are interested.
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67 min: Burnley make a second change, replacing Gudmundsson with Brady, who returns after a three-match absence.
66 min: Pieters chests down on the left flank and shapes to bomb forward. He’s bundled over from behind by Saka, who is on a booking and really needs to watch himself now. Not enough for a second booking, but he’ll be testing the referee’s patience.
65 min: Still scrappy. Pope has had very little to do since the restart.
63 min: Arsenal send on Lacazette in place of Odegaard, while Burnley replace Taylor with Pieters.
61 min: It’s all very scrappy, which surely benefits Burnley more than it does Arsenal. “Re Michael Gibson’s ‘come on Arsenal, stop mucking about’ half-time exhortation: that’s some of that cockney rhyming slang, right?” writes Geoff Wignall, whose nickname may or may not be Effand.
59 min: Arsenal stroke the ball this way and that, but can’t find a gap in the Burnley back line. Here’s AB Parker, replying to Paul Tingen of 49-min fame: “Playing out from the back is the way the elite teams play nowadays and has more benefits than it has downsides. If anyone really feels that’s not true, I refer them to Liverpool last year, and City since Pep has come in. Xhaka has a mistake in him and needs shifting. It’s been five years since he’s come in now and we haven’t reached the Champions League once with him. Meanwhile, it’s the fault of his midfield partners, his managers, or maybe, just maybe it’s his fault? If a midfielder can’t control a ball in a tight space, what is he there for?”
57 min: Burnley are much-improved since the break. Arsenal still haven’t quite cleared their heads after Xhaka’s music-hall turn.
55 min: Saka is booked for a cynical - and wholehearted - block on Taylor.
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53 min: The corner’s whipped into the six-yard box by Brownhill. Leno claims and drops under pressure from Tarkowski, but gathers at the second attempt. That was better goalkeeping than this entry makes it sound, because it was like Piccadilly Circus in that six-yard box. Leno was under attack from all angles.
52 min: Corner for Burnley, as Taylor pressures Saka down the left.
51 min: Saka dribbles infield from the right, turning and slamming a shot straight at Mee. The ball breaks to Odegaard, who whistles a low drive towards the bottom right. Pope gathers, but only at the second attempt. That was a highly decent strike.
49 min: A fairly uneventful start to the half, so let’s dip into the bulging MBM postbag again. “Much as I enjoy having a go at Xhaka, as he can be very ponderous in the way he plays, this preposterous goal was an accident waiting to happen, and not primarily Xhaka’s fault,” argues Paul Tingen. “It’s a direct outcome of Arteta’s obsessive playing-out-from-the-back tactics. So the blame should before anything go to Arteta, then to Leno for passing to Xhaka in his own penalty area, while Xhaka’s already under pressure. Why did Leno not hoof the ball upfield, as any half-decent goalie would have done in that situation? He must have had the manager’s instructions in mind. Or is it taboo to criticize Arteta?”
47 min: Nothing’s going right for Po’ Granit. Now his shirt has been ripped in the punk-rock style. I’m assuming that just happened, rather than during a full and frank exchange of views in the dressing room.
Here we go again. Burnley get the second half underway. Xhaka looks fine, no signs of his being slapped for 15 minutes straight.
Half-time postbag.
“In the dressing rooms, both managers will be singing ‘Dammit, Granit!’ to the popular tune from Rocky Horror. Only one will be singing the ‘I love you’ part” - Fred Decker.
“That Burnley goal has massive echoes of Karius v Real Madrid. As a Liverpool fan it’s given me immediate PTSD thinking about it. At least my son, who is a Gooner, will shut up about it though. So thank you Granit, from Loris Karius and I! Best wishes and come on Arsenal, stop mucking about” - Michael Gibson.
Half-time reading.
HALF TIME: Burnley 1-1 Arsenal
Arsenal have dominated. They’ve been the better team. But the hosts are level thanks to one of the stupidest goals you’ll see in a good while. Xhaka will presumably be making his apologies during the break.
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45 min: Luiz intercepts in the centre circle and feeds Willian down the left. Willian wins a corner off Tarkowski. Burnley just about deal with the corner. There will be one additional minute.
44 min: Granit Xhaka, though.
42 min: Arsenal had been comfortable, but now they’re rocking a bit, and Leno does well to keep hold of a low McNeil drive from a tight angle on the left.
41 min: There’s some blame on Leno, who should have just cleared his lines but gave Xhaka a dilemma instead. Even so, Xhaka should have spotted Wood standing right next to him, and he probably shouldn’t have been trying to execute a cute scooped pass towards Luiz on the right wing anyway. That was preposterous.
