For its last outing of the season at the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal (1st) hosted Burnley (19th) this Monday evening as part of the 37th day of the Premier League, with the ambition of taking a further step towards the title. Mission accomplished for the Gunners, authors of a valuable success against the Clarets already condemned to relegation (1-0). For this meeting, Mikel Arteta had made three changes compared to the eleven lined up against West Ham a week earlier, notably starting Mosquera, Ødegaard and Havertz.
Despite possession of the ball largely in favor of the Londoners (72% in the first half), the Gunners came across a very compact defensive block on the Burnley side. Using hidden passes, Martin Ødegaard notably tried to find Havertz and Saka in order to destabilize Maxime Estève’s teammates. In vain. Scorer against the Hammers, Leandro Trossard found the right post of Max Weiss (15th), causing a first real thrill in the opposing defense. Twenty minutes later, Bukayo Saka collapsed in the area after contact with Lucas Pires. Insufficient for the taste of Paul Tierney and the referees in charge of VAR to award a penalty. So as is often the case, Arsenal relied on their secret weapon: corners. On a cross perfectly distilled by Saka, Havertz rose higher than everyone and catapulted the ball into the back of the net to make the Emirates roar (37th, 1-0), scoring the Gunners’ 18th goal from a corner this season in the league.
Arsenal are almost there
In the second half, the Clarets were more offensive, taking advantage of some generosity in the Arsenal midfield to bring danger towards the London area. But the strikes from Anthony (51st) and Mejbri (57th) went well above Raya’s goal. The meeting then decreased in intensity and could even have turned into a disaster for the Gunners. In the 67th minute, Havertz received a yellow card following a very dangerous tackle on Lesley Ugochukwu.
An action finally revised in the VAR truck, which decided not to change Paul Tierney’s decision. Seeing his team take the hit physically, Arteta launched Gyökeres and Lewis-Skelly at the end of the match to give some momentum. The Gunners, with an untenable Mikel Arteta at the end of the match, were finally satisfied with this short success (1-0), enough to achieve a 25th success in the PL this season and to temporarily take a five-unit lead over Manchester City (2nd), who will go to Bournemouth on Tuesday evening. In the event of a draw or defeat for Pep Guardiola’s Cityzens, Arsenal will be crowned champion of England for the 14th time in their history and will end 22 years without the Premier League.
