After watching all of our rivals drop points on Saturday, it was obvious that Arsenal couldn’t just think they would have an easy game against Burnley yesterday afternoon, despite the Clarets’ dismal away record. And so it proved, as Burnley yet again frustrated us at every turn, just as they did at Turf Moor in the opposite leg.
And yet again it took a last second winner for Arsenal to take the points, but it also proved yet again that the Gunners will fight right up until the final whistle when they are searching for a winner.
Arsene Wenger looked to have a very stressful second half, and he made it clear how frustrated he was. “I feel it was an intense game,” he said. “where we played against a team who made the game very uncomfortable for us, but we had to be patient and not to make defensive mistakes with their direct game, which we did quite well.
“But once we were 1-0 up we made it even more complicated by going down to 10 men and then of course it was a bit on the edge. But they didn’t create chances, not many, but they looked dangerous always on set-pieces, on long balls and I felt it was a bit frustrating after we conceded a penalty. Coquelin says he didn’t touch him, but I haven’t seen it, but in the end we still got an unlikely win because when you are 10 against 11 with two minutes to go, it’s difficult to win the game. But we are a team who keeps going no matter what happens and that’s a good quality.”
So Arsenal may have had to fight until the end, but it was worth it as we have moved back up to second place behind Chelsea, but Wenger thinks that his team should just concentrate on putting our own winning run in order and not worry about how our rivals get on. “It was an important game, but not a decisive game. I think at the moment what is more important is for us to build a run, to have a consistency in our results. That is more important than to look at the table, because I think we have built a strong run after we lost two games. Now we are in a position where we have to build up a run, so every game of course helps to create confidence and belief.”
We are now on a 5-game unbeaten run again, and if we can get all 3 points against Watford in 8 days time, then we will be in good heart to face the League leaders on the following weekend in which could be our big throw of the dice in the title race….
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