Wasteful Arsenal suffer top 4 blow as Burnley earn big point in relegation fight

MIKEL ARTETA was left tearing his hair out as an absence of innovative got here again to hang-out his fading Arsenal.

If solely he had a famous person striker he may name on so as to add some a lot wanted firepower.

But together with his workforce crying out for inspiration and a bench full of youngsters, Arteta nonetheless couldn’t discover room amongst his subs for out of favour famous person Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

And you need to marvel how for much longer the supervisor goes to chop off his nostril to spite his face by ignoring the claims of his most established scorer.

It’s now seven weeks and ten video games since Aubameyang final performed for Arsenal after being stripped of the captaincy and banished from first workforce coaching by Arteta.

However having returned early from the African Cup of Nations and ending health considerations attributable to a second dose of Covid, he would have been a greater than helpful weapon to smash Burnley’s cussed resistance.

But he was nowhere to be seen as his struggling team-mates huffed and puffed however had been unable to blow their opponents away.

And the boos which echoed across the Emirates on the remaining whistle confirmed {that a} season which had promised a lot is now at risk of truly fizzling out once more.

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As a result of it’s now 5 video games in 2022 with out a win and 7 hours since they final scored a aim.

And their push for a prime 4 end is abruptly within the steadiness after one other afternoon of frustration in opposition to backside of the desk Burnley.

“We’ve got to kill opponents when now we have the alternatives,” Arteta had mentioned within the build-up to this sport.

But his phrases fell on deaf ears as a Burnley workforce who’ve been in semi hibernation put up the shutters to grind out an important level in direction of their escape fund.

Not that you may begrudge them this outcome in any case they’ve been via in latest weeks.

For not solely have Sean Dyche and his squad been worn out by Covid and suffered six postponements within the area of eight weeks, they’ve additionally misplaced their most important striker to relegation rivals Newcastle and came upon that their new homeowners don’t have the cash to bolster the squad.

Dyche has been fast to level out that whereas Arsenal have collected 14 crimson playing cards over the previous two years, his workforce have had none.

However they had been lucky to not break that duck when Ashley Westwood was solely booked for a really late stamp into the calf of Kieran Tierney which regarded all the more severe in gradual movement.

So when the Burnley midfielder then caught Gabiel within the throat with a raised arm, the Emirates lynch mob couldn’t imagine he was allowed to flee additional punishment by referee David Coote.

Not that Dyche noticed it that method, after all. For he has been a long-time critic of gamers who go to floor too simply so was predictably unimpressed with Gabriel Martinelli’s dramatic response to a routine problem from Connor Roberts.

Nothing offers the ginger wind-up service provider extra pleasure than placing billionaire noses out of joint.

And he positively revelled in the way in which Arsenal had been shedding their s*** on the period of time his workforce had been taking up each goal-kick, throw-in and free-kick.

No-one pushed their luck greater than keeper Nick Pope, who took an absolute eternity each time he had possession of the ball.

But Arsenal had no-one however themselves accountable after strolling via the primary 45 minutes with all of the urgency of a sloth on morphine.

With the youngest workforce within the Premier League they need to have been trying to run the legs off Burnley’s assortment of creaking veterans.

But they allowed the sport to be performed at little greater than strolling tempo, which suited the guests simply wonderful.

And regardless of Arteta consistently beckoning his gamers ahead, too a lot of them lacked the braveness to take an attacking threat.

No-one regarded off the tempo greater than Bukayo Saka, who ought to have had the time of his life in opposition to 33-year-old Erik Pieters however consistently did not clear the primary man together with his crosses.

He wasn’t helped by a variety of industrial challenges from Burnley’s no-nonsense again 4 however seems to have misplaced a few of his snap in latest video games.

Perhaps carrying the expectations of the whole Emirates is beginning to weigh closely on his shoulders.

So it’s most likely a great factor that he’s now going to have loads of time to recharge his batteries as Arsenal put together for simply two video games within the subsequent six weeks.

The primary risk got here from Alex Lacazette, who ought to have damaged the impasse when he stabbed extensive within the 67th minute,  and Pope did properly to avoid wasting from Martin Odegaard and Emile Smith Rowe. 

But solely 5 of their 20 photographs had been on the right track and regardless of 76 % possession this was a type of video games which at all times felt destined to finish in disappointment.

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