[Trapped In Burnley]

FA Premier League
BURNLEY 1 (Wood 39)
ARSENAL 1 (Aubameyang 6)

IT’S hard not to think what Unai Emery might be thinking. During his short-lived tenure as Arsenal manager, he finished fifth in the Premier League and was hustled out of the door quite quickly afterwards.

Hey, what about Bruce Rioch? Mocked as a disaster, his one year as the club’s manager – the last before Wenger – also managed fifth place and a place in the UEFA cup.

Both were hounded out and marked down as not being good enough to be at the helm of a club with the stature of Arsenal’s, and yet there is hardly a squeak about how Mikel Arteta’s record should be treated.

Arsenal now lie tenth in the league this afternoon (Saturday) after calamitously losing the initiative away at Burnley. The season is trundling into what used to be called mid-table obscurity, but there is not much commentary beyond some flaming tweets about whether Arsenal’s gamble on an inexperienced manager should be cut short.

It would be interesting to know what the minimum expectations from the board are ahead of the final run-in.

Yes, there was bad luck at Turf Moor. Arsenal were denied what looked like a decent cry for a penalty in the second half and Dani Ceballos cracked the post in the dying seconds, but even those most loyal to the Arteta project must see that points were surrendered here with a familiar lack of focus.

It was Arteta who chose to stick with Bernd Leno, the goalkeeper whose casual kick out initiated Burnley’s bizarre equaliser five minutes before half time. Emi Martinez, the stopper who helped him win the FA Cup last season was sent on his way.

It was Arteta who decided to reintegrate Granit Xhaka into the team, almost building it around him – despite his track record of blunders at choice moments. Arteta can hardly say he wasn’t warned about Xhaka’s reliability when he watches it all back and sees Xhaka bashing Leno’s pass into Burnley’s Chris Wood.

The ball then ricocheted into the Arsenal goal.

Down the road, they would call this chain of events ‘Spursy’, but Arsenal can’t afford to revel in their rivals’ reputation for misfortune and mishaps – because they are forging their own.

This was a match which they could have won 3 or 4 nil, had they taken advantage of a bright start. Pierre-Emerick Aubemayang’s double step over in the box bought him the space to fire low into the corner of the goal. Keeper Nick Pope offered the weakest of hands and it rolled into the net.

A fifth minute lead which should have been the base for a sunny away day, but – oh no – it had to be more complicated than that.

Bukayo Saka, bright all game again, missed a couple of first half opportunities, Aubameyang could have added to his own tally and Thomas Partey walloped a volley over the bar. All decent chances and the Gunners were in control.

But then came the blooper – an embarrassment you probably wouldn’t accept in a school game – and in a moment the game changed and the teams went into interval all square.

This gave Burnley the boost they needed to turn much of the second half into a Sunday league scrap: lots of balls flying around and crunches for the second touch, but no real chances.

This changed in the last quarter of the match when Nicolas Pepe arrived on the pitch for Arsenal and mixed things up. He was more forceful than Willian, who he replaced, but still lacking that ruthless touch.

He should have earned a penalty for Arsenal when he twisted the ball around Erik Pieters who had his arm out when it bounced off him. Kevin Friend, the video assistant referee, said the distance between Pepe and Pieters was too close for it to be a spot kick, but such a verdict was clearly open to interpretation.

Pieters himself almost lobbed Leno from 25 yards soon after and then was involved in more drama when Pepe’s volley hit him on the shoulder as he repelled the ball from the goal line. Andre Marriner, the on pitch ref, awarded a penalty and showed a red card, only for Friend to unravel all of those decisions.

In between, Pepe completely missed his timing when he had the chance to convert a Saka cross from close range, while Leno stopped a shot from Wood with his legs.

In the final seconds, after a pinball scramble in the penalty box, Ceballos drifted a shot against the post but Arsenal were left with nothing more than a point for their puffing and remain increasingly detached from the race for the European places.

Eight points away from fifth place in fact – the basic level achieved by Emery and Rioch.

“It’s a really tough place to come on a difficult pitch,” Arteta said afterwards. “But I have to say overall If you don’t score the big chances that we had if you give the goal to an opponent and if you don’t get the penalty when it’s a clear decision it’s pretty hard in the Premier League.”

BURNLEY: Pope, Lowton, Taylor (Pieters 63), Mee, Tarkowski, Brownhill, Westwood, Gudmudsson (Brady 68), McNeil, Vydra (Rodriguez 86), Wood
SUBS NOT USED: Bardsley, Benson, Dunne, Long, Peacock-Farrell, Stephens

ARSENAL: Leno, Chambers, Tierney, Mari, Luiz, Thomas (Ceballos 80), Xhaka, Odegaard (Lacazette 63), Willian (Pepe 69), Aubameyang
SUBS NOT USED: Bellerin, Elneny, Holding, Gabriel, Martinelli, Ryan