Match Report: Arsenal 0 – 1 Burnley

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Arsenal (0) 0 Burnley (0) 1

Premier League

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Sunday, 13th December 2020. Kick-off time: 7.15pm

(4-2-3-1) Bernd Leno; Hector Bellerin, Rob Holding, Gabriel Magalhães, Kieran Tierney; Mohamed Elneny, Granit Xhaka; Willian Borges da Silva, Alexandre Lacazette, Bukayo Saka; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Substitutes: Dani Ceballos, Alex Rúnarsson, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Shkodran Mustafi, Joe Willock, Eddie Nketiah, Emile Smith-Rowe.

Red Cards: Granit Xhaka

Yellow Cards: Hector Bellerin, Mohamed Elneny

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 65%

Referee: Graham Scott

Assistant Referees: Neil Davies, Richard West

Fourth Official: Stuart Attwell

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR David Coote; AVAR Nick Hopton

Attendance: A maximum of 2,000 attendees due to UK government coronavirus restrictions

We all know what is at stake here at the Emirates tonight. Bluntly, if we don’t win, and Brighton and Hove Albion beat Leicester City, then, depending on goal difference, we could be sixteenth in the Premiership table by 10.00pm this evening. We have to start turning this around, clawing back points in order to ascend the table, as we do not need to be dragged into a relegation dogfight just before the Christmas fixtures. We all know the stats decree that we have lost six of our nine Premiership matches, and we have gone 656 minutes without scoring a top-flight goal from open play. Anyway, that’s the dark stuff over and done with. Let’s go!

A fairly steady start to the match, with both sides slowly getting into the swing of things. The majority of the early action took place in the Burnley half, with several good chances going astray by our players. We were extremely fortunate not to go one down after thirteen minutes, when Chris Wood missed an absolute sitter, when he had a free header on our goal, but fortunately it went wide. We had plenty of possession, but nothing to show for it, despite some very good efforts on the Burnley goal by Alexandre Lacazette, Hector Bellerin and Rob Holding, to name just three. The visitors were very quick of mind and feet, catching us on the break a few times, and fortunately their attacks all came to nothing very quickly. Alexandre Lacazette was extremely unfortunate not to score when his point-blank shot was blocked and cleared by the Burnley defence, and as the ever-present North London rain started to make things difficult for both sides, most of the action was centred on the midfield area. However, just before the break, we managed to find one or two ways through the Burnley defence that looked quite hopeful, but it was not to be, sadly, and so we went into half-time with honours even, and the stats informing us that we had one shot on target throughout the whole of the first half.

The second half started with a bit more urgency from both sides, but it was us that almost broke the deadlock, when Kieran Tierney hit a low, right-footed shot on target, which Nick Pope had to dive quickly to his right to save. This inspired a period of Arsenal activity in the Burnley penalty area, with Granit Xhaka, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Mohamed Elneny being extremely unlucky not to open the scoring. Granit Xhaka got his marching orders for violent conduct after being the recipient of a seemingly minor tackle, and having now being down to ten men, Alexandre Lacazette was replaced by Dani Ceballos on the hour as an attempt by Mikel Arteta to re-jig the formation. The dismissal certainly changed the atmosphere of the game, and it was becoming patently obvious that this match could change in a heartbeat. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had a great chance to score, but he was declared to be offside, and at the other end, after a scuffle and a corner, he put the ball into his own net to give Burnley the lead. Shortly afterwards, Ainsley Maitland-Niles replaced Héctor Bellerín, and the visitors started to play with more confidence than us at this point in the game, applying pressure on Bernd Leno’s goal. Gabriel was unlucky not to score with a superb left-footed shot, and with five minutes left on the clock, Bukayo Saka found himself with space in the Burnley penalty area, but his shot went way over the bar. In the five minutes’ injury time, we applied much pressure on the Burnley goal, but to no avail. 

Dear God, that was truly awful. Losing the way we did, and having a man dismissed, it was terrible.The team has no confidence, no new ideas forthcoming, where are we going? If we don’t get six points from the next two matches (Southampton and Everton), the club could be in deep trouble. We’ll see on Wednesday evening. 

