Burnley have been treated as an irrelevance by the rest of the Premier League this season, but this took it to new, egregious levels.
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Mike Jackson weighs in on 'dangerous' Kai Havertz challenge during Arsenal v Bur...](https://www.burnleyexpress.net/sport/football/mike-jackson-weighs-in-on-dangerous-kai-havertz-challenge-during-arsenal-v-burnley-8552359 "Mike Jackson weighs in on 'dangerous' Kai Havertz challenge during Arsenal v Burnley")
Of course the spotlight was always going to be on Arsenal, who are seemingly about to crawl painfully over the line in pursuit of their first league title in 22 years.
But as a neutral, you’d be forgiven for even realising Burnley were even involved in this match up at the Emirates Stadium on Monday night.
Before a ball was even kicked, it was simply a formality Arsenal would roll them over. Not only was the victory guaranteed, their goal difference would receive a welcome boost too. Ahem, not quite so fast.
In fairness, the Clarets’ relegation was confirmed weeks ago and their record now stands at one win in their last 28 league games following this slender defeat to Mikel Arteta’s side, so you can perhaps see why they were written off.
But nevertheless, you only have to look back to last week’s 2-2 draw against Aston Villa to realise Burnley are not exactly an easy pushover.
As poor as they’ve been this season, and don’t get me wrong, they’ve been poor, they’ve rarely been emphatically beaten. There’s only the 5-1 defeat to Manchester City that springs to mind, and even then that was a game Burnley were well in until 70 minutes or so.
Burnley players thank the Burnley fans following the 1-0 defeat to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. Photo: Kelvin Lister-Stuttardplaceholder image
Burnley players thank the Burnley fans following the 1-0 defeat to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. Photo: Kelvin Lister-Stuttard
Of course, there have been other games where they’ve been off the pace and were deservedly beaten – Brighton away, Sunderland away, Everton away and so on and so forth. But still, the scorelines were still kept relatively respectable, even if the performances left a heck of a lot to be desired.
But there is no doubt Mike Jackson and his players used the media narrative as fuel and motivation to prove the doubters wrong.
While ultimately it’s another defeat, a 24th of the season, the Clarets certainly held up their end of the bargain.
If you were a Manchester City fan watching on from home, you couldn’t have asked for much more from Burnley, who pushed Arsenal all the way and ensured a nervy, angsty Emirates for much of this tight encounter.
Jaidon Anthony smiles in disbelief. Photo: Kelvin Lister-Stuttardplaceholder image
Jaidon Anthony smiles in disbelief. Photo: Kelvin Lister-Stuttard
There was a party atmosphere in and around the ground long before kick-off. One supporter brought a replica Premier League trophy with him, while adorning “Champions 26” on the back of his Arsenal jersey. The mood was celebratory, as if the result was already a formality.
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Burnley had other ideas though. They were organised and resolute throughout, hard to break down while still carrying a threat in key moments.
The cynics and doom-sayers will say: ‘yeah that’s great, but they didn’t have a shot on target’, but that ignores Florentino Luis’ early shot that dragged just wide, Loum Tchaouna seeing an effort blocked, Hannibal skewing wide at the back post following an incisive counter and Jaidon Anthong firing narrowly over after pouncing on an Arsenal mistake.
If they had shown a bit more composure, and crucially – more quality – they could easily have upset the apple cart.
It’s not like Arsenal produced a great deal themselves either. Aside from Leandro Trossard’s early strike that rebounded off the foot of the post, I don’t recall too many close shaves and Max Weiss didn’t have many, if any, big saves to make.
As it transpired, the two sides – now separated by 61 points in the league table – could only be separated on the night by a set piece.
It’s easy to be critical of Burnley, their setup and how they defended the cross, but there’s not a great deal they could have done to stop it. Arsenal are simply too good from these dead ball situations.
Having given up with the short corner approach, Bukayo Saka delivered a delightful cross that was just begging to be headed home by Kai Havertz. The German didn’t even have to do a great deal to score, just time his leap right and then nod home from just a few yards out.
Unbelievable
On the topic of Havertz, he was incredibly fortunate to remain on the pitch later in the game after producing a cynical, studs-up challenge down the back of Lesley Ugochukwu’s calf.
How referee Paul Tierney, who was nearby and had a good view of the incident, only felt it necessary to brandish a yellow card beggars belief. But what is even more surprising is how VAR failed to intervene for what was the most obvious example of serious foul play you’re likely to see.
You can’t help but wonder what would have transpired had it been the other way around, with 60,000 Arsenal fans baying for blood and hordes of players surrounding the referee, as they were for every tiny little infringement for much of the night.
It’s highly tempting to dedicate this entire opinion piece to how annoying Arsenal are as a club, whether it’s their performative fans, the tourists, their play-acting players or their Jake Humphreys-esque manager, but I’m the Burnley FC writer and I’m here to write about Burnley.
So on that topic, this was another encouraging performance under their interim boss. Not encouraging in terms of it leading anywhere, because the season was already long gone and no doubt this squad of players will soon be ripped up again over the summer.
But it’s nevertheless welcome to see a bit of grit, a bit of fight, a willingness to stand up and have a bit of a go. It’s nothing particularly revolutionary, but it’s positive all the same. But I suppose after the season we’ve had to endure, we’ll take anything.
All that is left now is that wooden spoon affair against Wolves on the final day. Avoid defeat and the Clarets finish 19th, rather than stone cold last. In the grand scheme of things it doesn’t really matter, and irrespective of the result, I’m sure they’ll be last again on Match of the Day. But some things will never change.
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