by Bulldog Drummond.
We have beaten Burnley 51 times throughout history, and lost 33 times, with 21 games being draws, and the last ten give no cause for concern. But that problem of recovering from the first defeat in a while is always lurking around.
Here are the recent Burnlian results…
| Date | Game | Res | Score | Competition |
| 08 Mar 2009 | Arsenal v Burnley | W | 3-0 | FA Cup |
| 16 Dec 2009 | Burnley v Arsenal | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
| 06 Mar 2010 | Arsenal v Burnley | W | 3-1 | Premier League |
| 01 Nov 2014 | Arsenal v Burnley | W | 3-0 | Premier League |
| 11 Apr 2015 | Burnley v Arsenal | W | 0-1 | Premier League |
| 30 Jan 2016 | Arsenal v Burnley | W | 2-1 | FA Cup |
| 02 Oct 2016 | Burnley v Arsenal | W | 0-1 | Premier League |
| 22 Jan 2017 | Arsenal v Burnley | W | 2-1 | Premier League |
| 26 Nov 2017 | Burnley v Arsenal | W | 0-1 | Premier League |
| 06 May 2018 | Arsenal v Burnley | W | 5-0 | Premier League |
And now we are entering a phase of play in which managers will start to manage their squads so that instead of putting out the strongest line up for each league game they are trying to manage the squad across this period of multiple matches.
It will be puzzling for Mr Emery, although I am sure he is well prepared by his advisers, since of course the rest of football takes a break. But England, as ever, is different.
True Premier League teams will have their games spread out over one more day than happened last Christmas, but that is just because of the way the weekends fall, not through any decision making by the League.
And for once it is not Arsenal who will get the very worst of it, as Tottenham have just two days of rest between each of their games. This is primarily because of TV – the bods who run Sky and BT making demands simply for viewing figures without any regard for the well being of players. Although I am starting to wonder if someone somewhere isn’t seeing Tottenham as the “upstart crow” of this footballing age.
And of course for themselves Tottenham are learning to live with the notion of being in Europe and the latter stages of the League Cup – something that has not always bothered them in the trophy-thin past.
Liverpool however are particularly favoured having four days between 21 December and 3 January – the longest spell of any club. 14 days inclusive to play the four games. Tottenham have four games in 10 days, we are only slightly better off with four games in 11 days. Manchester City have 13 days to play their games.
The list of opponents that the clubs have to play is of interest too. In what follows the position of each club being being played by what I suppose we must now call the “top 5” is in brackets. Everyone gets two games at home and two away.
| Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liverpool | Wolves (7) | Newcastle (14) | Arsenal (5) | Man City (2) |
| Man City | Palace (15) | Leicester (12) | Soton (17) | Liverpool (1) |
| Tottenham | Everton (8) | Bournem’th (11) | Wolves (7) | Cardiff (16) |
| Chelsea | Leicester (12) | Watford (10) | Palace (15) | Soton (17) |
| Arsenal | Burnley (18) | Brighton (13) | Liverpool (1) | Fulham (20) |
The media is already talking up the fact that we now have little hope of getting into the top four by the end of the season, and saying that defeat tomorrow will put a firm end to such hopes. But in reality all clubs get runs – we just have to get out of our run of two defeats quickly, and be thankful that one of those two games is not hurting our league position, only our pride.
Perhaps we are now helped by the awareness of the fact that we have not lost against a side in the bottom three in 11 years and if Mr Emery (whose name I recently mistyped as Mr Energy, and how appropriate that seems, watching him on the touch line) does some of his famous line up transformations part way through the game, we should be fine.
The preview of the game concludes tomorrow morning with the line up.
- Arsenal v Burnley: injuries, Burnley recently, the problem of the end of a run
- New referee research is valuable but is still fundamentally flawed
- Matchweek 18 – All the Games, All the Officials; and the predictions
