RAMSEY TURNS UP HEAT ON CHELSEA

Arsenal narrow gap on leaders as Welsh star strikes

ARSENAL’S unlikely late title challenge gained further momentum when Aaron Ramsey struck the winning goal at Burnley to record their eighth consecutive victory.

Ramsey, the outstanding individual on show, finished strongly early in the first half to leave Arsene Wenger’s men just four points behind Chelsea, even though the leaders have two games in hand, the first of which is at QPR today.

Burnley remain in the bottom three and are still odds-on favourites to be relegated. But with fixtures against fellow strugglers Leicester, Hull and Aston Villa to come among their six remaining games, manager Sean Dyche will certainly not be giving up hope.

George Boyd, who scored a spectacular winner against Manchester City last month, miskicked in front of goal when presented with their best chance of an equaliser from Ben Mee’s cross, and the home fans felt Arsenal’s players were given too much protection by referee Mike Dean when they tried to make the game physical.

Arsenal are on their best run since the Invincibles side in 2004, so they were not the first team Burnley would have wanted to face in their fight against relegation. Nonetheless, Dyche’s side have performed well against the big guns this season. They drew at Chelsea and notched a 1-0 victory against champions Manchester City.

Not surprisingly both teams were unchanged, although there was a welcome face on the substitutes’ bench for the Clarets, with Matt Taylor back after a lengthy injury lay-off.

Defeats for Hull and Sunderland earlier in the day had given Burnley renewed hope that the great escape was on. For Arsenal, it was all about putting Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea under pressure before the leaders’ derby at QPR at lunchtime today.

Encouragingly for the home side, they were not cowed when Alexis Sanchez went close with an early free-kick.

Indeed, Burnley striker Sam Vokes had an even better chance after six minutes, forcing David Ospina to come quickly off his line and spread himself to stop the striker’s shot.

Arsenal are simply irresistible at times, though, and they cut through a dogged Burnley defence to take the lead after 12 minutes. Mesut Ozil had the first attempt at goal, well blocked by Tom Heaton. The rebound fell to Sanchez, his shot struck Michael Duff and when that rebound fell to Ramsey, he made no mistake by firing into the roof of the net from eight yards.

It was the Welshman’s ninth goal of the season and reward for the regular breaks he makes into the box from midfield.

A few minutes later, he underlined his all-action style by blocking a David Jones free-kick in the Arsenal wall and then he led a quick counter-attack, bursting into the penalty area barely a few seconds later in an attempt to score a second goal. Nearly four thousand Arsenal fans were enjoying themselves and even had the temerity to sing ‘This is a library’ as the normally vociferous home support were briefly silenced.

Arsenal’s traditional soft-centre has hardened up, too. Laurent Koscielny went crashing into Ashley Barnes when danger threatened though the Frenchman was relieved to see Ospina dive to his right to beat away Kieran Trippier’s freekick.

Burnley left-back Mee then became the game’s first booking when he pushed his hand into Ramsey’s face to stop the rampant No 16. Santi Cazorla then was close to scoring on his 100th Premier League appearance but his free-kick was just not quite good enough.

England manager Roy Hodgson was among the spectators and, with Arsenal not having a single Englishman in their starting line-up, one supposes he made the journey to check on Burnley’s England Under- 21 striker Danny Ings. Arsenal ended the first half in control. Burnley’s repeated fouling gave them a flurry of free-kicks and though the home crowd berated referee Dean, it was difficult to see what else the official could have done.

Burnley players clearly felt their opponents were going over too easily and Trippier gave Sanchez a part-quizzical, part-frustrated look after the Chilean fell over to win another foul. Arsenal’s traditional weakness has been poor form in away games in the north of England. But this season they have shown great resolve to win at Manchester City, Sunderland and Newcastle, and pick up points at Everton and Liverpool, besides winning an FA Cup tie at Old Trafford.

Burnley continued their rugged approach and tried to upset Wenger’s sophisticates, with Barnes even kicking Hector Bellerin up in the air. But the Gunners refused to be shaken out of their stride and continued their passing game.

Barnes showed his better side by shooting on the turn but that effort was saved by Ospina, and when he had another strong chance on the edge of the area, Arsenal skipper Per Mertesacker was on hand to thwart him with a strong block.

Aggrieved Burnley fans gave referee Dean ironic applause when he gave any decision to the home side but, in truth, Arsenal were simply too quick for their opponents.

Heaton dived well to his right to keep out a low shot from Sanchez but Arsenal played more conservatively than some of Wenger’s more gung-ho teams of the past and their refusal to throw too many men forward in search of more goals always gave plucky Burnley encouragement, but it was not to be their day.