Arsenal vs Burnley (16/17)

Team news:
Arsenal: Arsenal welcome back Hector Bellerin (ankle), Kieran Gibbs (knee) and Francis Coquelin (hamstring), while Danny Welbeck is hopeful of more minutes after substitute appearances in the last two matches following a long-term knee injury. Theo Walcott remains unavailable due to a calf problem but Olivier Giroud (toe) is back in training.

Burnley: Scott Arfield and Johann Berg Gudmundsson have hamstring injuries and midfielder Dean Marney and forward Ashley Barnes are carrying knocks, but Sean Dyche hopes to have all four fit for Sunday. Defender Kevin Long has undergone knee surgery and is out.



THE MANAGER
Burnley are the biggest overachievers in this season’s Premier League, starting the weekend in the top half of the table. Sean Dyche deserves great credit, drilling his players in a solid defensive shape on the training ground and increasingly adding a counter-attacking threat too.

FORMATION
In the first half of the campaign, Dyche switched between playing a 4-5-1 system and a 4-4-2, and depended upon two completely different forwards. Sam Vokes is an old-fashioned battering ram who battles in the air and holds up the ball, whereas Andre Gray is a lightning-fast, tricky forward who sprints into the channels. They formed a fine partnership.

In recent weeks, however, Dyche has moved towards a different type of approach within that 4-4-2 shape, by playing Gray alongside Ashley Barnes, another quick, mobile centre-forward. It’s not entirely dissimilar from the manner Leicester played in last season: a deep, narrow defence, little ball possession and two speedy forwards to play on the counter-attack. Many sides play 4-5-1 away at the Emirates, but Dyche used two strikers in the narrow 2-1 defeat at Manchester City recently, and will probably do the same here.

STRENGTHS
Burnley sit extremely deep, usually in two banks of four, and their organisation is absolutely tremendous, stifling opposition passing moves through the centre, showing them wide, and defending crosses excellently with the reliable centre-back partnership of Michael Keane and Ben Mee. They are tough to break down.

DANGERMAN
Can you regard the opposition goalkeeper as a danger man? He’s certainly the player most likely to frustrate Arsenal. Burnley may have allowed the opposition the highest number of shots in the league this season, but goalkeeper Tom Heaton has been one of the most reliable shotstoppers in the league.

AREAS TO TARGET
Burnley have a tendency of sitting too deep and allowing shots from long-range. Dyche is happy to keep the opposition at arm’s length, but Arsenal have various players who can strike from 25 yards out.

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20170120/scouting-report-arsenal-v-burnley

I'm fully expecting Burnley to park it tomorrow. I'm also fully expecting Coquelin to come straight back into midfield.

This is a game for Xhaka-Ramsey. Ramsey's runs from midfield will help us break Burnley down, and he should be good in the counter press now that his fitness is improving. Xhaka shouldn't be tested that much defensively.

My guess at the team:

Cech; Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal; Xhaka, Ramsey; Iwobi, Ozil, Alexis; Giroud

This will be a tricky one, Burnley are difficult to break down away from home.It will be similar to the West brom game, we have to start quickly and get an early goal or else it could be a long afternoon.

Liverpool, City, Spurs and United all dropped points.

Suffice to say that there is no room for screw ups tomorrow.

We need a high tempo from the start, no "let's not panic just yet" kind of attitude until the 70th minute, no complacency-- we know what Burnley are capable to do defensively and we should respect that. I'll be *bleep* pissed if we don't approach the game with hunger right from the beginning.

I would love for us to have one of those 4-0 strolls, but since other teams dropped points and we could go 2nd (right? - too lazy to check at the moment), I certainly don't expect fate to allow that to happen.

Come on you Gunners!

Cech; Gabriel, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal; Ramsey, Xhaka; Iwobi, Ozil, Alexis; Giroud

Ospina, Gibbs, Bellerin, Coquelin, Chamberlain, Welbeck, Lucas

Burnley pressing with three players whenever we try to build, and Cech just keeps humping it long instead of using the centre backs and Xhaka. It's really frustrating.

Our performance

That was a soulless performance, no temp no intensity. It's almost like we are waiting for something a chance to come instead of actually working to create one. The most disappointing thing is the lack of movement in attack. Everyone wants the ball to feet. players aren't making enough runs off the ball. Perez should start warming up already. I don't know why Bellerin didn't start, we have no width at all.

Mustaphi is very rash

much better so far, more intensity. Getting in good positions but not shooting enough. did anyone not see Iwobi last week

That should have been a penalty surely

Stonewall pen denied.

Mustafi scores though. First goal for the club

Good header but Mustaphi, first time we get in to the box and we get one. Now time to kill the game off

Xhaka ffs

We were in control and he goes and does that

That's a four game ban for Xhaka now. He's such a moron

Welp, there goes any lingering hope of being in the title race.

We have a team of idiots.

Unbelievable ending to this game

Looked a soft pen tbh, but ballsy pen from Alexis.

Burnley robbed yet again smh. Undeserved.

Well despite Xhaka and Coquelin best attempt, we never gave up and got there at the end. Showed character

Sri wrote:Burnley robbed yet again smh. Undeserved.

Not undeserved. We were doing enough to win the game, had a blatant pen turned down earlier and even the Xhaka red isn't that straightforward.

Still played like shit.

Jay29 wrote:

Sri wrote:Burnley robbed yet again smh. Undeserved.

Not undeserved. We were doing enough to win the game, had a blatant pen turned down earlier and even the Xhaka red isn't that straightforward.

Agreed

Stats showed 75 percent possession and 24 shots plus Burnley hardly offered anything in attack even when we were a man down. When you consider that we should have had a penalty for that foul on Mustaphi in the first half then everything even itself out at the end to be honest. I am pretty sure we would have won this game comfortably had Xhaka not done what he did.

Still played like shit.

Eh, not really. It was an average performance but we still made the opportunities to win the game and dominated Burnley in most of the key stats. It only became an even contest when Xhaka was sent off.