Burnley 0-0 Arsenal
- Goals: None
- Assists: None
- Bonus: David Luiz (£5.7m) x3, Hector Bellerin (£5.4m) x2, Charlie Taylor (£4.2m), Bernd Leno (£5.0m) x1
Arsenal enjoy one of the best runs of fixtures in the Premier League over the next two months but it won’t be just the blank in Gameweek 28 (and a potential postponement in Gameweek 31) that gives Fantasy managers reason to doubt the Gunners at present.
We have used the words “work in progress” on umpteen occasions since Mikel Arteta’s appointment and, as mentioned in previous articles, it may not be until 2020/21 that we see the ex-Manchester City assistant really make a telling impact at the Emirates.
There is no doubting that Arteta has already put his own stamp on Unai Emery’s former side.
Only Liverpool and Spurs have conceded fewer league goals than the Gunners since he took charge, while the aggressive pressing we have seen from the north Londoners from Boxing Day onwards is lifted straight from the Pep Guardiola coaching manual.
At times, Arteta’s Arsenal look like a very good team indeed.
Burnley couldn’t cope with their visitors in the first 25 minutes of Sunday’s match, with Sean Dyche’s troops reduced to aimless long hoofs upfield (and no, that isn’t Plan A) in a bid to relieve the incessant pressure.
Mesut Ozil (£7.2m) was finding a lot of space in between the Clarets’ defence and midfield, while premium FPL forwards Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£10.8m) and Alexandre Lacazette (£9.3m) both had excellent opportunities to break the deadlock.
The pair combined as early as the first minute, with Lacazette nodding a cross from his teammate agonisingly off-target.
Aubameyang, transferred in by over 280,000 FPL managers ahead of Gameweek 25, wasted two superb chances of his own, skewing horribly wide from a David Luiz (£5.7m) pass before seeing an attempted lob smothered by the advancing Nick Pope (£4.6m) when latching onto a similar through-ball from Granit Xhaka (£5.1m).
A fine James Tarkowski (£5.1m) tackle had denied Lacazette his first away league goal in a year in between those efforts and Arsenal would have been good value for the lead at that point.
As has been the case previously, however, the Gunners could neither make their early pressure count or sustain their dominance.
Fatigue had evidently been an issue in the defeat to Chelsea in Gameweek 20 but there were parallels with the Crystal Palace game in how Burnley strong-armed their way back into this one, with Arsenal unable to regain a foothold for long periods.
Arteta said after full-time:
I think we started really, really well, we could have scored at least two. We dominated the game like we wanted, we got out from their pressure pretty well, we played in the opponents’ half and we controlled the long balls and second balls.
After 20 to 25 minutes, we started to concede a lot of unnecessary free-kicks, throw-ins, corner-kicks and when that happens you can’t find any continuity in your play and that is not the game we want to play.
I was very disappointed with the way we started the second half, the first 15 to 20 minutes we could not control any aspect of the game and we allowed a lot of crosses and second balls inside our box, and at some stages, we were lucky not to concede a goal.
The positive thing is the reaction in the last 20 minutes, when we started to play again, we had the courage to play and the courage to take the opportunity that they allowed. The space was there because they committed a lot of people forward but we couldn’t finish the actions well enough to score.
While there has been a definite improvement in an individual and collective sense in defence – Shkodran Mustafi (£5.1m) was again unrecognisably impressive at centre-half – some familiar failings remain at the back.
Burnley clearly targeted the Gunners with deliveries from wide areas, with one comical moment occurring shortly before half-time when the Clarets implored referee Chris Kavanagh to award a free-kick rather than play advantage in a promising position.
Over half of Burnley’s efforts came from headers, with Tarkowski, Ben Mee (£5.0m) and Jeff Hendrick (£5.4m) all missing presentable chances in the air.
The best opportunity of all fell to Jay Rodriguez (£5.7m), who rattled the underside of the bar with a volleyed effort from close range on 78 minutes following another cross and headed lay-off.
The loss of Bukayo Saka (£4.5m) to injury at half-time didn’t help the Gunners, with Xhaka forced to deputise at left-back and unable to offer the kind of attacking thrust that the teenager had been providing in the first half.
Arteta said of Saka’s fitness after full-time:
He had a knock in his knee and his hip, so we will see.
He’s been a threat for us and in the way we planned the game, we thought we could exploit them with him and he did really well when he was fit.
I think in the last 10/15 minutes [of the first half] he was carrying his injury. We decided to substitute him because he wasn’t feeling good, so tomorrow we will know how he is.
Gabriel Martinelli (£4.6m) was also nowhere near as effective as he had been in recent weeks, with a switch of flanks to accommodate Aubameyang’s return seemingly having a negative impact on the young Brazilian.
The only Arsenal player with double-digit FPL ownership, Aubameyang will be the main candidate for inclusion in our squads either side of Blank Gameweek 28.
Seven straight matches against sides ranked ninth or below sees Arsenal riding high in our Season Ticker, and Aubameyang’s existing and prospective owners would have been encouraged at the positions he found himself in at Turf Moor.
Another excellent chance presented itself in the 75th minute, with the Gabon international nodding a Lacazette cross just wide.
Overall, though, the Gunners are flattering to deceive under Arteta from an underlying attacking stats perspective: only two clubs have had fewer shots from Gameweeks 19-25, while just three teams have carved out fewer big chances.
Burnley’s fixture schedule is less inviting (matches against a much-improved Southampton, Spurs and Manchester City are to come before the March international break) but there are more appealing games against Newcastle and Bournemouth in the short-term and a guaranteed fixture in Blank Gameweek 31.
Pope is doing his best to establish himself as a set-and-forget goalkeeper whatever the opposition, having registered an unfathomable total of 28 points in matches against Manchester United, Leicester City and now Arsenal.
His ninth clean sheet of the season (no FPL goalkeeper has more) could have been even better, had Opta adjudged an injury-time catch to be from a Martinelli shot on goal rather than a cross – that would have not only handed him a save point but some bonus points, too.
SCOUT: Nick Pope was deemed to have caught the ball from a cross rather than a shot in stoppage time, which doesn’t count as a save in #FPL#BURARS https://t.co/LOSdBcVG8I
— Fantasy Premier League (@OfficialFPL) February 2, 2020
Dyche was full of praise for his troops after the game, saying:
It’s probably our best all-round performance of the season and if there’s a tiny niggle, I felt we deserved to win it with the chances we created. I thought the whole performance level was good, but you don’t want to get greedy.
I thought the front two were excellent. How one of them hasn’t got on the scoresheet is a surprise, and their partnership grows in the absence of Ashley Barnes.
Behind that, the midfield does an excellent job with and without the ball, and the back four have been solid.
Once you get all those connections right, you are heading the right way, and when you don’t you have a keeper behind them who is outstanding.
Burnley XI (4-4-2): Pope; Lowton, Tarkowski, Mee, Taylor; Hendrick, Cork, Westwood, McNeil; Wood, Rodriguez.
Arsenal XI (4-2-3-1): Leno; Bellerin, Mustafi, Luiz, Saka (Torreira 46′); Guendouzi, Xhaka; Aubameyang, Ozil (Willock 63′), Martinelli; Lacazette (Nketiah 89′).
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