Arsenal (1) 3 Burnley (0) 1
Premier League
Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU
Saturday, 11th November 2023. Kick-off time: 3.00pm
(4-3-3) David Raya; Takehiro Tomiyasu, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Kai Havertz, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho (c), Declan Rice; Bukayo Saka, Leandro Trossard, Gabriel Martinelli.
Substitutes: Aaron Ramsdale, Eddie Nketiah, Jakob Kiwior, Fábio Vieira, Reiss Nelson, Mohamed Elneny, Bradley Ibrahim, Charles Sagoe Jr., Reuell Walters.
Scorers: Leandro Trossard (45+1 mins), William Saliba (57 mins), Oleksandr Zinchenko (74 mins)
Red Cards: Fábio Vieira
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 64%
Referee: Michael Oliver
Assistant Referees: Stuart Burt, Dan Cook
Fourth Official: Craig Pawson
VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Michael Salisbury; AVAR Ian Hussin
Attendance: c.60,000
For this, the last Premiership weekend before the international break, Oleksandr Zinchenko will replace Ben White, whilst Bukayo Saka, who was a huge an injury doubt after limping off against Sevilla last Wednesday, is fit to start this match against The Clarets today. Unfortunately, Gabriel Jesus, Emile-Smith Rowe, Martin Ødegaard and Thomas Partey are still recovering from injury, so the captain’s armband passes over to Jorginho again.
After due respects were paid because of Armistice Day today, the match started off with our boys firmly taking the game to the visitors, who were struggling to clear their lines as we moved forward in earnest. However, the visitors were quick to respond in kind, and they put us under a bit of pressure, but nothing that David Raya cannot handle. After twenty minutes, the best chance of the match so far fell to Bukayo Saka, who curled a shot in towards the Burnley goal, which goalie James Trafford tipped onto the crossbar, but the resulting corner was disappointing and came to nothing, as did a Kai Havertz chance shortly afterwards, sadly.
There was almost an own goal conceded by the visitors when a header from Clarets’ defender Jordan Beyer was dramatically scooped off the goal-line by James Trafford and after yet another chance by Kai Havertz that was headed wide, the visitors came back at us when Johann Gudmundsson ran towards our goal and somehow held off Oleksandr Zinchenko, and then saw his low shot easily saved by David Raya.
Our goalie was called into action again shortly afterwards when a Jay Rodriguez shot from range was saved by him easily. This seemed to wake us up a bit and we started to move the ball around well between us and the pressure on the Burnley goal was there for all to see.
Leandro Trossard and Bukayo Saka had chances which were denied, and a lovely through ball from Gabriel found Gabriel Martinelli in a superb position to open the scoring, but he was deemed to be offside unfortunately.
In injury time of the first half, we deservedly took the lead when Bukayo Saka placed the ball into the Burnley penalty area, and Leandro Trossard bravely headed the ball into the net, but in doing so, accidentally clashed badly with James Trafford.
Our goalscorer walked away, holding his forearm, but fortunately the half-time whistle was blown, so our wonderful medical staff will be attending to him as a matter of urgency during the break.
The second half started with some anticipation and hope from our supporters to score more goals, and early on, the visitors caught us on the hop when Luca Koleosho, who was just going around David Raya in our penalty area, was superbly dispossessed by Gabriel with a sliding tackle.
We had a penalty shout denied by a VAR check when it looked like Jay Rodriguez pushed Gabriel in the penalty area, and a few minutes later, totally against the run of play, the visitors equalised through a Josh Brownhill left-footed shot from the centre of the penalty area that was deflected by Gabriel which sent David Raya the wrong way.
It looked at first that the goal could have been cancelled out to to a possible foul in the build-up by Luca Koleosho, but it was proved that was not to be the case. Just a few minutes later, Declan Rice slotted the ball to Gabriel Martinelli, whose right-footed shot from the left side of the penalty area was saved by James Trafford as it was heading for the bottom left-hand corner of the net, and from the corner that was conceded, after some good play out on the wing, a Leandro Trossard cross met the head of William Saliba, who scored our second goal from very close range.
A couple of minutes later, Fábio Vieira replaced Kai Havertz, and still the visitors came back at us with a strong Luca Koleosho right-footed shot from outside our penalty area which went wide of David Raya’s goal, thankfully.
Declan Rice almost scored (which would have been) an absolute cracker from about twenty-five yards when Leandro Trossard’s blocked shot fell nicely to him, and his sweetly hit shot just went inches wide of James Trafford’s post.
With sixteen minutes of the game remaining, we grabbed our third goal of the day when, moments after Dara O’Shea headed against his own bar the subsequent half-hearted clearance found Oleksandr Zinchenko, who scored from a beautiful scissor-kick shot which flew into the top corner of the net from about fifteen yards out.
We are firmly in the driving seat now. Reiss Nelson and Eddie Nketiah replaced Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossasrd, but disaster struck, when four minutes before the end of the game, Fábio Vieira was dismissed for a heavy tackle by referee Michasel Oliver, which looked to be more accidental than malicious.
Following a tackle from a Burnley defender, a limping Gabriel Martinelli was replaced by Jakob Kiwior in the final minute of time. Somehow, six minutes injury time was added, and during that period, we had a penalty shout denied again by VAR when Jay Rodriguez handled the ball, and there was a break in play when our captain Jorginho suffered a cut head as the result of a tackle, and as he went off the pitch for treatment, we were down to nine men for a while. It made no difference, as shortly afterwards, Michael Oliver blew the whistle for the end of the match.
Leandro Trossard’s goal was our thousandth goal scored at the Emirates, and tonight we are joint top of the Premiership with Manchester City on twenty-seven points, which is great news.
Although we struggled at times to break down the Lancastrians, in the end our class and experience stood us in good stead to take maximum points today.
Hopefully, by the time we get back to Premiership action at Brentford on 25th November, our injured players will have returned to action. Well done, chaps.
Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday, 25th November at 5.30pm (Premier League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.
Steve
Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon
