By Bulldog Drummond
The key issue for Burnley is that they have sold Chris Wood to Newcastle. Although he has only scored three league goals for the club this season, that actually represents almost one fifth of Burnley’s goals. In terms of the league only Maxwell Cornet has scored more in the league for Burnley with six goals.
Burnley’s recent run in the league has been pretty poor as we have already seen from the last six and last ten games tables…
| Date | Match | Res | Score | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Nov 2021 | Chelsea v Burnley | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
| 20 Nov 2021 | Burnley v Crystal Palace | D | 3-3 | Premier League |
| 1 Dec 2021 | Wolverhampton Wanderers v Burnley | D | 0-0 | Premier League |
| 4 Dec 2021 | Newcastle United v Burnley | L | 1-0 | Premier League |
| 12 Dec 2021 | Burnley v West Ham United | D | 0-0 | Premier League |
| 30 Dec 2021 | Manchester United v Burnley | L | 3-1 | Premier League |
| 2 Jan 2022 | Leeds United v Burnley | L | 3-1 | Premier League |
If we compare this with Arsenal across their last seven games in the league we have four wins in there – although the games have taken place across one month as opposed to almost two months for Burnley.
| Date | Match | Res | Score | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Dec 2021 | Manchester United v Arsenal | L | 3-2 | Premier League |
| 6 Dec 2021 | Everton v Arsenal | L | 2-1 | Premier League |
| 11 Dec 2021 | Arsenal v Southampton | W | 3-0 | Premier League |
| 15 Dec 2021 | Arsenal v West Ham United | W | 2-0 | Premier League |
| 18 Dec 2021 | Leeds United v Arsenal | W | 1-4 | Premier League |
| 26 Dec 2021 | Norwich City v Arsenal | W | 0-5 | Premier League |
| 1 Jan 2022 | Arsenal v Manchester City | L | 1-2 | Premier League |
Historically however Arsenal has done well against Burnley, winning 55, drawing 23 and losing 34 which gives us a 49% win record.
The reason Arsenal’s record is not better is that Burnley have had a couple of spells when they were a better team than Arsenal. In particular in the first quarter of the last century, and again in the 1950s through to the 1960s they were quite a strong club. Indeed it may seem hard to believe now but they were first division champions in 1960, and in 1962 losing Cup finalists and runners’ up in the first division.
But after that they faded away and ended up in the fourth division by the early 1990s, winning the fourth division in 1994 and gradually clawing their way upward since then. Their last honour was winning the championship in 2016.
Since Burnley got back into the top league in 2009 we’ve played them 15 times in the League. Burnley have won one of these, on 13 December 2020; a 0-1 victory for them at Arsenal Stadium. You might recall this was at the moment Arsenal were 15th (Burnley were 17th after this match) and was the time Mr Arteta was imposing the new “do not tackle” regime, to move Arsenal away from being the club with the worst yellow card record (as it had had the season before).
That transformation was indeed sorted out by Christmas Day, and for the last two-thirds of the season, Arsenal had the second-best record in the league.
So just as Arsenal have a far better record than Burnley this season, and through the last 10 and last six games this campaign as well, Arsenal also have had much the best of it against Burnley historically.
And we can add to this. Arsenal currently have the seventh-best scoring record in the league, despite losing our top scorer for most of this season. Across the last six league games in the league, we are the second-highest scoring side. Across the last ten league games, we are the third-best scoring side. (This is incidentally not something Sky TV will ever consider – on their lunchtime programme today the main bit of chit chat was that Arsenal have GOT to get a new centre forward.)
As for Burnley, only Norwich have scored fewer goals this season.
Curiously though Arsenal and Burnley are pretty much equals when it comes to defence. Arsenal have conceded 25 and Burnley 27. However, because of the number of games played being different it is probably more accurate to consider the number of goals conceded per game.
Arsenal have conceded 1.25 goals per game this season. For Burnley it is 1.59. Everything still points to a solid Arsenal win.
- Arsenal v Burnley absentees, recent form and managerial success.
- Arsenal v Burnley: tackles, fouls, yellows and home/away form
