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Arsenal overcome Burnley as ‘routine’ becomes a common word for this side

Suburban Gooners Logo Suburban Gooners Logo I hope I can come on here after another 28 matches just like yesterday, because the keyword of the day will be this every time if I do:

Routine.

That needs to be the definer of Arsenal this season with games like this and if Arsenal can continue to put in performances like they did against a functional, not terrible, but ultimately limited Burnley side, then we will indeed receive that glorious pot of Premier League gold at the end of the proverbial rainbow.

Arteta brought back the big guns for this one following the League Cup rotation at the weekend and the impact was obvious. Where – understandably – the team on Wednesday who had not played together allowed Brighton a few opportunities to capitalise, this first XI gave absolutely no quarter. Burnley got nothing and for the third time this season in the Premier League, Arsenal reduced a team to speculative hopeful half chances, with not a single shot on target. The closest they came was when the ball struck the post on 96 minutes but by then the game was done.

But perhaps, in reality, the game was ‘done’ as early on as 14 minutes, when Viktor Gyokeres headed in from about a yard, following Gabriel’s head back from – yep – a corner. Set Piece Again Ole Ole rang out from the away end and online Arsenals watching on TV took to social media to double down on that sentiment. You can cry all you like rival fans, media pundits and muppets like Jeff Stelling, because we don’t care. This is a part of the game that Arsenal appeared to have mastered and when you’re coming up against low blocks each week (yesterday was another five at the back jobbie, with two holding midfielders in front of them), if this is the way you have to prize open that low block like shucking an oyster, then so be it.

I don’t know about you, but I was happy that it was Big Vik on the scoresheet too. He clearly measures his impact on goals and that one will do him the world of good, as he is now up to six goals at the quarter point in the season and as I said the other week on the Same Old Arsenal podcast, my expectations are 20 goals in all competitions. He is well on track to get that.

But as Arteta pointed out afterwards, yesterday he was so much more than that. He ran the channels, he looked lively on the ball and his diagonal pass across the field to Trossard for our second goal of the game was a key moment in this match, such was the clever vision. Trossard’s clip was perfect and man-of-the-match Declan Rice headed home to really make you feel like the game was won as an Arsenal fan. Rice wheeled away and celebrated for his auntie he’s recently lost and that performance from him was one for the ages. He was everywhere. He won tackles, he dictated play with the ball at his feet, he was a metronome when distributing his passing and he popped up with an important goal. And an open play one at that. You lot over there complaining that we don’t score enough open play goals – have some of that with bells on.

It was a super counter attack from a Burnley throw in and showed that when there is space, we can capitalise, which we duly did and whereas I try not to say or think it when we’re ahead, at 2-0 I was saying to myself at hoem “that should be it now. We should be able to see this game out”. That’s very much what the second half felt like to me. Arsenal were happy to see if they could get additional goals and we forced some good saves from Dubravka at times in the second half, but it felt much more of an even game and Burnley had a bit more of the ball than they did in the first half. In that first half we were imperious and ruthless. In the second half we were contained and professional.

That’s all you need to be in games like this. Our goal difference – thanks to our absurd lack of goals conceded so far this season – is already far greater than any other team, with only Man City getting close with +10 GD, whereas ours currently stands on +15. We’ve scored the joint most goals in the league, by the way, for everyone calling us ‘boring’, although I suspect that City might eclipse that today if they beat Bournemouth by scoring more than one goal. They’ll also go second with a win too, although that would put them up to 19 points and so we still would have a six-point cushion.

But as we know having seen it with Liverpool earlier this season, that can all change very quickly, so the game faces for this Arsenal team need to stay on ahead of a tricky away trip to Slavia Prague and then possibly an even trickier away game up at the Stadium of Light next Saturday.

But for now we can be very happy with the way the team are playing and I must say, there were plenty of individual performances that there was a lot to like, I thought. Gyokeres, of course, was great, but I also thought Eze had one of his best games too. I thought Timber did his usual best right back in the league tings, whilst Big Gabi and Saliba were once again impenetrable. Trossard was lively and Saka created chances too, although he’ll be frustrated to have not scored with his one-on-one in the first half and I do think he’ll feel like he left a goal or two out there on the Burnley pitch. But there’s nothing to worry about when you are able to get goals from across the pitch and across different players in different positions too. That’s the beauty of this Arsenal team: They don’t over-rely on any one player any more. If Saka doesn’t take his chances, somebody else will, which is something we have to hope continues for a long time to come this season.

There were some negatives from yesterday, which of course were related to injury as Gyokeres was off at halftime with what Arteta described as a muscular ‘niggle’ and I think we probably need to have him sat out in midweek. He had last midweek off and look at the difference it made in his performance. Let’s do the same in the Champions League and cross our fingers that he can be fit for the trip to the North East. LIkewise too, Zubimendi apparently asked to come off and that one is a big worry too, because he’s become an integral cog in our machine with the way he moves the ball and keeps us ticking over. If we weren’t playing so well and we didn’t already have such a big squad, you’d be cursing our luck with injuries, because by my count if those two are now out we’re up to seven first teamers who could now be out. Seven. Having already missed so many players already this season, we could now have potentially picked up more, so what Arteta will be hoping this morning and tomorrow is that these guys have the minor of knocks that can be resolved with just a few days with their feet up.

But let’s not end today on any kind of negative note, because Arsenal are top of the league with some daylight between the other teams. They have done everything asked of them when we look ed at the start of this run and two more wins will boast an incredible streak going in to the international break. They have to do it, of course, but so far we’re in great shapes and I don’t think you’ll find an unhappy Arsenal fan out there this morning. Well, not a real Arsenal fan anyway.

Right, I’m offski, but we’re doing an early morning Same Old Arsenal pod here if you want to join us.

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Gooner born in 1982 from Harlow, Essex, now living in Uxbridge. I say what I see - frequently wrong, but hey, it's just an opinion piece, right? Leave a comment and let me know what you think.