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: Southampton at the Emirates on Wednesday, 16th December at 6.00pm (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.

Arsenal must replicate Thursday form on a Sunday

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Throughout what has been a disjointed and inconsistent first quarter of the season for Arsenal, Thursday night wins have become routine, with the Gunners beating Dundalk 4-2.

The only team to win all six of their group-stage matches in European competition in 

2020-21, the Gunners breezed through to the last 32 of the Europa League but have not won a Premier League game since 1 November. 

Now, with no more continental football until February, Arsenal must translate their accomplished performances in Europe into the Premier League. 

Playing in the Europa League has given Mikel Arteta and his players some much-needed confidence after going more than a month without a win in domestic football, which was evident in the way Arsenal went about their business in Dublin. 

The chance for academy graduates to impress Arteta has continued, with the likes of Folarin Balogun, Eddie Nketiah, Joe Willock, Reiss Nelson, Emile Smith-Rowe and Miguel Azeez all impressing under the Thursday night lights. Hale End products continuing to shine in the first team also has the added benefit of putting pressure on some of the club’s more established players, who have been underwhelming in the league.

At the Aviva Stadium, Arsenal moved the ball with purpose and precision, intent on breaking down the Dundalk defence. This is in stark contrast to their past two league matches, where they looked lost for ideas against the discipline and determination of Tottenham and Wolves respectively. 

They will come up against another resolute side on Sunday, when they face Burnley at Emirates Stadium. If Arteta needs any inspiration for his game plan, then he should continue the policy of picking a mixture of young talent, blended with experienced heads. The Spaniard must send a message out to the squad that no player is infallible, and a smart way to do that would be by including youngsters who have shone in Europe. 

Indeed, after netting against Dundalk, Nketiah is now Arsenal’s top scorer this season, with five goals. In addition, Willock is the first Arsenal player to reach both three goals and three assists in a European campaign since 2016/17, when both Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil did so in the Champions League, according to Opta.

Arteta has also been bold with his choice of formations in Europe, often favouring an unorthodox 3-5-2. Therefore, it is no coincidence that Arsenal have looked far more dangerous in the Europa League, with 20 goals from their six matches. 

With goals hard to come by against admittedly tougher opposition, Arteta should not be afraid of tinkering how Arsenal set up in the Premier League, where they need to inject urgency and fluidity into their play. The Spaniard has preferred a more rigid structure in domestic fixtures, but the extra emphasis on his players’ shape has left them devoid of any attacking instincts. 

Arsenal currently sit 15th in the Premier League table and have a favourable run of fixtures heading into Christmas. As well as the visit of Burnley, the Gunners host Southampton before a trip to out-of-form Everton. These matches seem like the ideal time for Arteta to try something new that gets his team amongst the goals again. Even if wins have to be ground out in the dying minutes, rather than achieved with glitz and glamour, anything will do for Arsenal. 

Just as Arteta got the best of his players by guiding them to an FA Cup trophy, he must lift the squad again, as the focus now shifts to an improvement in Premier League performances after getting the job done in Europe.

Zac Campbell

Match Report: Dundalk 2 – 4 Arsenal

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Dundalk (1) 2 Arsenal (2) 4

UEFA Europa League, Group B, Matchday 6 of 6

Oriel Park, Carrickmacross Road, Cambrickville, Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland

Thursday, 10th December 2020. Kick-off time: 5.55pm

(3-4-3) Alex Rúnarsson; Calum Chambers, Shkodran Mustafi, Pablo Marí; Cédric Soares, Joe Willock, Mohamed Elneny, Ainsley Maitland-Niles; Nicolas Pépé, Eddie Nketiah, Emile Smith-Rowe.

Substitutes: Bukayo Saka, Dani Ceballos, Rob Holding, Matt Macey, Folarin Balogun, Ben Cottrell, Karl Hein, Miguel Azeez.

