Burnley And Gunners Head To Head For Top Four Berth
Nov 25th, 2017 by 'holic
It’s a late Saturday preview of what has become a significant trip to the north-west. Draws for the neighbours, Liverpool, and Chelsea, have opened a window of opportunity for the Arsenal. As we saw last season a win at Sean Dyche’s Burnley isn’t easy, but we now have the added motivation of leapfrogging Liverpool and the neighbours into the top four if we can secure the three points at Turf Moor.
Let’s look at it in the way that Dyche will be putting it to his team. Burnley too have the opportunity to jump into fourth place. The clarets are behind us only on goal difference and have made themselves very difficult to beat. They won at the bus stop in Fulham on matchday one, drew at Tottenham on matchday three, and drew at Liverpool on matchday five. The only top six club to have beaten them is runaway leaders Manchester City, 3-0 at the Emptihad on matchday nine.
They are no longer the pushovers they were for so long. They have lost just two matches of the opening twelve, compared to our four, but have also drawn four to our one. It is easy to see why they are within touching distance of a Champions League place. They have conceded just nine goals, so six in eleven if you take the City game out of the equation. The reason they are not already in the top four is the fact they are only averaging a goal a game in attack.
All of which suggests we will have to produce another dominant, high-pressing, fast-passing display, as the eleven who are likely to start on Sunday did last Saturday to the neighbours. Arsene Wenger chose to highlight the hosts reptilian qualities ahead of the match.
“You know they’ve won games with 30, 25 per cent possession. That means they know what they want to do, and are patient to have that killing instinct of a snake. They put you to that place and suddenly they bite you.”
The ‘holic pound
Everything is screaming ‘low-scoring, low-scoring’. Last season both home and away we won with controversial late goals. One-nil to the Arsenal looks very compelling and the bookies agree. It’s the favourite scoreline at 7/1. I’m on it although if we produce the form of last Saturday it could be a bigger winning margin.
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50 Responses to “Burnley And Gunners Head To Head For Top Four Berth”
Nicely summed up Maestro.
I’m going for 2-0 the same as last week but Lacazette will get one of them
Excellent OP, ‘holic. The obvious thing we have to do is score, and that’s not something AW sets up to do regularly enough. Any more nonsense with L’Exocet starting on the bench and we could struggle. Given Burnley’s relatively poor scoring record we could play a more attacking format and simply outscore them.
Cech
Kos, Musti, Nacho
Hector, Jack, Kalashnikov
Ozil
Rambo, L’Exocet, Alexis
No Jack for Granit tomorrow, Chris. He has to earn it. Thursday didn’t do it.
Fine preview maestro.
A classic 1-0 to the Arsenal will do nicely provided our midfield pair don’t lose the discipline they showed last weekend that was critical to our defensive solidity and clean sheet. However we have a habit of throwing caution to the wind when we dominate possession, as we will tomorrow. If that discipline is lost we will be lambs to the slaughter by the Burnley long ball breakaways.
I agree on Jack, H. He hasn’t yet earned a starting place in the first XI. Another fine cameo in the last 20 minutes might take him closer.
Form is on your side for a 0-1, ‘Holic. In the three Premier League games between the two clubs at Turf Moor, they have scored one goal and we have scored three — a 1-1 and two 0-1s. We have not scored more than one goal there in a league game since 1975. And we haven’t had a forward score there since John Radford in 1973.
wilshere?
some will never learn
Burnley aint easy meat. Believe me they will fight
and hound the gunner in possession.
The speed of attack is crucial.Too much passing bogs down the
attack and gives time for defenders to regroup.
Yeah I know Wenger likes to outpass the opposition.
As we have seen in games against the top teams he has
lost regularly.
If he continues in the same vein,Burnly could take advantage
and all the good feeling after the Spurs win,will evaporate.
2-0 to the Arse. Easy.
UTA.
Wilshere is like just about every attacking/midfield player we have, capable of being brilliant but incapable of stringing that kind of form together consistently, so advocating his selection is not THAT weird.
I mean, I doubt anyone would be all that shocked if we played a poor match tomorrow and struggled to win. It’s what we do after all, and why we haven’t won the league for over a decade, nor even come close.
Thanks for the review Guvnor.
I’d be surprised if there was any
change in the starting XI today.
And I’d be surprised if it wasn’t a
struggle but 2-1 sounds about right.
If Jack’s to get some minutes then
home to Huddersfield seems more
likely although Iwobi looks like the
one on AW’s radar just now.