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ABSURD GOAL! Burnley 1-1 Arsenal (Wood 39)
Mari passes back to Leno, who decides against bashing clear and passes to Xhaka, six yards in front of him, instead. Xhaka, facing his own goal, plays a blind pass to his left, slapping the ball off the hip of the lurking Wood and into the net! That’s pure farce, and once again, Xhaka, sent off in the corresponding fixture at the Emirates, has made a royal show of himself against Burnley.
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37 min: Arsenal break and Burnley are extremely light at the back. Aubameyang romps down the middle of the park and slips Saka into the box on the right. Saka is clear, but can’t sort his feet out to shoot, allowing Brownhill to stick in a toe and clear.
36 min: Xhaka creams a long pass down the left for Aubameyang. Pope hares out of his box to head clear, just in time. Aubameyang wasn’t far away from nicking the ball around the keeper, though, at which point Burnley would have been in a world of trouble.
35 min: Burnley enjoy a rare period of possession in the Arsenal half, but do very little with it. Arsenal hold their shape, there’s no way through. On the touchline, Sean Dyche is a study in frustration as he watches his charges toil impotently.
33 min: The ball bounces all over the shop. High and unpredictable. They’ve not watered the pitch.
31 min: Arsenal are beginning to push Burnley back. The hosts are struggling to get out of their own half.
29 min: Saka slips Odegaard away down the right. The pass is a little heavy, but Odegaard manages to stop it on the byline, then flick it back for the incoming Partey, who opens his body and sidefoots over the bar from the edge of the box. Not a million miles away, and that would have been a very pretty goal.
28 min: The ball breaks to Wood, swivelling on the left-hand edge of the Arsenal D. His weak shot bobbles through to Leno, who hasn’t had his gloves warmed yet.
27 min: Lowton crosses from the right. Xhaka heads clear. Westwood hoicks a first-time return over the bar. Meanwhile the referee has a quick word with Mari, for a late slide on Vydra earlier in the move. Next transgression will be officially recorded, I’ll be bound.
26 min: Tierney takes an age over a throw. That’s all there is to report right now.
24 min: To be fair to Saka, that all happened in a flash, and he’d done extremely well to get into that position in the first place. But, well, a miss is a miss.
22 min: A huge miss by Saka! He one-twos with Aubameyang and breaks into the box down the inside-right channel. He’s surrounded by Taylor, Mee and Tarkowski, but somehow manages to barge through everyone, the ball breaking fortunately at his feet. He pokes past Pope, and surely must have thought he’d done enough, but the ball flashes across goal and inches wide of the left-hand post. How on earth did he manage that?
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21 min: Now Partey does his work down the other end of the field, blootering a high clearance upfield with a satisfying thud.
19 min: Partey shovels a clever pass down the inside-left channel. The ball’s dropping over Aubameyang’s shoulder, on the left-hand corner of the six-yard box. Lowton sticks out a disruptive leg and connects, but the ball still falls to the striker, who pokes a first-time effort wide left. That was decent defending by Lowton, even if it looked a wee bit scruffy. He did all he could, enough to make things harder for Aubameyang.
17 min: Arsenal continue to dominate possession, albeit in the good old sterile style.
15 min: Aubameyang gets a yard of space down the inside-left, but upon entering the box can’t get an effective shot away. He looks in the mood against his bunnies.
14 min: Saka wins a corner out on the right. The set piece isn’t all that, but the ball bounces loose, 25 yards out. Partey is steaming in at absurd speed, with a view to shooting, and it’d have been interesting to see what he’d have achieved had Mee not cleared just in time.
13 min: McNeil dribbles with purpose down the left, entering the box and approaching the byline. His cross-cum-shot is snaffled by Leno. Then Burnley come again, Tarkowski launching long down the left for Taylor, who digs out a cross that sails into the stand. But the home side are finally showing signs of life.
11 min: Xhaka steals the ball in midfield and sends Arsenal on a dangerous-looking counter. He slips a pass to Odegaard, who overthinks the whole situation and eventually he loses possession.
10 min: Arsenal have started magnificently. Calm and in control. They’ve enjoyed 67 percent possession so far.
8 min: That wasn’t great goalkeeping, though Aubameyang took his shot early and caught the keeper by surprise. Pope may blame himself, given he got a hand to the ball, but not enough to stop it dribbling over the line. Anyway, it’s eight in seven against Burnley for the Arsenal striker. Throw in the own goal he scored at the Emirates earlier this season, and he’s quite the man for these fixtures.
