X-RATED ARSENAL
A squad costing £616m, summer deals of £182m, average wage £5.5m AFTER a pay cut ... and this is what you get
FUNNY how £182million can just vanish into thin air these days. It’s the sum Arsenal laid out on new players in the last financial year, with an average £104,000-a-week salary to keep them happy, even after a pay cut.
Yet the walking calamity called Granit Xhaka still turns out to be the man in possession at the pivotal moment.
Arsenal were knocking the ball around their six-yard box with no one looking particularly disposed to do anything decisive with it as half-time approached, when Xhaka neglected to detect the 6ft 3in presence of Chris Wood standing precisely in the place where he placed it.
No one was more surprised than Wood when Xhaka’s pass rebounded off him and into the net. The New Zealander’s shrug told the story.
The numbers tell you that Xhaka should have been moved on by Arsenal some time ago. No Premier League player has made more errors contributing directly to a goal than his eight misdemeanours in the last five seasons. The red card he received for grabbing Ashley Westwood around the throat was fundamental to Burnley leaving the Emirates with all three points in December.
But the Arsenal malaise ran deeper. Burnley’s goal, six minutes before half-time, was still haunting them when the second half kicked off and was not out of their system until the last ten minutes approached.
Bukayo Saka, so often the shining light this season, was launching into eye-watering challenges. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, the early threat, evaporated into the background. Thomas Partey, initially working box to box, was bullied out of possession by Matej Vydra on the edge of his own area.
Arsenal became a study in beige. There was possession but, with the exception of a pinball finale, only a little prodding around the edges.
The notion of a £104,000-a-week footballer is an alien one to Burnley. Half that sum is their general frame of reference.
They had spent matchday morning announcing a new contract for a player who has been around for an eternity — the 35-year-old Phil Bardsley. Matt Lowton, Erik Pieters, Kevin Long and Johann Berg Gudmundsson — all in their 30s — have all extended this month.
When you do not possess one of the most expensive strike forces in Europe, as Arsenal do, you employ intelligence. It seemed as if Burnley had spotted that Mikel Arteta’s ball players were at a point of maximum vulnerability while mincing around in possession on the edge of their own box. ‘Against popular belief there is always that Burnley storyline that we wait for the chance,’ Dyche said of Burnley’s press. ‘We like front-foot football.’
It took his team an uncharacteristically long time to get started. They were still blinking in the lunchtime sunshine when Arsenal struck on six minutes. Partey revealed that possession in front of your own box does have benefits, instigating a sharp counter-attack which Willian drove forward and Aubameyang finished — exploiting the way Lowton stood off to shape a right-foot shot which crept over the line.
Nick Pope, who got a glove to it, was culpable at his near post but his audible shout of ‘wake up’ ten minutes later reflected a general fallibility about Burnley.
Arsenal would have been out of sight had Saka made more of the two chances that fell his way. He really should have scored from the shot he poked wide after Burnley had cleared a ball straight at full-back Charlie Taylor and into the Arsenal player’s path.
There were grounds for Arsenal optimism in that first half. Willian’s visible frustration with himself after losing a dual with Gudmundsson telegraphed the different player he has been these past few weeks. There was a threat from wide areas, with Kieran Tierney excellent as usual. All that, before the team drained away.
The unfathomable nature of VAR denied them a legitimate secondhalf penalty appeal when substitute Pieters appeared to have directed an arm towards a ball Nicolas Pepe
tried to lift over him on the edge of the area.
The new IFAB rules dictate that no penalty should be awarded if there is no intent, though this looked like a case of old-fashioned handling.
‘If that is not a penalty, then someone explain what a penalty is,’ said Arteta. But the system did prevent the penalty and red card issued by Andre Marriner after Pieters had got in front of Pepe’s volley. The ball had actually hit his shoulder.
Burnley had a marginal penalty call too. Saka seemed to clip Vydra who had shrugged off Partey and ventured into the box.
‘He gets clipped but he doesn’t fall over. Doesn’t scream,’ Dyche reflected. ‘Screaming is the big one today.’
Arsenal’s late drive for the points was spurned by Pepe’s air-shot after Tierney had laid a beautiful ball into his path. Ben Mee and James Tarkowski also capped huge performances in a dramatic finale.
Mee’s block from Aubameyang was decisive and Pieters, another colossus, had cleared from the line before Dani Ceballos, a substitute, pinged a ball against the upright.
The Europa League spots are beginning to looking a stretch for Arsenal who have a north London derby a week today.
‘The feeling I have is the way we are playing we can win every game,’ said Arteta, which seemed an extremely positive gloss on things. The club’s latest accounts, published on Friday, showed losses of almost £50m for the last financial year. Spending their way to competitiveness does not seem to be quite such an option.