I’m not convinced Xhaka has done enough to warrant automatic selection either, ‘holic. I just feel this could be a good game to add someone more attacking to the midfield and leave defending to the back 5.
Chris,
An exciting 11 I thought and
defending would certainly
be left to the back 5 too.
AW will never pick it but I assume it’s
your opinion rather than what you
think the team will actually be.
Bit harsh on Xhaka though. You
don’t think he well against the Spuds?
Cheers ‘h! ?
A compelling match-up up North at Turf Moor!
If the lads are “up for it” and focused defensively when they need to be “off the ball”, 3-points in the bag and up to CL fourth (the minimum of where the Arse belong!).
2-0 to the Arse if fully focused; 2-1 to the Arse if not. Nothing else will be acceptable! Time to start building-up a real head of steam in league, as we run into the Xmas & New Year rush! Gotta-cut the Abu Dha$i lead down to 6 points, by New Year’s!
Campaign time again as we approach January:
“Give our two Worldies in Sanchez and Ozil, whatever the feck they want to stay-on, as we start to build-up something special, FFS!”
You know they don’t want to leave living in London! Who the feck does if they can afford it?! ?
I’m looking at Xhaka’s overall contribution this year, Matt, and remembering Jack’s better bits over the years. I think Xhaka has been a bit disappointing, not quite the footballer we hoped he’d be … while on his day Jack can be a match-winner.
And, yes, just my opinion of course and AW will disagree. He’s getting very conservative in his dotage.
5 man defences, crowded midfields these
days Chris. It’s getting tougher for managers
to put out full on attacking sides. Is it
AW getting conservative or facing up to
reality? Take your pick or bit of both.
Personally, I’ve not given up on Xhaka
yet although I have on Aaron if we’re to
change central midfield. Great engine,
great effort and the odd useful goal are
all good points but his passing and
defensive awareness just aren’t at the
standard for a PL challenge.
Anyway, AW won’t agree with that
either!
Believe me Burnley will play defensive. Wenger always has a problem
when teams park the bus. He will go about with business as usual until he is caught by a sucker punch.Then he will blame everybody
but himself.
The thing is if he continues his outpass the opposition game,he will be ripe for the pick off by Burnley.There must be variation to the passing game.If not get ready for a shocker.
Leave defending to the back 5? We know all too well how that ends up if by back 5 you include our wing backs.
Our wing backs are only part time members of a back five – especially on the right. They are too far forward most of the time to contribute effectively to defending a rapid break by the opposition. Much more important to winning games in this system is that two midfielders prioritise their defensive role and don’t go walk about. Those wide open spaces in front of our CBs inviting the opposition to run at our outnumbered defenders must be claimed by midfielders with defensive instincts. A back 5 including our 2 midfielders will win us games.
Let’s prioritise the clean sheet and allow our talented front five: Bellerin, Ozil, Lacazette, Sanche & Kolasinac to win the game.
COYG
Thanks to the Guvnor for his 57th post this week (approximately).
OsakaMatt @15 and bath are spot on.
As ever, in my humble opinion only.
Patience patience patience.
And that’s only what it takes to watch this kind of game, let alone to play or manage it. 0-1 to the Arsenal is the holy grail but who is our knight in shining armor?
What’s this about the width of the whitewash? Sounds like a whitewash to me.
Ashes to ashes dust to dust
Turf to turf?
Northern away days not in Ozil’s new contract offer?
no Ozil?
No Ozil not even on the bench!
But we need to wake up ffs!
Come on Arsenal give it back to them!
Great ball from Laca Ramsey not even on target! Come on!
Where is this desire and intensity from week ago?
Mason doing his usual spot on officiating ?
Better start to the second half come on!
Blatant pen not given
Would have been given against us. Can’t wait for video referral system.
Penalty!
Lightning strikes thrice! 0-1.
One nil to the Arsenal!!!
Three points in the bag. Just reward for persevering ?.
nicked it yes yes yes!
Wrong emoticon.???
Alexis took the penalty really well. He is a winner.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Big win.
Worked hard without any real sparkle against a dogged team and a dodgy ref.
Nailed on pen. Just like the one on Bellerin.
Deserved victory. If only for the hard work and good defending.
Rule number 1: don’t give a goal away.
Never in doubt….?
Keep a clean sheet, and the rest takes care of its self! ?
Where’s the report, H? Slacking?
*taps foot and looks at watch* ?
?bath , you’re brave
*whistles*
everyone else is next door
the sneaky so and so s
?
i heard nothin
Tanks fella.