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GOAL! Burnley 0-1 Arsenal (Aubameyang 6)
Willian whistles down the middle of the park with great intent. It’s a brilliant run. He slips wide left to Aubameyang, who drops a shoulder to breeze past Lowton and into the box, then fires towards the bottom left. Pope gets a weak hand to it, and can’t keep it out.
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4 min: Arsenal win the first corner of the game, down the left. Odegaard’s corner isn’t any good. Penny for the thoughts of Mari and Luiz, who had both trudged upfield to contest the set piece.
3 min: Saka flicks cutely down the right, making space, but is penalised, slightly harshly given his stature, for a high foot. Taylor had to stoop to head, as well. But there you go.
2 min: Mee passes long. Vydra flicks towards Wood, but Mari reads the danger well and makes the first clearance of the afternoon. “Time for Willian to build on his display of half decent footballership,” suggests Charles Antaki. “Arsenal fans would be happy with more of what he showed against Leicester, but that’s what was said after his very first game against Fulham, way back in what seems like a different century, when he was good. Odd to say of a 32 year old, but he might yet be again.”
Here we go, then! Arsenal get the ball rolling ... but only after the knee is taken. There’s no room for racism. Kick it out.
The teams are out! Burnley in their famous claret and blue threads, Arsenal in third-choice blue. We’ll be off in a minute!
Mikel Arteta speaks to BT. “We haven’t had much time in recent months to train, but this week we had some time to do that, to recover, to prepare the game as good as possible because we know how tough it is to come here ... we have to rotate ... everybody is in top form, we have four games in nine days so everyone will be involved ... Martin Odegaard is settling in really well, adapting really good ... Burnley is tough and really competitive, a real threat.”
Sean Dyche talks to BT Sport. “We weren’t a million miles off ... now and then a game gets away from you, especially when you’re up against the super powers, so I thought we bounced back well against Leicester ... it was an energetic performance ... there was a real edge to it ... Arsenal are a good outfit ... they’re in transition but they have some very strong individuals ... trust me, it’s not easy to beat these teams.”
Some breaking Burnley news ahead of the game: Phil Bardsley has signed a new contract. The 35-year-old full-back stays at Turf Moor until the end of next season.
One change for Burnley. Johann Berg Gudmundsson comes in for the hamstrung Jack Cork.
Arsenal make five changes. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Thomas Partey and Calum Chambers replace Alexandre Lacazette, Nicolas Pepe, Emile Smith Rowe, Mohamed Elneny and Cedric Soares. Smith Rowe (hip) and Soares miss out altogether.
The teams
Burnley: Pope, Lowton, Tarkowski, Mee, Taylor, Gudmundsson, Westwood, Brownhill, McNeil, Vydra, Wood.
Subs: Brady, Peacock-Farrell, Stephens, Rodriguez, Pieters, Bardsley, Long, Dunne, Benson.
Arsenal: Leno, Chambers, Luiz, Pablo Mari, Tierney, Thomas, Xhaka, Saka, Odegaard, Willian, Aubameyang.
Subs: Bellerin, Gabriel, Ceballos, Lacazette, Holding, Pepe, Elneny, Ryan, Martinelli.
Referee: Andre Marriner (West Midlands).
Preamble
Both of these teams are coming off the back of a promising showing against Leicester City. On Wednesday evening, Burnley, rebounding from a trouncing at Spurs, were more than deserving of a point against the Champions League hopefuls. As for Arsenal, they responded to going behind at the King Power last Sunday with a highly impressive three-goal salvo for the win.
Sean Dyche’s men were the ones most in need of a boost. They’ve only tasted victory in one of their last eight games, and are still nervously looking over their shoulder at the relegation places. They could do with completing a league double over Arsenal for the first time since 1963, having won 1-0 at the Emirates back in December, Granit Xhaka needlessly getting himself sent off, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang putting past his own keeper.
However, Arsenal are unbeaten in eight at Turf Moor, a run stretching back to 1973. They’ve also won four of their last six away games, while Aubameyang’s misfortune in the reverse fixture was very much out of character: he usually makes hay against Burnley, his seven goals against them being more than he’s managed against any other Premier League side.
Arsenal go into the match as favourites, then. But this is football, and this is Burnley, always a tough proposition when their tails are up. Kick off is at 12.30pm GMT. It’s on!
