Arsenal v Burnley: Burnley’s problems, Arsenal’s team

Posted on by Tony Attwood

by Bulldog Drummond

The oldest team in the Premier League meets the youngest today, as the game today celebrates the anniversary of the purchase of Burnley for £170m.  Thus showing new owners don’t always mean new money.  ALK Capital have a lot to answer for, but seemingly no money of their own to invest and no answers whatsoever on the future of the club.

Although to be fair, they have spent other people’s money on a big screen and hospitality suite and they also have “a fan experience manager”.  So that’s all right.

But of course since the new owners borrowed the money to take over the club, they have to pay it back sometime.   Besides 85% of the Burnley income comes from TV, which means that if they go down, as seems likely, they are liable to fold if the recent buyers can’t find a new buyer to take on a Championship club and on-going debts.

Although this would explain what the Telegraph noticed: ten of their senior players are out of contract at the end of this season, and six more are out of contract next season.  Indeed only non-scoring Wolverhampton depend on fewer players than Burnley.  And interestingly when we look at the issue of goals scored, Burnley and Wolverhampton are in the bottom three.  Only Norwich is below them.   It’s tough up north.  (And in the midlands, and out east).

So what of the Arsenal team for today…

Sports Mole as ever oblige us with

Ramsdale;

Tomiyasu, White, Gabriel, Tierney;

Lokonga, Odegaard;

Saka, Smith Rowe, Martinelli;

Lacazette

The Standard pick the same players but put them in slightly different positions…

Ramsdale;

Tomiyasu, White, Gabriel, Tierney;

Smith Rowe, Lokonga, Odegaard;

Saka, Lacazette, Martinelli.

Football Whispers don’t lay out the team in a grid, but give a list, so I’ll translate that directly onto the page, but it looks a bit odd.  The players however are the same…

Ramsdale,

Tierney, Tomiyasu, Gabriel, White,

Ødegaard, Smith Rowe, Lokonga,

Lacazette, Saka Martinelli

I am sure they don’t actually mean it like that but that’s what they have published.

Hard Tackle gives us again the same players but again with a different set of positions…

Ramsdale;

Tomiyasu, White, Gabriel, Tierney;

Odegaard, Lokonga, Smith Rowe;

Saka, Lacazette, Martinelli

Finally on the team front however, with the Express we do have a different lineup as well as different positions, for they think Patino has done enough to be included one more time.

Ramsdale;

Tomiyasu, White, Gabriel, Tierney;

Lokonga, Patino;

Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli;

Lacazette.

So there with are.  Everything in terms of the statistics and the emotions and the history and anything else you can think of points to an Arsenal win.   Which can of course often mean the opposite happens.   The league table this morning reads…

Pos Team P W D L F A GD Pts
1 Manchester City 23 18 3 2 55 14 41 57
2 Liverpool 21 13 6 2 55 18 37 45
3 Chelsea 23 12 8 3 46 18 28 44
4 Manchester United 22 11 5 6 36 30 6 38
5 West Ham United 23 11 4 8 41 31 10 37
6 Tottenham Hotspur 19 11 3 5 26 22 4 36
7 Arsenal 20 11 2 7 33 25 8 35

Palace play Liverpool and Leicester play Brighton also at 2pm today, which means that a win for us today will take us back into fourth and with a game in hand over Manchester United who would drop to fifth.

Of course, fourth is not a trophy, but it is rather curious that since the Anti-Arsenal Arsenal helped force Mr Wenger out of the club, we haven’t heard their mindless re-statement of that notion nearly so much.  They really are / were a most appalling bunch of morons.

It really is a funny ol game.

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28 Replies to “Arsenal v Burnley: Burnley’s problems, Arsenal’s team”

  1. ramsdale
    white-holding-gabriel-tierney
    saka-odegaard-lokonga-smithrowe-martinelli
    lacazette
    young, strong, attacking lineup … provided the lads are fitter today than they were thursday!!
    COYG

  4. When you see some of the extremely soft cards given to our lads it is criminal how Westwood did not get a second yellow for an elbow in the face of Gabriel to stop an Arsenal attack in its tracks.
    Coote is the PGMOL chosen one this time. Disgraceful refereeing.

  5. With the PGMO up to their usual tricks I wonder what they’ve decided the score will be .
    These days we have to score 3 to make 1 count
    Burnley at this moment should be down to 9 thugs.
    Meanwhile the ref is counting up stray limbs all belonging to Arsenal players before he gives a lecture to Burnley thug. As that goes on Laca is sent off for querying the refs decisions this afternoon.

