The precise moment of the flaw.
[Photo: Jason Cairnduff/Action Images via Guardian]
Another travel to the north in one week saw the Gunners draw at Turf Moor against a hapless yet industrious side. Where at moments both teams struggled to find their own forms, there was one of those clashes in which both earn one point where actually the totality of the three could have made a lot happier either set of supporters and players. Burnley cannot be accused of playing to draw, neither Arsenal of underplaying: the constants that the Londoners face each time they travel to hostile grounds are, by this time of the season, measured and should be taken into consideration.
The previous win against Liverpool mattered little in this case. Even when the schedule seems to be an easy one, the fact that another pause comes between the home games against Hull and Villa could benefit the current situation instead of hampering it. Burnley resulted a rock on the path? as Wenger's ambitions once more took halt and should be no more than that as another lesson is learned.
[Photo: Mirror Football]
The haphazard beginning saw Vermaelen nearly scoring in his own goal, but Almunia palmed away timely. The northern team had several opportunities to counter the Gunners' approach. Within the first minutes they deployed their usual custom when visiting teams, specially with difficult travels such as this one. In the seventh minute, they took the lead through Cesc Fábregas after combining with Burnley's moronic defence
The London skipper made himself present for Carlyle's defence as he strolled past one defender and lobed the ball to shoot wide. The visitors made around five "warnings" when the clock approached the quarter of an hour. The clearest of them was a combo between Nasri and Arshavin; his try made the woodwork tremble nevertheless.
Pressure by Coyle's men gave them a bounty they could nor reject; Vermaelen gave away a penalty and Alexander squared things up three minutes to get to the half hour mark. From that point on, the Clarets made a crusade to grab a lead, which really did not seem strange taking into considerations the state of Arsenal's defence.
As the final minutes o the first half ended, the home attack began to grow as the Spaniard skipper had to be replaced by the young Welshman due to an early injury. Instead of finishing the first part at top gear, the sense that the Londoners entered into a kind of a no-way out trap appeared to be welcomed by the home supporters.
[Photo: News of the World]
Reaching the 56th minute the visitors had their first approach of the second part through a largely common, standard corner. Walcott summed up his terrible form with a wide shot at row-z, which was by far the clearest chance of the match for his side. As the Clarets took advantage, Eagles made a surreptitious move to edge Silvestre and Nasri; his subsequent shot hit the post violently, all this at the 62nd minute. Eduardo came on for Theo a couple of minutes later. From the sixtieth minute to the eightieth minute, Coyle's men scrapped a load of chances, beginning with Foster's at 65th. A disallowed goal broke the hearts of the Burnley supporters at Turf Moor as Fletcher found himself offside.
With the craft of Nasri, slowly the home team's dominance began to dissolve as the visitors' began to increase. Despite this great endeavour there should have been a penalty awarded to Burnley as one of those clumsy tackles by Sylvestre came out. Yet the final five minutes produced some desperate football by both teams. Instead the stalemate remained and the two teams shared the two points; probably any of the eleven men would have been happier with the three.
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