Arsenal escape with win at Burnley after controversial winner
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ByEurosport
Updated 02/10/2016 at 18:12 GMT
Premier League, Turf Moor – Burnley 0 Arsenal 1 (Koscielny 90+3)
Arsenal's Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain celebrates after Laurent Koscielny scores their first goal
Image credit: Reuters
Arsenal celebrated Arsene Wenger’s 20th anniversary as manager in style with the scruffiest possible winner at the last possible moment, rescuing an otherwise listless effort. They go third, while Burnley, who were excellent, stay 14th.
Despite their excellent recent form, Arsenal did not begin with their expected intensity and Burnley were excellent in a forgettable first half, their disciplined defence limiting Arsenal to pot-shots. And it was they who created the best chance of the period, Vokes heading wide from Lowton’s cross.
After the break, Arsenal increased the intensity but not the quality. On 73 minutes, Alexis Sanchez came close to opening the scoring, his close-range volley flashing just wide, but almost immediately afterwards, Michael Keane hit the bar with a header.
Things rather fizzled out after that, before, in the third minute of a stoppage time period originally set for just two, Arsenal won a corner on the right. Cazorla's delivery was good, Walcott flicked on, and Oxlade-Chamberlain appeared to bundle an inept shot off Koscielny’s hand and in. Burnley were not chuffed with the decision to allow the goal, but the finish was as far from deliberate as it’s possible to be.
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Arsenal's French defender Laurent Koscielny (L) deflects the ball into the net from English midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's shot as Arsenal score a last minute winning goal during the English Premier League football match between Burnley and Arsenal
Image credit: AFP
TALKING POINT - DO ARSENAL HAVE WHAT IT TAKES?
Arsenal have made failing to win these kinds of game into an art-form. And, with seconds to go, it looked as though Manchester City's defeat at Spurs earlier this afternoon would go unpunished. But, somehow, Theo Walcott played Steve Bould, his flick-on setting up the most un-Arsenal of goals and the players celebrated like a team starting to believe. It is, though, just the first week in October.
MAN OF THE MATCH - MICHAEL KEANE
Louis van Gaal’s decision to sell him looks increasingly foolish by the match. This was another calm, commanding performance, in which Arsenal, and Alexis Sanchez in particular, were limited to very few sights of goal. And in fact it was he who came closest to scoring for Burnley, hitting Arsenal's bar with a towering header from a corner.
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Burnley's English defender Michael Keane (L) vies with Arsenal's German midfielder Mesut Ozil
Image credit: AFP
PLAYER RATINGS
Burnley: Heaton 6, Lowton 7, Keane 8, Mee 8, Ward 7, Gudmundsson 6, Hendrick 7, Marney 7, Defour 6, Boyd 6, Vokes 6.Subs: Arfield 6.
Arsenal: Cech 6, Bellerin 6, Mustafi 6, Koscielny 6, Monreal 6, Xhaka 5, Cazorla 6, Walcott 6, Ozil 6, Iwobi 6, Sanchez 8. Subs: Elneny 6, Oxlade-Chamberlain 6,
KEY MOMENTS
17 CHANCE - Sanchez comes deep and fights his way past Marney, moving from centre to right before feeding Walcott. He then rolls his studs over the ball to create an angle for the shot, dragging it well wide of the far post.
37 BIG MISS - Sam Vokes, hang your head in shame. Arsenal’s defensive line is an utter shambles and the Burnley forward has time and space in the box as the ball is flighted in from the right. However, he gets his angles wrong and plants his header well wide of the post. Big chance gone begging there.
60 SAVE - Burnley come forward for the first time in a while and Gudmundsson comes inside and onto his right foot, curling an excellent cross that Vokes is up for first - despite Monreal tugging him down. He aims for the far corner, and Cech seems to dive early, forced to claw it away from above his head.
73 CLOSE - Nice from Arsenal, Elneny, slipping a pass through for Cazorla. His cut-back would've been lovely, but for the fact that no one was there, and Keane swept away, only to hit his own man and concede a corner. That went backwards to Elneny on the edge of the box, but the pass left him too much to do, only for the block to send the ball spinning towards Alexis; he watched the ball onto his laces and connected beautifully. It looked for all the world as though he had scored, but his volley was inches wide.
75 BAR - Burnley win a corner of their own, down the left, and Gudmundsson's kick picks out Keane at the back post. His climb is majestic, only for his header to clatter the bar.
90+3' GOAL! BURNLEY 0-1 ARSENAL (KOSCIELNY) Arsenal win a corner on the right, Walcott flicks across the face, and there's Oxlade-Chamberlain at the far post, his inept finish deflecting off Koscileny's hand and into the corner. Huge, huge goal!
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Burnley's Welsh striker Sam Vokes (L) vies with Arsenal's German defender Shkodran Mustafi during the English Premier League football match between Burnley and Arsenal at Turf Moor in Burnley, north west England on October 2, 2016.
Image credit: AFP
KEY STATS
Burnley are winless in eight league games against the Gunners (D3 L5), losing each of the last four in the Premier League.
Only Liverpool (28) have scored more 90th minute winning goals in Premier League history than Arsenal (23).
Arsenal have won five successive Premier League games for the first time since October 2015, and kept back-to-back clean sheets for the first time this season.
Neither Burnley nor Arsenal have scored more than one goal at Turf Moor in their last four league meetings (0-0, 1-1, 0-1 and 0-1).
Only Scott Dann has scored more goals (7) than Laurent Koscielny (6) among defenders in the Premier League since the start of last season.
Burnley have scored just five goals in their opening seven Premier League games; the joint-fewest in the competition so far (along with Stoke).
Only Hull City (93) have faced more shots (incl. blocks) than Burnley (84) at home in the Premier League this season, despite the Clarets conceding just three times at Turf Moor.
Shkodran Mustafi made six tackles against Burnley; the most by an Arsenal player in a Premier League game this season.
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