By Bulldog Drummond
That table of course is the injury table, which according to bloggettas and pundits, of which Arsenal are always at the top.
| Pos | Club | Men down | Last man to fall | What he got |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Everton | 9 | J Kenny | Illness |
| 2 | Liverpool | 7 | D Lovren | Back Injury |
| 3 | Watford | 6 | K Femenia | Knock |
| 4 | Bournemouth | 6 | J Defoe | Calf Strain |
| 5 | West Ham United | 6 | M Arnautovic | Knee Injury |
| 6 | Crystal Palace | 4 | J Mutch | Knock |
| 7 | Newcastle United | 4 | C Atsu | Thigh Muscle Strain |
| 8 | West Bromwich Albion | 4 | C Brunt | Calf Strain |
| 9 | Chelsea | 4 | Kenedy | Muscle Injury |
| 10 | Stoke City | 3 | J Butland | Broken Finger |
| 11 | Huddersfield Town | 3 | P Billing | Ankle Injury |
| 12 | Burnley | 3 | D Marney | Fitness |
| 13 | Manchester United | 3 | M Carrick | Heart Condition |
| 14 | Swansea City | 2 | T Abraham | Back Spasm |
| 15 | Tottenham Hotspur | 2 | T Alderweireld | Hamstring Injury |
| 16 | Leicester City | 2 | R Huth | Foot |
| 17 | Manchester City | 2 | J Stones | Hamstring Injury |
| 18 | Southampton | 2 | M Lemina | Ankle Injury |
| 19 | Arsenal | 1.5 | Theo | Illness |
| 20 | Brighton and Hove | 1 | S Sidwell | Back Injury |
Now this is the first time we have shown a club having a rating of 1.5 players unavailable, but the reason for this is the continuing difference between ourselves and physioroom on the basis of what one might say about Santi Cazorla. He is not listed in the 25 available players, and Arsenal do indeed have 25 players in the list of over 21s. So all that suggests he should not be included since even if fit he couldn’t play. But Physioroom from whom we take our figures, insists on putting him in. Thus we have compromised and given him a ranking of half.
In terms of the teams, the only player from the cup match on Thursday who might be pressing for a start is Danny Welbeck but considering that he was deliberately only given half a game and is being treated with caution, I suspect he’ll be on the beach, while the starting XI remains the same – meaning that the Alexis Lacazette and Ozil front line continues.
And the reason that matters: we have won all five of the Premier League games in which both Alexis Sanchez and Alexandre Lacazette have started. Add in Ozil and you have the perfect lineup.
Mr Wenger’s commentary on the matter was,
“Of course they are the surprise package because if you asked before the season 100 people ‘will Burnley have 22 points at this stage in the season?’ ninety would have said no and the 10 others would have been Burnley supporters.
“You know they’ve won games with 30, 25 per cent possession – that means they know what they want to do and are patient to have that killing instinct of a snake.
“They put you to that pace and suddenly they bite you.”
When we look at the home team league table Burnley are one of the surprise packages…
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester United | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 1 | 19 | 21 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 4 | 11 | 18 |
| 3 | Manchester City | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 24 | 4 | 20 | 16 |
| 4 | Liverpool | 7 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 13 | 2 | 11 | 15 |
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 12 |
| 6 | Burnley | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 11 |
Although in getting those three wins we may care to note that they have actually scored just five goals at home in six games. One wonders if the home support have noticed that quite a few other teams actually score more? In fact all teams score more than Burnley at home except Swansea who have knocked in just four.
If we now compare this with Arsenal’s away form, we find ourselves very much in the lower reaches with an accumulation of just one win and one draw, but with four defeats.
| Pos | Club | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
| 15 | Arsenal | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 12 | -5 | 4 |
| 16 | Newcastle United | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 9 | -5 | 4 |
| 17 | Huddersfield Town | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 11 | -8 | 4 |
| 18 | Everton | 6 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 12 | -8 | 3 |
| 19 | West Ham United | 7 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 15 | -10 | 3 |
| 20 | Crystal Palace | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 13 | -13 | 0 |
But in getting that one win and one draw we’ve managed to score more goals than Burnley. I wonder at this point if the home support think they are getting value for money. Indeed I wonder if they have noticed that this season’s home goalscoring is even worse than last season’s, when the got 26 goals in 19 home league games in total.
There will be more on this – and the teams – in the very near future.
we should just becareful bcos they are a well organised side and very physical but if we play the way we played vs spurs then they are in for a tough afternoon in that their tough moore. 2-0 to the Arsenal
Going into this match this afternoon, I believe all the 18 man Gunners match day squad will each ahead of playing in this PL match today at Turf Moor protect themselves by having anti-venom stake bite vaccine injected into them as a precautionary measure taken to nullify any effect of toxin injected into them by the Clarets biting as snakes in the game as it’s being played. Which translates to the Gunners putting up an impregnable general game defending fort in the match throughout the entire duration of it which the Clarets cannot breach however hard they try. And the Gunners too should I believe, will not limit their game to just defending in the match but will be on the offensive in the game when they have the chance to attack. And as a 2nd security action adopted for this match, the Gunners must take along with themselves their high caliber rifles with high precision in Sanchez, Lacazette and Ozil to spearhead assaults into the enemy territory – Burnley and inflicting collateral damage on the Clarets in the game from which they can’t recover from but throw in the towel to give up the fight.
At Full–time, the scoreb board read: Burnley 0-2 Arsenal.