Burnley 1-0 ArsenalA first-half goal from Aaron Ramsey was enough to continue Arsenal’s winning run and cut Chelsea’s lead to four points, at least until Sunday afternoon, leaving Burnley hoping to prosper against more amenable opponents in their bid for Premier League survival.
Defeats for Sunderland and Hull before the game kicked off had given Burnley the chance to make a giant leap with a win. Due to Sunderland in particular throwing away their goal-difference advantage, three points for the Clarets would have allowed Sean Dyche’s side to escape the bottom three altogether and reach the dizzy heights of 16th, which would have represented their best position this season.
The only snag was that beating Arsenal has become rather difficult of late. Tottenham were the last side to do it in the league and since that defeat in February the Gunners had posted an impressive seven consecutive wins. Burnley’s challenge was to somehow break that sequence – a draw would not have propelled them so far up the table though it would have been more than acceptable – but on Grand National day there was never much chance of an upset. By the end of the evening Arsenal were still the form team of the Premier League and Burnley were still in trouble. Dyche had no complaints. “Arsenal are a fine side and we only really went at them in the second half,” the Burnley manager said. “The only real disappointment was the way we conceded. We have been good lately at keeping the back door shut.”
Sam Vokes had an early chance snuffed out by David Ospina from David Jones’ alert through-ball, though Burnley did not make the best of starts. From the outset Arsenal kept them pushed back in their own half, moving the ball slickly around the edge of the penalty area, and the amount of time and space Alexis Sánchez was finding was ominous. Jason Shackell increased the pressure on his own defence after 11 minutes with an attempted clearance that only found an Arsenal player and though Tom Heaton was able to beat away Sánchez’s shot cum cross from the left yellow shirts were queuing up for the loose ball on the six-yard line. Mesut Özil had a try but could not find a way through before Ramsey collected the rebound and found the net.
Burnley could not gain sufficient control of midfield to play the game further up the pitch, though Kieran Trippier did produce a splendid diving save from Ospina with a well-struck free-kick from 20 yards out after Laurent Koscielny had fouled Ashley Barnes. Arsenal can strike from set pieces themselves and Santi Cazorla was not far away with a curling effort when Sánchez won a free kick on the edge of the area. The visitors were winning too many free-kicks around the area for the home fans’ liking and when Olivier Giroud went to ground twice in quick succession the crowd registered displeasure both with Arsenal’s gamesmanship and Mike Dean’s refereeing.
Sánchez joined in on the stroke of the interval, going down far too easily on the left touchline and provoking the Burnley fans once again so that the half ended with boos and cries of “cheats”. Burnley were probably relieved to turn round just one goal down. Arsenal had not created many chances, content simply to keep possession and play within themselves after taking the lead, fairly confident that the home side would not mount any sustained attacks while being penned back in their own half.
Barnes brought a routine save from Ospina early in the second half, after Shackell had headed down from a corner, before Sánchez brought a smarter one from Tom Heaton with a low shot from the edge of the area that threatened to curl inside the goalkeeper’s right-hand upright. The second half was not proving quite as one-sided as the first, however. Though Koscielny blocked a couple of hopeful efforts from Vokes and Danny Ings without too much difficulty Burnley were getting closer to the Arsenal goal, taking up the sort of positions from where a defensive mistake or a moment of inspiration might have led to an equaliser.
Ings almost supplied the inspiration in the 65th minute with a determined run past a couple of defenders in the penalty area only to find he could not shake off Nacho Monreal. When Ben Mee comprehensively beat Héctor Bellerin on the right to steal into the area and cross George Boyd failed to apply his usual reliable touch in the middle, and after Ings attempted an overhead kick from close to the penalty spot he kept his shot on target but could not summon the power to trouble Ospina.
Arsenal were concerned enough to send on Danny Welbeck for the labouring Giroud, along with Özil an almost negligible threat after the interval. While the visitors could not score another goal they did raise their game sufficiently to push Burnley back again and there were even a couple of half-chances for Welbeck and Cazorla in the closing stages. Not Arsenal at their classiest, indeed by their standards they were quite wasteful, but as their fans enjoyed chanting at the end, one-nil is never to be sneezed at.
Chelsea are next, after a short break for the FA Cup semi-final against Reading, and if Arsenal win that they will equal their longest winning sequence from their invincible season. Not that supporters will care about that. Beat Chelsea and the fans might start singing about winning the league again, not just going to Wembley. Arsène Wenger is not getting carried away.
“It’s still in Chelsea’s hands, even if we put in a perfect run,” the Arsenal manager said. “But we will give absolutely everything to finish in a strong way.”
Guardian
