You have to feel sorry for Burnley who just can’t get a point of Arsenal in the Premier League. The Gunners have won every single game against them since they came into the top flight and for the third time in a row it has come down to the dying minutes for things to go in Arsenal’s favour.
But the Gunners have not had much luck with penalty decisions this season at all, and we lost to yet another one on Thursday in Cologne, but just for a change, Arsene Wenger is absolutely certain that this was a nailed-on spot kick. “From outside, it looked like a clear penalty,” he said. “I felt there was one on Bellerin as well. I can understand that [Burnley] are disappointed with that, but from outside it looked like a penalty.
“When you speak to him [Ramsey], he didn’t throw himself on the ground. He said he wanted to go back and flick on the ball. He was pushed in the back and he has a problem in his neck from the push. He said it was a very strong push.”
But other than the spot kick, Wenger was willing to admit that Burnley made it very hard for us and made us fight every inch of the way, althought he felt his team was slow to get going.
“I felt we played a bit slowly in the first half but in the second half our pace was much better, even if we missed the final ball,” he said.
“Is that down to us not being able to find the right ball or because of them defending very well? What is for sure is that they defend very well, they are very well organised and they are very clever, very clever, very direct as well. You understand when you play against them, why they have 22 points.
“In the first half it was a very even game with them looking a bit sharper than us,” he added. “It took us a while to get into the pace of the game.
“We were more decisive on 50:50s in the second half. In the second half I felt it was all us and they had many more problems coming out. We made some changes but we also pushed ourselves a bit higher up.
“For us, after the win against Tottenham, it was very important to go away from home and play a very difficult game and win it. That’s what we did. For the belief of the team, it’s a very important win.”
‘Important’ is probably the understatement of the year! We should have no trouble turning over Huddersfield with a little bit of rotation on Wednesday, and then we can turn our minds to the massive game against Jose Mourinho’s Man United next Saturday. A win against Wenger’s greatest rival will put us right up there where we belong again….
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