Arsenal travel to Turf Moor to take on Burnley on the back of four consecutive wins and three clean sheets. The Gunners are in excellent form heading into the first match of Arsene Wenger’s third decade at the helm.
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Matchday: Team News – Predicted Lineup – Betting Preview
Match: Burnley v Arsenal
Stadium: Turf Moor
Kick Off (GMT): Sun 2 Oct 16:30
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Background
Burnley are back in the Premier League after a 12 month absence and have started the season well. The Clarets followed up an opening day defeat to Swansea with a massive win over Liverpool at Turf Moor. Sean Dyche’s side then went on a four match win-less run before coming out 2-0 victors over Watford last week. Strangely this is Burnley’s fifth home match out of seven Premier League fixtures and the Clarets have picked up all of their seven points at Turf Moor.
The Gunners meanwhile are on excellent form ahead of the trip. The past week has been a very good one for Arsenal __football Club. The 3-0 demolition of Chelsea was followed up by a good win over FC Basel in the Champions League before celebrating Arsene Wenger’s twentieth year in charge of the club. The Frenchman will attract much of the pre-match attention and Arsenal will have to make sure they don’t lose their focus for the match.
It’s the last Premier League match for two weeks as domestic action takes a break for the internationals. Both sides will want to secure a win going into the break and continue the momentum they’ve built up so far this season.
Preview
Based on past results, the visitors should triumph on Sunday evening. Arsenal have an incredible record over newly-promoted sides with 22 wins and 3 draws in the last 25 matches. Burnley will also be hoping to undo their recent record against the Gunners which is anything but positive, they haven’t won a league match against Arsenal since 1974.
The two teams faced off in the FA Cup in January of this year. Goals from Alexis Sanchez and Calum Chambers helped the Gunners to a 2-1 but the last time the two sides met in the Premier League was April 2015. Aaron Ramsey got the only goal that day but won’t be taking to the field later this afternoon.
What They’re Saying
Burnley boss Sean Dyche used his pre-match press conference to praise his new midfielder, Steven Defour. The Belgian has started his Premier League career extremely well and has three assists to his name already. “Steven has done well.” Dyche told Sky Sports. “The biggest thing I talked to him about was the physicality of the Premier League.
“I don’t just mean the tackles, but the pace of the league and the physical demands.
“We’ve had to protect his body a bit when he’s come off but he’s adjusting to what we are as a group nicely and he’s getting stronger.”
Dyche also took the time to praise Arsene Wenger as the Frenchman celebrates his twentieth anniversary.
“Arsene is one of the top managers, certainly through the Premier League years, his team, their style and manner.
“As a manager, it’s a strange one why he’s questioned at times. There is a balance to that and fans want actual success, not deemed success by me as style of play, but trophies.
“It’s a big challenge for us but it’s one we want, the players want, I want and the fans want.
“As ever, Arsenal get people questioning them but they look pretty good to me. They’ve got pace and clever movement.”
Wenger also seems complimentary of his opponent this afternoon but used his pre-match press conference to talk up his side’s record against newly-promoted clubs.
“I believe that to go into the game is the same commitment, the same focus as the recent games.” Wenger said when asked about that 25 match unbeaten run.
“The danger from Burnley comes from the fact that they are very efficient in some aspects of the game.
“They are very well organised defensively, they don’t concede many goals at home, they showed that against Liverpool and Watford, they are very dangerous on set pieces and from counter attacks. We have to prepare well.”
See here for the full press conference
Team News
Arsenal are without a host of long-term absentees including Per Mertesacker and Danny Welbeck. Also missing are Francis Coquelin and Aaron Ramsey who should both be back after the international break. Olivier Giroud is also missing from the match with that toe injury he picked up against PSG two weeks ago.
Burnley have a relatively full strength team but are without last season’s top scorer Andre Gray. The striker was retroactively punished for a series of offensive tweets he made several years ago. Gray is currently serving a four match ban and won’t return to action for the club for another three weeks. Also missing is striker Ashley Barnes so Dyche is expected to once again go with a 4-5-1 and attempt to fill the midfield in an effort to stop Arsenal’s play.
See here for the full team news
Arsenal Predicted Lineup
We expect Arsenal to keep everything pretty much the same for the trip to Turf Moor. The Gunners are playing too well to drop anyone at the moment and we don’t expect anything to change.
See here for the full predicted lineup article
Stats
Arsenal are unbeaten in 25 matches against newly-promoted sides (W23 D3)
Burnley have scored in all but one of their four Premier League matches at home this season
The Gunners are unbeaten in their last six matches against Burnley (W5 D1)
The last three meetings between the sides at Turf Moor have produced just three goals
Steven Defour has scored or assisted all but one of Burnley’s goals since he joined the club (4/5)
Predicted score
Burnley 1-3 Arsenal