Mikel Arteta insists that it is ‘always really tough’ to play against Arsenal’s next opponents Burnley, who are a credit to their club.
The Gunners will be looking to build on their recent win over Leicester City when they head to Turf Moor on Saturday, with the chance to move up to eighth in the table.
Arsenal lost to the Clarets back in December when their form was at it’s lowest, when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s settled the game at 1-0, but our recent form should give us the advantage going into the weekend.
The manager isn’t looking forward to an easy match however, and talks up their opponent’s ability to make things hard for any opponent.
“It is always really tough to play against them, at home it was a tricky game because we played with 10 men and we ended up losing on a set piece, which is a big part of the game, so hopefully we can have a very different result.
“I quite enjoy [going to Turf Moor] because it’s what the Premier League is about, going into those grounds and making it happen, being able to compete against a style that is very defined and executed to perfection. That’s a big credit.
“There’s not one or two ways to play football, there’s many ways to do it. They did it within the rules and there’s nothing that is outside them. They do it really well.
“From my side, they merit much more credit for what they do than what they sometimes do. It’s admiration as a coach that he’s able to get the best out of that group of players, the results that they have as a club, to create the atmosphere that they do at that stadium.
“It’s all credit to them because they believe in what they do. I think that’s really nice for the English Premier League.”
Burnley are certainly not the most attractive football side to come up against, but they have proven to be able to play to their strengths, but have threatened at the wrong end for a while, and with their current record you could be forgiven for believing they could be in a relegation battle when push comes to shove this season.
Despite their victory in December, and Arteta once again being polite to his opponents, we simply have to win this weekend if we are any kind of serious team, as dropping more points against these sorts of teams is a shambles.
Arteta better not show Burnley more respect than they deserve this weekend.
Patrick
