Viktor Gyokeres and Declan Rice found the net as Arsenal cruised past Burnley at Turf Moor, temporarily extending their lead at the top of the Premier League to seven points.
Both goals came in a dominant first half – Gyokeres headed home from close range after Gabriel nodded down Rice’s corner on 14 minutes, before the England international capped off a flowing counter-attack with a powerful header from Leandro Trossard’s cross.
Burnley goalkeeper Martin Dubravka made several saves to keep the scoreline respectable, twice denying Bukayo Saka before the break and later stopping substitute Christian Nørgaard’s effort. The Gunners largely kept the hosts at arm’s length, though Burnley struck the post from a stoppage-time free-kick to round off a scrappy second half.
Understandably, Mikel Arteta was full of praise for his side’s control and composure throughout.
“Obviously, very happy,” he told his post-game press conference.
“It’s a really tough place to come, they lost once in 18 months [at home] against Liverpool with the last kick of the game by a penalty. So that’s the difficulty of it.
“I think we started the game exceptionally well. I think the first half is one of the best we’ve played – scored two goals, generated another two or three big chances and conceded nothing.
“That was a platform, because in the second half we dropped the standards, especially with the ball, and with our intentions to take more risks, to play more forwards. But, again, defensively we were exceptional until the point of that [stoppage-time] free kick when we were a bit lucky – they hit the bar – to keep the clean sheet.”
He added: “Against teams that they want to defend in that low block, it is more difficult and Burnley, credit to them, they are very, very well organised and the big teams have struggled big time to generate chances and opportunities against them.
“We certainly have done that, especially in the first half. So, yeah, happy with that but there’s still a lot of things to improve.”
If there was a downside to the afternoon, it was new injury concerns for Gyokeres and midfielder Martin Zubimendi. The former was substituted at half-time, while the latter gave way to Christian Norgaard with 13 minutes remaining. Both were struggling with muscular problems, reported the manager.
“Before [coming off], i think it was one of the best games he [Gyokeres] has played. Overall, his performance was exceptional, even aside from the goal.
“We had to take him out because he was feeling a little niggle, muscular, so we’ll have to wait and see.
“And Zubi, as well, he asked to be subbed, so we’ll have to wait and see. [It’s] muscular, yeah.”
So Arsenal go marching on. Next up it’s a trip to Prague in the Champions League, before a massive game at the Stadium of Light against high-flying Sunderland. With Liverpool and Manchester City meeting next weekend, there’s a real opportunity to crank up the pressure.
The post “First half is one of the best we’ve played” – Arteta reacts to win at Burnley appeared first on Arseblog News – the Arsenal news site.
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