Arsenal continues their Premier League campaign later today when they host 12th place Burnley at the Emirates Stadium. With Tottenham, Liverpool and Manchester City all dropping points last night, Arsenal have a really good chance to move up to second on the table and close the gap on Chelsea who are 8 points ahead of Arsenal.
The last time Arsenal faced Burnley, the Gunners just managed to edge out a 1-0 win in controversial circumstances after the ball hit Laurent Koscielny's hand before it went into the net and Arsene Wenger said in an interview that Arsenal were lucky to come away with all three points from that match. Wenger also suggested that Burnley have enough to stay in the Premier League beyond this season.
"It was the game where we have maybe been the most lucky because Koscielny touched the ball with his hand for the goal. I must say we were very close to drawing and maybe even losing the game because they had one or two chances from set-pieces with Sam Vokes."
"When we came out of the game I thought, 'They will not go down', because of their spirit and organisation. They have strong points there and they accept that they will give you the ball. Not many teams do that and keep their focus. They say, 'okay, from the start of the game you have the ball but we might try to kill you at some stage'. You need a special spirit to do that."
"Once you have 10 years in the Premier League, you have the pressure to do a bit more. In the first year, everybody accepts you will do that and that makes them dangerous because they are good at it and they accept it all together. That makes it efficient," ESPN quoted the Arsenal manager as saying.
Arsenal will welcome back Kieran Gibbs, Hector Bellerin and Francis Coquelin for this match but the Gunners will still be without club captain Per Mertesacker, who is not far away from a first team return. Santi Cazorla remains a long-term injury for Arsenal, and along with him, Theo Walcott is also set to miss this match through a calf injury.
Mohamed Elneny, who is on international duty at the AFCON with Egypt, will also miss this fixture, but Danny Welbeck who made his comeback for Arsenal a few weeks back will be a big boost for Arsenal as he offers more attacking options.
While Burnley has been outstanding at their home stadium, they have the worst away record in the Premier League this season. Only one of Burnley's 26 points this season has been secured away from Turf Moor, at Old Trafford in a 0-0 draw with Manchester United.
Burnley will certainly be boosted by the signing of Joey Barton who could make his first start for the club today, and they could also welcome back Ashley Barnes and Dean Marney from injury. But, Scott Arfield could miss out on this game due to a knee injury and Berg Gudmundsson, who is not a 100% could also miss this crucial match for Burnley.
Jeff Hendrick who has been one of Burnley's most impressive players this season believes Burnley need to improve their performances away from home and they need to start that now against Arsenal.
"We've come off the pitch away from home and even though we've been beaten we've had a good feeling because the performances have been better. The first thing we needed to do was to start playing more like ourselves when we're on the road, and we've definitely done that in the last few games, and the next step is to pick up the points.''
"I don't think you can look too far down now - we're 10th for a reason. We've put in the performances and we've worked hard to get the points. Now we've got to kick on and keep putting in the performances and get as many points as we can" the Burnley midfielder was quoted as saying.
Where to watch
The match between Arsenal and Burnley is set to start at 2:15pm GMT (7:45pm IST, 9:15am EST)
TV and Live streaming information
India: TV: Star Sports Select HD 1. Live Streaming: Hotstar
UK: TV: Sky Sports 1/HD. Live Streaming: Sky Go
USA: TV: NBC Sports Live. Live Streaming: NBC Live.
Spain: TV: Movistar+
France: SFR Sport 1
Middle East: TV: Bein Sports. Live Streaming: Bein Sports Connect.
