arsenal 2 Lacazette (13), Aubameyang (64) burnley 1 Barnes (43)
Unai Emery praised the impact of his new signings as Arsenal secured a narrow victory over Burnley to make it two wins from their opening two games.
While old favourites Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-emerick Aubameyang scored the goals either side of an Ashley Barnes equaliser to seal the win, Arsenal’s summer recruits also played a starring role.
David Luiz made his first appearance and, despite Burnley threatening from set-pieces, he eased in comfortably next to Sokratis Papastathopoulos, while Dani Ceballos put in a man of the match performance on his home debut.
Asked about how his recent acquisitions had fared, Emery said: “What we wanted to create was a big atmosphere with our supporters together today and this season.
“With some new players, they made an impact in the first match. We created this atmosphere today, also with some other players, like ( Joe) Willock, who played very well.”
Lacazette forced a smart save out of Nick Pope with a looping header, before collecting Ceballos’ delivery and turning home through Pope’s legs.
Burnley were level just before the interval as Barnes did well to collect a wayward Dwight Mcneil shot inside the box and steer past Bernd Leno.
Aubameyang tucked away the winner, firing home from the edge of the box after 64 minutes.
Meanwhile, Sean Dyche used his post-match press conference to once again call for the football authorities to stamp out diving.
While the Burnley boss refused to single out any Arsenal players for simulation, he was clear in his call for greater punishments to be doled out.
“The game is in a really poor state for players diving, feigning injuries, all sorts,” he said. “I found it peculiar. I was at a Premier League meeting a couple of weeks ago and they told us the worst that can happen is a yellow card.
“So basically every player in the Premier League can cheat at least once a game. I don’t know any sport where they tell you that you can cheat once a game.
“I’ve never seen that in sport before.
“The game is in a really poor state, with players literally falling on the floor.”