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Burnley Fan View: Taking pride in improving away performances

gray goal v arsenal
gray goal v arsenal

After another offside Arsenal goal prevented just a second point of the season away from home for the Clarets, we should take pride in our improving away performances lately.

I’m not going to go into detail about the late decision that once again gifted Arsenal two points and robbed us of one – Laurent Koscielny was clearly offside in the build up to the supposed ‘foul’ by Ben Mee and as such there should not have been a penalty, and Burnley should have come away with a hard earned point. It was not to be and we are left disappointed and frustrated.

Given time to reflect however I think we should be very pleased with the overall performance and most of all we appear to have changed our attitude away from home. We no longer just sit back and hope to run out the clock from the first minute – we had some good opportunities throughout the game and the Burnley penalty was a result of some good attacking play.

Burnley actually began the game stronger and we had some good spell in the Arsenal half as well as a corner to show for our efforts. Arsenal grew into the game however and dominated possession, but aside from a few long shots that Heaton held onto well, our goal was rarely threatened in the first half.

Arsenal ramped up the pressure early in the second half but we stood firm and denied them time after time, until Mustafi popped up with a glancing header despite having numerous Burnley shirts around him, Heaton had no chance in goal and I felt we could crumble from there.

Step up Granit Xhaka, who had persistently fouled Defour all game. One led to an advantage being played and I think this saved him from being carded. He needlessly lunged in on Burnley’s number 16 with two feet, off the ground and in no control of his body and was rightly sent off. This presented an opportunity for Burnley.

steven defour v arsenal
steven defour v arsenal

We had a handful of half chances but finally we made it count, Barnes collect the ball in the area and ran past sub Coquelin who swung for the ball and kicked Barnes instead. Gray converted the penalty to send Burnley fans into raptures. At this stage I felt we could go on and win again the ten men.

in the 96th minute of 97 added on, Ozil swung in a free kick to the far post, Ben Mee, always looking back at the ball in flight, swung his foot up (to shoulder height) to clear it and kicked (skimmed) Koscielny in the face with his boot. Koscielny had started his run in an offside position, and over ran the ball – it’s exactly because of this he had to stoop down to connect his head on the ball (and if Mee wasn’t there it would’ve glanced off it and gone wide anyway).

Of course in this situation the officials deemed it necessary to ignore all of the facts above, including the offside, and proceeded to award Arsenal a penalty and Ben Mee a yellow card. Arsenal fans throwing a tantrum at every opportunity (even having the gall to boo the ref for awarding little Burnley a penalty) likely didn’t help.

Sanchez converts, Arsenal continue their limp towards 3rd or 4th place and Burnley are once again cruelly denied.

laurent koscielny
laurent koscielny

The big takeaway though for me is our setup away from home. I watched early in the season as we were taken apart by Chelsea, Leicester, West Brom and Southampton because we just sat back and invited pressure for the entire game. We couldn’t retain the ball and played as though we were in the dying minutes of an FA Cup game.

This match, and since Spurs away really, was different. We got the ball moving when we had to and threatened the goal. We had 5 shots on target away from home after averaging less than 2 per game early in the season – this is a marked improvement and it’s down to Sean Dyche and the players who are refusing to give up away from home. I know a win is due soon in some more manageable fixtures.