Arsenal’s Winning Groove Continues at Turf Moor

Burnley 0 Arsenal 5    
Premier League   
Saturday 17th February 2024  3pm    

Mikel Arteta’s side did what they needed to at Burnley by securing the three points, but the manner of the victory continued to bring back memories of the scintillating football we saw last season. It’s something we haven’t seen too much of in this campaign until the turn of the year. The last three matches especially have seen plenty of brilliant attacking play, as well as defensive solidity, with a total of two shots on target against David Raya. That is always going to help a team win games.

 

Sure, it helped that Burnley are competing with Sheffield United to be the worst team in the division, emphasising the gulf between Championship football and the top flight. And their conceding an early goal set the tone for the afternoon. Credit to Vincent Kompany for not trying to get his side to play defensive football to secure points, but the consequence is they leave themselves too open. Before yesterday they’d shipped 50 goals in 24 matches. 

 

An unchanged Arsenal team went ahead thanks to a crisp low finish from captain Martin Odegaard after 4 minutes, and the scorer went on to be the team’s standout performer amongst many excellent displays throughout the side. I worried when I saw big Liverpool fan Jared Gillett was the man in the middle, but an early booking for a foul on Saka gave me a little more faith in his abilities to referee with neutrality. 

The Gunners controlled the game throughout and could easily have scored more than the two they did in the opening half. When Trossard was brought down in the area, Bukayo Saka took the penalty for the second game in a row and his low effort just beat the keeper to double the lead. 

 

Less than two minutes after the interval, the number 7 doubled his own tally with a right foot drive into the top corner, after Odegaard teed him up. Burnley’s marking was woeful. Nobody was anywhere near Saka, who has started scoring with his weaker foot to make his moves in the area less predictable. 

 

A bad injury to Burnley’s Aaron Ramsey after a challenge from Odegaard led to ten minutes of injury time that the home side could have done without… and which the majority of their fans decided to give a miss. Who can blame them – a wet day with a lot of the stands not offering much in the way of protection from the rain. It made for a miserable Saturday afternoon in Lancashire…. unless you were watching your team score a hatful.

Leandro Trossard should have scored more than once before he finally found the net with his team’s fourth after 65 minutes – the result of Burnley giving the ball away cheaply just outside their own box. Nominally the centre forward, his profligacy might have been costly in a tighter game. In the tougher matches to come this season, the players who were weighing in with goals in recent outings may well need to compensate for the side’s lack of a lethal finisher. 

 

And if three of Martinelli, Trossard, Havertz and Odegaard can rack up double figures (Saka already has 12) then there is a chance of winning the games that could bring a title to the club 20 years on from the Invincibles.

 

Havertz’s goal on 77 minutes was another shocker for the home side, caught cold by a long throw in. Everyone knows that Burnley are doomed, and you can see why after yesterday. 

 

Even in the lengthy  the spell of injury time the Gunners were still chasing down every ball, in front of a large number of empty seats reminiscent of West Ham last weekend. If there were a trophy for the ability to empty away grounds, Arsenal would be odds on favourites.  

 

Odegaard’s being consistently outstanding since the start of January has coincided with a general uplift in form throughout the team and we are once more seeing the dominant flowing football of last season. After 25 matches in 2022-23, the team were in first place with 57 points. This season it’s 55 points and second place to Liverpool who have 57. Manchester City do have a game in hand, although their draw at home to Chelsea makes things even tighter.

 

Critically though, Arsenal have managed to pick up points in the first half of this campaign when they were still finding their rhythm minus Grant Xhaka and (most of the time) Thomas Partey – two key contributors when the team were at their best last season. In taking time to incorporate the new arrivals (Rice was immediately a good fit, but Havertz has taken time), they’ve stayed in contention, mainly due to some significant late winning goals turning one point into three on a number of occasions. 

 

And if the team are now hitting a groove, as recent performances suggest, they are wonderfully placed to challenge. They might need to be more fortunate with injuries than they were at the tail end of last season, and the Champions League will stretch resources. But winning matches seems to keep players fresh, especially if they do not have to extend themselves too much to do it, as we have seen over the last two games.

 

The run since the defeat to Fulham gives genuine hope that the Gunners are very much in the mix with Liverpool and Manchester City, and that they can go to the Etihad, White Hart Lane and Old Trafford without fear. Get results from those three matches and the belief will go through the roof. Winning bread and butter matches like yesterday are equally key to the mix. Nothing can be taken for granted in this league, but if the players continue to show the form of late, it will be an exciting three months or so ahead.

 

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