VAR saves Arsenal’s day at Turf Moor

Burnley 0 Arsenal 1   
Premier League   
Saturday 18th September 2021 3pm   

I remember Piers Morgan brought out a book on Arsenal’s Invincibles season in the summer of 2004, which was mainly cobbled together from his rehashing of Daily Mirror match reports and his watching the games on Match of the Day. As a season ticket holder, he did attend a few of the matches at Highbury, but I was struck by what a lazy book it was, especially as he didn’t ‘fess up that he hadn’t actually attended many of the games. There was a serious lack of the insight, depth or anecdote that came from, for example, former Gooner contributor Bernard Azulay’s excellent account of the same season.

So the reason I state this is because, faced with the choice of watching a likely unreliable stream of the game (I had no intention of travelling to Turf Moor, as in my old age, I am getting more choosy about my away trips) and seeing my 19 year old son play for his Saturday afternoon team – on step 6 of the non-league ladder – I opted for the latter. I was highly delighted when I discovered his team was playing on the main pitch at the New River Sports Centre on your actual White Hart Lane – with a decent sized stand that would put many a club at a higher level to shame. It meant I had a club level height view of proceedings, sitting high up in the back row (one of a total of four spectators in the stand no less – and it was free).

So what will follow are a few thoughts based on my decision to limit my experience of the Arsenal game (a la Piers) to the ‘Match of the Day’ highlights. Because frankly, having watched those, I felt no need to expose myself to more of what looked like one of those ‘job done, points in the bag, let’s get on the plane and fly home’ performances, as was quite often the case at Burnley when the Gunners customarily used to win by the only goal of the game. 

As for my son’s match, it was an eye opener. His side lost 1-0, rather like Burnley, although I was at least encouraged to see he was one of the two players in his team who could trap more than a bag of cement when the ball came towards him. Next summer, he needs to be looking at least two levels up, going by what I witnessed – all bias aside. He plays as a centre-back due to his height (I am guessing 6 feet 4 inches, certainly he looks down on his old man these days), and puts me in mind of Franz Beckenbauer, the way he brings the ball out of defence and 95% of the time, plays a decent pass to a team-mate. As for the overall standard of the game, I have no doubt that non-league football can be entertaining, but it has to be better than this. The lack of technical ability was an eye-opener, and it brought home to me the benefit of my lad playing for LOASS (a Leyton based club) in his early teens, where they worked far more on the technical side of the game than prioritizing winning a football match - whatever it took. 

So it was a 2 o’clock kick off and the game was done and dusted well before 4pm, not least because half-time was only ten minutes. I said I’d give my lad and one of his team-mates a lift back afterwards, and went to wait in the car. I found a stream on my phone for the second half of the Arsenal game, but reclined the driver seat and promptly nodded off. I was awoken 20 minutes later by my passengers knocking on the window to rouse me! Ah well. Perhaps a symbolic reflection on the amount of entertainment this fixture normally throws up. So, moving on from family matters, let’s get down to some thoughts about a game I decided to limit my exposure to, tarnished by experience. 

Of course, the big news was the attacking nature of the starting eleven. Just Thomas Partey as a defensive minded-midfielder, although from what I did see, he did help out his centre backs a fair bit with his physical presence. Martin Odegaard played deeper than Emile Smith Rowe, and on occasion seemed a bit like a Cesc Fabregas-style quarterback, playing passes from deep. Arsenal never won anything with Fabregas as one of the two holding midfield players, in spite of his undoubted qualities. And I have to ponder whether or not this formation would work against a more technically adept side than Sean Dyche will ever field at Turf Moor. Burnley tend to survive in the top flight based on their spirit, which does garner just enough points to (more often than not) finish above 18^th position. But you do feel that, slowly, the game is moving on and sides with a little more variety in their attacking options will consign them to the drop. Hence after five matches, the Clarets have a solitary point from 15 in spite of three of their fixtures having been at home… in front of fans to assist their cause.

On that note, who knows whether or not Anthony Taylor would have given a penalty were the game at the Emirates with a far smaller number of Burnley fans to sway his view. Fortunately, it was academic as the spot kick was overturned after VAR got the official to take a look at the video replay, which clearly showed Aaron Ramsdale made contact with the ball first, before any physical interference with the onrushing Vydra. Ben White’s underhit backpass was a cause for concern, given one of the reasons for his acquisition was his ability on the ball, although on the plus side, the keeper that bailed him out does look to be surprising the feeling during the summer that the club would be foolish to buy a twice relegated goalie. He’s made a few decent saves in his appearances so far as well as being far more commanding of his area than Leno has been.

Arsenal were of course up by that time, courtesy of a very tasty rocket of a free-kick from Odegaard, although I’ve heard he didn’t do too much more in the 90 minutes – which slightly contrasts with the Premier League website giving him the MOTM award, but that might simply be because of his free-kick. The height of another summer signing, Tomiyasu, at right back has addressed an aerial weakness that on another day, Burnley might have profited from, although they only mustered three attempts on target. Gabriel seems to have been the standout performer for Mikel Arteta’s side. The forwards couldn’t have had the best of matches, as Arsenal were no better on the attempts on target count, although from one of those, Smith Rowe really should have given his team a two goal cushion.

You do have to wonder whether or not Thomas Partey will play 90 minutes with any kind of regularity. With his central role in the team, you can’t keep withdrawing him – although who knows if he is playing on the edge of another injury. 

So it felt like a case of weathering the storm and at this stage, points are so much more important than performance. We’ll know more after next weekend’s north London derby about whether we can look forward to genuine improvement after the poor start to the campaign. I certainly don’t see the same midfield and ominously, Granit Xhaka’s suspension will be over. The clean sheets are encouraging, but when all’s said and done, neither Norwich nor Burnley are scoring many goals against anyone – five between them in ten matches.

Arteta will undoubtedly field a team of lesser-seen squad members against AFC Wimbledon on Wednesday evening, but it should be strong enough to see progress to the last 16. I predict Leno - Chambers, Holding, Mari - Cedric, Maitland Niles, Lokonga, Tavares - Balogun, Lacazette, Martinelli in a 3-4-3 formation – unless Arteta plans to start ESR again after only playing an hour on Saturday, in which case, scrub Chambers.

(Apologies this blog was posted a little later than I’d have liked – the last 48 hours have been a little fuller than I’d have chosen – but hey, better late than never, eh?)

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