Scorers: Eddie Nketiah (11 mins), Mohamed Elneny (18 mins), Joe Willock (67 mins), Folarin Balogun (80 mins)

Yellow Cards: Cédric Soares, Joe Willock

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 52%

Referee: Goran Pataki (Croatia)

Assistant Referees: Goran Pataki (Croatia), Bojan Zobenica (Croatia)

Fourth Official: Igor Pajac (Croatia)

Referee Observer: Georgi Yordanov (Bulgaria)

Attendance: A minimal amount of attendees (circa 3,000) due to coronavirus restructions

Firstly, congratulations to Dundalk, who won the FAI Cup with a 4-2 victory over league champions Shamrock Rovers on this very ground four days ago. However, as far as tonight’s match is concerned, we are champions of the group, and our opponents cannot qualify, so there should be some scope here for squad experimentation, if Mikel Arteta should so desire. Either way, the match should be interesting, if nothing else, as we are looking to win six consecutive major European matches (excluding qualifiers) for the first time since November 2005. Let’s go!

On an extremely heavy pitch that was cutting up quite badly early on, we controlled proceedings with almost no problems at all in the opening stages of the match. Despite the players slipping and sliding everywhere, our passing remained accurate, and Emile Smith-Rowe, Nicolas Pépé along with Eddie Nketiah, gave the Dundalk defence plenty of problems quite early on. As soon as the eleventh minute, Eddie Nketiah charged down an attempted clearance by Andrew Boyle and found the net (despite the best efforts of defender Daniel Cleary to kick it clear), which makes him the highest Arsenal scorer this season so far. After a bit more midfield movement, Mohamed Elneny hit an absolute screamer into the roof of the net to make it two-nil to Arsenal after just eighteen minutes play. To give the home side their dues, they didn’t give up, and continued to press us well, which led to Dundalk getting one back after twenty-two minutes, when Jordan Flores hit a ball into the top corner of our net, leaving Alex Rúnarsson grasping for air. The goals made the match more competitive, with both sides launching attacks in which a few players were desperately unlucky not to score, and with ten minutes to go before the break, Cédric Soares almost got a third when his twenty yard shot was pushed around the post by goalkeeper Rogers. The home side didn’t give up though; on the stroke of half-time, a cross by Patrick McEleney found Darragh Leahy in the six-yard box, but fortunately Calum Chambers was there to block the shot, which let us off the hook in the final seconds before the break.

We started the second half strongly, and were unfortunate not to score on one or two instances, although Dundalk did hit us cold on the break seven minutes after the restart, but fortunately we managed to get enough bodies back to quell the danger. As the match was drifting into nothing but huff and puff, Mikel Arteta introduced Dani Ceballos and Folarin Balogun for Mohamed Elneny and Eddie Nketiah just after the hour and as soon as they were on the pitch, an excellent Cédric Soares free-kick was palmed away by goalkeeper Gary Rogers. A little while later, some sterling work by super teenager Folarin Balogun who held the ball up well inside the Dundalk penalty area before laying the ball off neatly for Joe Willock to finish the job expertly; his first goal of the night, our third. Fairly plain sailing for us now, and after Emile Smith-Rowe being substituted for Ben Cottrell, with just ten minutes of the match remaining, a beautiful fourth goal came from young Folarin Balogun when he slotted the ball past Gary Rogers after collecting an inch-perfect pass in the penalty area from Nicolas Pépé. In an order to consolidate, Ben Azeez replaced Joe Willock, and then out of nowhere, Sean Hoare scored Dundalk’s second of the night with a strong header. In injury time, Calum Chambers put the ball into the Dundalk net, but it was disallowed for offside; it made no difference, as the referee called proceedings to a close a couple of minutes later.

So that was the end of the Group B matches in the Europa League for this year; eighteen points from six matches, a full house. Although this dead rubber of a match lacked importance, it was by no means a foregone conclusion. Good as we were, Dundalk had their moments too, and it got a bit scary at the back at times, but in the end everyone came through. Back to big boys’ football on Sunday night with the arrival of Burnley to the Emirates, and all the worries and doubts will start up again, no doubt. There surely cannot be any one of us who wouldn’t love to be able to transfer those Europa League points to our current Premier League tally. But life ain’t like that.

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: Burnley at the Emirates on Sunday, 13th December at 7.15pm (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.