Wood scores after Arsenal blunder
It’s unlikely All White Chris Wood has scored a more bizarre goal, or will ever top it for weirdness value.
Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka gifted an equaliser to Burnley in a 1-1 draw in the English Premier League yesterday, further damaging his team’s chances of reaching the European qualification positions.
Xhaka received a pass from goalkeeper Bernd Leno inside Arsenal’s penalty area and tried a risky pass around Burnley striker Wood to team-mate David Luiz with his weaker right foot.
The ball went straight to Wood and deflected into the net off the striker’s hip in the 39th minute.
Wood celebrated with a long finger wagging run to the corner. In all probability he couldn’t believe his luck in a game in which Arsenal had peppered the net at the other end.
That goal cancelled out a sixth-minute opener by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in a game that only really came to life in the final 15 minutes.
After Arsenal was denied a penalty for an apparent handball against substitute Erik Pieters, the Burnley defender seemed to give away a spot kick in a separate incident in the 84th when a goalbound volley from Nicolas Pepe appeared to strike Pieters’ arm and deflect onto the crossbar.
Pieters was initially shown a red card, but VAR looked at the incident and deemed the ball hit his shoulder, so both the awarding of the penalty and the sending-off were overturned.
In other matches yesterday, Leicester moved into second place with a late 2-1 win at Brighton, Sheffield United’s woes continued with a 2-0 loss at home to Southampton and Aston Villa drew 0-0 with Wolves.