  6. 30 minutes to go
    3-4-3 maybe??
    ramsdale
    white-holding-gabiel
    chambers-odegaard-smithrowe-tierney
    saka-lacazette-martinelli
    … calum can score a header, too
    COYG

  7. notwithstanding Burnley getting away with their usual thuggery, that was not our best performance. There were a lot of players standing still. Not enough runs were made. To some extent all these postponments etc have taken the edge off of our play. I think we knocked the ball into their box 20 times and got the first touch maybe twice. Bletch

  8. In former times Burnley were a good team and played good football.

    Now they are complete sh..e. They would give pub football a bad name.

    Once they knew that the ref would allow it, they kicked our players to bits, especially Saka. Considering the cheap red cards we get, they should have been down to 9 players

    They deserve to go down.

  9. I expect Dyche will come out with his usual post match s**t and accuse our lads of going to ground too easily.

  10. Time wasting & PGMO = formula.
    Burnley will probably stay up using this formula, Mr Arteta certainly has to learn, the players have to learn.

    There’s almost a default position that inhibits, the lads slip back into it – pass sideways, pass backwards. Don’t take a decision. The emphasis on finishing top 4 freezes them, neutralizes their attacking skill. Seventeen games to go and the manager has to confront one of the pillars holding the EPL in position – a pisspoor football team staying alive in a relegation struggle.

    Whatever choices PGMO make are always in the service of the EPL as a brand. This might be acceptable if it was a level playing field but Arsenal’s position in the drama of the EPL is already pre-determined. Burnley will always be allowed to time-waste, against Arsenal certainly. And as for Saka’s ankles, he’ll carry the kicks for the rest of his life.

  11. What I find frustrating is we had none of this double standard refereeing even mentioned on our OWN TV channel.

    Even before the match started the conclusion regarding our ridiculous amount of red cards was it’s all our own fault.

    Now I accept and as we all know, that most cards are subjective, so on that basis alone every single card we get can, and usually is justified by most.

    Similarly every card an opponent doesn’t get can be excused under the same banner of ‘subjectivity’, but surely you would of thought our own talking heads would at least acknowledge the double standards being applied to our boys, especially when it’s so bleedin’ obvious.

    But no, not a word.

  12. Mr Dyche is a canny manager. He set his team up to defend and to stop Arsenal from being more technical in the final third of the field. Burnley can be a physical team and when necessary referees must be prepared to punish dangerous play more consistently than was evident in this match! Bukayo Saka needed protection from the type of tackling that Arsenal are accused of, but received nothing. However, I feel that this was not the reason for not winning. This Arsenal team is a young team and its inexperience in the final third was also very evident. Shots on goal seemed to be rushed when a cooler head was required to control the shot or pass the ball to a better placed team member. Player movement seemed to be slow and somewhat static in midfield thus allowing the Burnley defence to nullify many Arsenal approaches. Despite having a number of set plays, the Burnley game plan had little trouble in defending the Arsenal set plays. Clearly a number of players are well short of full match fitness at the moment. The Arsenal bench suggested the full extent of the problem at Arsenal at the moment with it consisting of a number of academy players who are yet to make any premier appearances.
    There is not another Premier game until the middle of February. This is time perhaps to allow poor match fitness, injuries and suspensions to be overcome. There are many games still to be played that Arsenal can win to move them within the top four positions. Not all is negative!
    However, a number of supporters will continue to lambast the players and the coaching staff and the manager because of the outcome result from the match. I can understand present frustration concerning paying spectators as well as armchair spectators like myself. We want the team to perform well, win and to entertain at all times. Indeed, I was somewhat negative towards the coaching staff earlier in the season. By the end of 2021 the team was performing at a higher level and the performances I found were very entertaining to watch. Since 2022, Illness, injuries, suspension, AFCON have not helped team development and experience. If all goes backwards, then so be it. I hope not! BUT if it does, I shall be disappointed whilst still following the club next season (if I am still healthy and safe). That is what we do as supporters of a football club.

  14. You’re right Nitram I stopped watching some matches to take a breather incase I break my TV. The double standards is still going on. It’s hard to watch how to counter balance things only with a website and all videos reviewed and a league table of ref F ups.

  15. Apparently Liverpool were unfairly given a penalty against Palace for an imaginary foul.

    The EPL – PGMO script is all too easy to read and predict.

  16. Va Cong

    It’s happening again in the Chelsea Spurs game. A player from each side pushing and shoving each other. Nothing too much, but should of been a yellow for each. What do we get from the ref ? Just a word. What do we get from Mr’s Neville and Tyler ? Not a dickybird. No indignation. No, you cant do that. You know, the sort of outrage you get every time an Arsenal player gets involved in that sort of thing. We all know Xhaka wouldn’t of got away with it from the ref or commentators.

