Xhaka red piles on agony
Xhaka sees red as Clarets stun Gunners
ARSENAL 0 BURNLEY 1
GRANIT XHAKA became the sixth red card of Mikel Arteta’s 12- month reign as Burnley piled the pressure on sinking Arsenal.
Swiss midfielder Xhaka was sent off for grabbing Ashley Westwood by the throat before Gunners skipper Pierre- Emerick
Aubameyang’s own- goal handed the Clarets their first win at Arsenal since 1974.
Arteta has had twice as many players sent off in the past year as any other
UNDER north London’s weeping skies, here was an Arsenal performance to make you blub.
Granit Xhaka became the sixth red card of manager Mikel Arteta’s reign and the Gunners have lost four in a row at home in the league for the first time in 61 years.
Pierre- Emerick Aubameyang, who can’t buy a goal at the right end since he signed a new contract, suffered the ignominy of scoring the winner – with his first- ever own goal.
And the stats are piling up in the debit column for Arteta: 746 minutes without a goal in open play, Arsenal’s worst start to a season since 1981 and now a first home defeat by the Clarets in 46 years.
Burnley are nobody’s patsies, and they executed their heist to perfection.
Arsenal, as daft as it sounds, at this rate are heading for a relegation battle.
Xhaka was the pantomime villain, grabbing Ashley Westwood by the throat in a melee he had instigated.
His midfield sidekick Mohamed Elneny was lucky not to follow him down the tunnel for pushing James Tarkowski in the face two- handed.
And the knockout blow, lifting the Clarets out of the bottom three, was inadvertently supplied by captain Aubameyang, below, who glanced Westwood’s corner in at the near post for the winner. The Clarets squandered a yawning chance to pile on the pressure after 13 minutes when Chris Wood, unmarked six yards out, headed Dwight McNeil’s cross wastefully wide. The Gunners’ early escape did, at least, serve as a wake- up call.
Nick Pope denied Alexandre Lacazette, playing in a deeper role behind Aubameyang, the opener with an agile save, but Arsenal’s opening 45 minutes was desperately flat. For all their quick feet and pretty patterns, they found a durable and obdurate defence hard to crack – just as they did in the north London derby seven days earlier.
They were crying out for Mesut Ozil’s creativity and gift for a perceptive pass, but instead Arteta somehow prefers Xhaka and Elneny.
For Arteta, who reaches his first anniversary in charge this week, things could get worse before they get better.
In- form Southampton will come calling on Wednesday evening.