Burnley vs Arsenal (Premier League)

This ! Its a Mahoosive win and I dont care if it came off Kos’s elbow and it was offside the record states we won !
Too many times (last season call it every) when we have the chance to make up ground on those above us we CHOKE players simply don’t turn up or strut around like peacocks !
It’s worse when you choke b4 the interlull IMO because you dwell on it for 2 weeks (at least the fans do) and then its a monkey on your back next time up ! On this occaision worse because we have Swansea at home next and we know how that went last term !

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I thought this game also to be a good example of why Giroud nor Walcott aren’t good enough. We need another player who has the ability to play or fumble past defenders on his own when space gets really tight. Sanchez alone is not enough because teams can overload on him knowing somebody like Walcott can’t create on his own.

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In fairness, Walcott did get the assist.

And Giroud didn’t even fucking play?!?

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Don’t like that Arsène excuses this type of performance with the tiredness line.

Fact is we came in in great form, with our best XI available, against a low table team, and we had a huge incentive after the Utd and City results. Even if it is the 3rd game in 8 days you are not going to get many better conditions during the season to get 3 pts, and we are going to have many games where we don’t have as good of an XI available, or where we don’t have as good of an XI available AND we’re tired, or where we don’t have as good of an XI available AND we’re tired AND we’re facing more complicated opposition.

So yeah, for me that a performance like that is then excused because of ‘tiredness’, is kinda a poor message to send to the team, for me.

Tiredness would be a bad excuse. It’s really not that. It was just another game in which a team sits back in an ultra defensive set up for 90 minutes and an exhibition as to how difficult it still is for Arsenal to find a way past them. We are still going to struggle with this all season and we’re not the only team who will. I don’t blame Burnley, they really don’t have the talent and nicking it off a set-piece was their goal all along.

When we’re not at our sharpest, quickest and most precise, we have every chance of walking away with a damaging 0-0 draw or 1-0 loss. I felt we completely slowed down our tempo once we knew it was a patient game, and I felt this slowing down was really hampering our chances of forcing a mistake or exploiting a gap.

Wenger has to find a way to dismantle these teams because every side at the bottom all the way up until mid table will go about cutting us off this way.

I think Giroud and particularly Ramsey are useful tools against domestic opposition that defend very deep. The pair had a formidable partnership in 13/14

But we’ve had a lot of games were it didn’t happen. With Giroud upfront. I’d say more individual quality in our forward line would probably help a lot with breaking these teams down.

Our unsustainable luck at getting undeserved results in 13-14 was pretty formidable too, tbh. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t continue until the end of the season or into the next season.

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Southampton, Palace, Liverpool, United, Sunderland, Chelsea, Stoke away, Swansea, Man City, Everton.

The games in which we lost a lot of points that season. I don’t think our luck ran out. During that stretch of 10 games we played managers who either figured Arsenal out or in fixtures in which we always struggle. When our fixture list cleared up again we won six in a row…

I don’t think tiredness is an excuse. But I won’t get worked up about us struggling there either. In the end, these away games against teams that defend deep are difficult for top teams. The Invincibles drew 11 matches 0-0 or 1-1 and won three more matches 1-0. Man United 07-08, one of the best PL sides of all time with a brilliant attacking trident of Ronaldo/Rooney/Tevez, won seven matches by 1-0 scorelines and drew a bunch more at 0-0 or 1-1. We all want to see a team that is scoring 2-3 goals every match and putting weak opposition to the sword on a consistent basis but the longstanding reality is that even great teams in the PL with multiple world class attackers will score 0-1 goals over a third of the time.

I do think the game showed the importance of bench depth. Being able to bring on fresh attackers for the last half hour and attackers with slightly different games and movements is really important. Missing Giroud, Perez, Ramsey, and Welbeck hurt us in that match and we might have gotten the goal in slightly less bizarre and last second circumstances if we had anybody decent to throw on to change the match.

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We won both matches against Palace that season. Over the whole of that season we were quite fortunate against lower sides, and our record was quite good, hence why we were able to sum 79 pts despite having a very poor record against the top sides. Throughout the season there were warning signs that we were having some unsustainable luck, and this proved true when we were unable to repeat such form against lower sides in the following seasons.

The point is that while Ramsey (who also of course was the benefactor of a good amount of luck/unsustainable streakiness/high rate of shots going in), and Giroud (who in the first half of the season the advanced statistics also warned was achieving results way above his head, as proved true in the second half) may have been a factor in our success against lower sides that season, the overriding factor was good luck/variability functioning in our favour, and I’m not sure if it was really anything so (or at all) structural as @sevchenko suggests, as in I would dispute the idea that Ramsey and Giroud offer something that intrinsically acts as a solution in this sort of game.

These are all fair points. What worries me though is that City and Tottenham are perfect so far against lesser sides. It may just be, and probably is, small sample size and they’ll have their fair share of flat tires as the history you cite suggests are inevitable, but I get the feeling we will need to perform better against the lower sides than our competitors to compete for high positions.

No Faith in us getting a reasonable amount of points from matches against the top 7 Cuellar?

Any team that wins the league needs a bit of luck and some late goals ,just ask alex fungusnose !

Just saying like !

Massive, massive win. Burnley away is an extremely tough game despite where they are in the league or what their objectives are for the season.

They set up very defensively and played as a very well drilled unit. Constantly having 10 men behind the ball, each one knowing their job and making sure they were first to any loose balls.

We found it very difficult to penetrate their defence, if at all. Don’t think we won a single header in their box till towards the end. A game almost screaming out for Giroud to come on if he were fit.

Don’t care how we scored in the end, the result is 3 points in a tough game. As Robin_L said, not many teams are going to go up there and win convincingly, definitely not if Burnley set up like that.

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What annoys me though is our players who go into overdrive on social media at the drop of a hat . The over celebration of the Leicester home win followed by pathetic collapse was the hardest thing to take last term but what made it worse was the constant bigging themselves up in the media b4 letting themselves down on the pitch. The funny media stunts on Arsenal .com also gets to me. if yhey have the time for this surely they have time to practice defending or watch some videos of the next opponent. Theyve done it again after Burnley ! It bugs me

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I have to say unless someone posts it on here I never know what the players have posted on social media. It’s completely avoidable.

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Grumpy git posting in the middle of the night after his autistic child woke up and decided to sing to him, love the wee fella but singing the animals came in 2 by 2 wasnt the dream sleep I was expecting , apologia .
My point cranky as it was ,isnt wether u can ignore it its whether they can make better use of their time as professional footballers sham . The big problem with our teams players is its arrogance and fragility . The way I perceive them is a group that loves to praise itself but hides when the going gets tough ,their endless backslapping irks me but then most things do when Im cranky .
Im going to get me some coffee.

I get your point but I really don’t think that behaviour stems from arrogance. I think they are an excitable bunch who pretty much all get along great and celebrate good times/key moments. I really dont think it makes a difference one way or the other.

And be under no illusions, I’m a big grumpy fucker too. :slight_smile:

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Social media these days is also business. How bigger the following how more many these players can make from sponsors and what not. Posting frequently makes that following bigger.

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Silly me of course their meagre salaries need topping up from outside sources !