It's happened again, it's happened again, Burnley gets burned in injury time. On balance, I think we deserved this one. The first half saw us outplayed by a significant margin, but whatever Arsene did at halftime worked, because it was all Arsenal after the break. We had two strong penalty shouts, and the second one was rewarded with a whistle and a point to the spot, and with less than a minute to go we had our accustomed late winner against a very game Burnley side.
That wasn't all that happened of course; this was a well played and engrossing contest. Burnley did more than defend in the first half, and had more half-chances. The first twenty minutes was owned by the home side, and they didn't slack off much the rest of the way. In the second half, they dropped back as we upped our game. Burnley defended very well. I did get very annoyed with Barnes's flopping every chance he got; clearly it was a tactic designed to win some dangerous free kicks, and it worked. Cech and his minions did well to keep those shots and crosses from doing damage.
It was a hard game to referee. Burnley and Arsenal tackled and crowded players in possession at every opportunity. Lee Mason did a decent job except for awarding too many free kicks for the aforesaid dives, but in a game this physical a referee has no chance of getting them all right. In the end, justice was done and our two PK shouts equaled one goal--the only goal, just as last year's handball goal from Kos won at Turf Moor.
I have high praise for the defense, who did their job and also contributed to the offense as we pushed Burnley practically into their own net in repeated attempts to get the three points. Xhaka and Ramsey had a lot to do in midfield but managed to do it well. The wingbacks got very involved going forward and I think it was Sead whose header in to Ramsey induced the penalty. (Had Tarkowsky kept his hands off Ramsey, Aaron would almost certainly have gotten his head onto the ball, but it would have been very hard for him to have steered it in past the keeper. Nevertheless, clear PK.) The front three got crowded every time they were in position to shoot, but their movement was excellent and gave Burnley problems all game. Iwobi's industry on defense was valuable in the first half, but we missed Ozil's passing all game. Lacazette was watched closely but still contributed, and Alexis always looked the most dangerous player out there. He really can spot a pass and deliver it.
Good game, right result, top four (above Spurs, finally). Tottenham, Liverpool, and Chelsea all dropped points. I hope the crowded fixture list doesn't wear us down, but that's a problem all our rivals will have to deal with too. We should be competing for all four cups, but realistically, City is not going to be caught (by us, anyway; United has a faint hope), so it's Carabao and the sixth UEFA group game for the young'uns, FA and Europa League knockouts for a strategic cast, and the league to try for that fifth trophy, the ticket to Champions' League.
Hanging over everything is the Alexis/Ozil contract situation, but hey, we can't worry about that. What I do worry about is the number of players we have who can't play 90 minutes. Iwobi and Lacazette especially are missed when they run out of gas with a half hour to go. Welbeck is another guy who is never going to go 90. I think Shad Forsythe's contribution towards minimizing our injury absences is overlooked, and I give him a lot of credit. Maybe he could work on conditioning too; it could be that we can get more productive minutes from some key players.
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