    But as we all know, as long as Chelsea leave it 4 months between pitch battle’s they get away with that, so a little bit of pushing and shoving’s hardly going to get them in hot water is it ?

    And my second point, this question asked of Arteta by the media:

    “…..if we need new signings to challenge for the top four” ?

    Err ?? We currently sit 2 points behind Man Utd in 4th with a game in hand. If that’s not ‘challenging’ for the top 4 I don’t know what is ? Surely under those measures neither are Spurs or West Ham “challenging” for the top 4.

    I don’t know if we’ll end up in the top 4 or not, but we sure as hell are in there challenging.

    Spurs are currently 2 down at the Bridge. Will Conti be asked the same question?

    Was Moyes asked that question yesterday after their defeat?

    I don’t know but I doubt the first will be, or the second was. But that’s how it is with us.

  17. John L

    In my opinion it was 50/50. Personally I erred on no penalty but I appreciate it was in “I’ve seen ’em given’ territory.

    But here’s the thing. The referee didn’t give it. It couldn’t be called a clear and obvious error because it was, as I say, a 50/50.

    But this is Liverpool we are talking about so VAR tells the ref to have another look, and we all know what that means. Change your mind !!

    Never in a million years would VAR of done that if it was us, as we have seen.

  18. Nitram,

    I haven’treceived seen it, so fully accept your view.

    An additional observation is that BBC is openly critical of this decision and VAR’s role. Never a mention when the decisions go against Arsenal.

  19. Arsenal ladies have just gone a goal down to Man City following another decision from a referee that doesn’t seem to know the rules. The ball hit the referee which significantly changed the direction of the ball and set City off on a promising attack, obviously, as they scored from it:

    Law changes for 2019/20 explained 8 Aug 2019

    Dropped balls

    Contested dropped balls are a thing of the past.

    If play is stopped outside the penalty area and a dropped ball required, it will now be dropped for a player from the team that last touched it, where the last touch happened.

    All other players must be at least four metres away.

    If play is stopped inside the penalty area, the ball will be dropped for the goalkeeper.

    If the ball touches the referee or another match official and goes into the goal, or results in a change of possession or a promising attack, a dropped ball will be awarded.

    https://www.premierleague.com/news/1292424

    A DROP BALL WILL BE AWARDED IF THE BALL TOUCHES THE REFEREE AND RESULTS IN A PROMISING ATTACK.

    That is in the rules. Not only did the referee not know that rule but neither did both commentators. Of course they didn’t.

    Honestly, even our women are screwed by the PigMob

  20. The ladies rescue a point with a goal in the 93rd minute.

    A draw probably about right but that doesn’t change the fact Man City’s goal shouldn’t of been allowed for the reasons above.

    How can a referee not know the rules?

    Why don’t the commentators? Or did they choose not to know ?

    Well done ladies.

  21. Late equaliser for our Women. Tobin Heath gives us a point.

    The Referee is another FIFA accredited official and is following in the foosteps of her male colleagues by being totally one sided in awarding free kicks. The higher qualified they are the worse they seem to be for Arsenal.

    We are still not playing at the lever we were at the start of the season and more work isneeded on the training pitch. I also hope that the injury to Leah Williamson isn’t serious – always a worry when a player is just trying to come back after alengthy lay off

    Still apoint is better than none.

  22. @ Nitram

    I think that’s what earned Jonas Eidevall his yellow card pointing out that the referee was incompetent

  23. Andrew

    The fact is her boss should being calling her in to her office in the morning and shoving the rule book in her face and suspending her for not knowing whats in it.

    Of course we all know she’s far more likely to get a promotion.

    I thought Miedema was a shadow of the player she was. Whats happened?

  24. @ Nitram

    You dumbass!! “How can a referee not know the rules”! Sorry mate but I thought you were brighter than that.

    Some referees actually do know the rules but choose to interpret them in a way which suits themselves and Fuhrer Riley.

    Others obviously prefer not to be persecuted by the media so do whatever they think will keep the media happy.

    Obviously there are many referees who are just utterly incompetent and are just there to make up the numbers (and are largely from the North!!!)

  25. Mikey

    Sorry mate, what was I thinking !!

    Seriously though, what gets me is this is a clear rule.

    A DROP BALL WILL BE AWARDED IF THE BALL TOUCHES THE REFEREE AND RESULTS IN A PROMISING ATTACK.

    Man City’s player was gifted the ball, unmarked, out wide, with acres of space to run in to. The epitome of a ‘Promising attack’.

    It’s bad enough we get screwed on the ‘subjective’ calls. There was nothing subjective about that.

  26. @Nitram it was a 50 50 tackle to interpretation on for arsenal one for the opposition. Xhaka would have got 3 Red cards by that standard instead of a telling off 😂

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