Brave Burnley hold onto a much-needed draw against Arsenal

Burnley came away from the Emirates with their heads held very high as they not only frustrated Arsenal but showed intent to even win the game.

Nick Pope was the busier goalkeeper, but on several occasions, mostly inspired by Dwight McNeil, Burnley strode forward. The recent departure of Chris Wood weighed heavily on their subsequent decision making but the attacks they created at least served to give their beleagured defenders a break.

James Tarkowski was absolutely immense. He cleared danger after danger, both in the air and on the ground. Aerial clearances may be expected from such a tall player, but his ground interceptions and clearances defied the Gunners on many occasions.

Arsenal’s chances were mostly created by Bukayo Saka but his confidence seemed low and Burnley often reduced him to a less than perfect service inwards which they were well equipped to deal with.

Technically Arsenal were very poor.

The shooting was abysmal, Kieran Tierney, being just one of the culprits. However, it was Martin Odegaard whose poor technique stood out. Time after time, he found a Burnley head with a free-kick. His shooting was as poor as his colleagues, and on one occasion, he passed the ball out of play with his teammates waiting.

Mikael Arteta might have been expected to make changes when seeing his side’s lack of threat. As the 70th minute arrived, nothing happened. The reason may be in his lack of depth as only four of his nine substitutes had previously played in the Premier League.

It was one of the more experienced players, Eddie Nketiah, who was the first to come on, belatedly in the 75th minute.

In his post-match thoughts, Arsenal manager Mikael Arteta said that his side were devoid of ideas and Burnley’s ‘slow game’ did not help that.

“At the end, when we have a really low block, you need spark and creativity to win football matches and today we didn’t do that.

“It is what they do, they want to play a slow game, it takes long, it is their game and you have to respect that.”

The Spaniard did not really show his respect to the Clarets’ system as Pope may have taken his time over a few goal kicks, but why did Burnley have so many goal kicks? The answer is simply because Arsenal kept missing the target.

With Norwich and Newcastle winning at Watford and Leeds United respectively, the relegation dog fight produced seven points out of a possible 12. Watford, of course, were the big losers but nerves will be jangling at managerless Everton and perhaps even Brentford and Leeds at the resurgence of the abandoned.

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