37 min: Arsenal break and Burnley are extremely light at the back. Aubameyang romps down the middle of the park and slips Saka into the box on the right. Saka is clear, but can’t sort his feet out to shoot, allowing Brownhill to stick in a toe and clear.
36 min: Xhaka creams a long pass down the left for Aubameyang. Pope hares out of his box to head clear, just in time. Aubameyang wasn’t far away from nicking the ball around the keeper, though, at which point Burnley would have been in a world of trouble.
35 min: Burnley enjoy a rare period of possession in the Arsenal half, but do very little with it. Arsenal hold their shape, there’s no way through. On the touchline, Sean Dyche is a study in frustration as he watches his charges toil impotently.
33 min: The ball bounces all over the shop. High and unpredictable. They’ve not watered the pitch.
31 min:Arsenal are beginning to push Burnley back. The hosts are struggling to get out of their own half.
29 min: Saka slips Odegaard away down the right. The pass is a little heavy, but Odegaard manages to stop it on the byline, then flick it back for the incoming Partey, who opens his body and sidefoots over the bar from the edge of the box. Not a million miles away, and that would have been a very pretty goal.
28 min: The ball breaks to Wood, swivelling on the left-hand edge of the Arsenal D. His weak shot bobbles through to Leno, who hasn’t had his gloves warmed yet.
27 min: Lowton crosses from the right. Xhaka heads clear. Westwood hoicks a first-time return over the bar. Meanwhile the referee has a quick word with Mari, for a late slide on Vydra earlier in the move. Next transgression will be officially recorded, I’ll be bound.
26 min: Tierney takes an age over a throw. That’s all there is to report right now.
24 min: To be fair to Saka, that all happened in a flash, and he’d done extremely well to get into that position in the first place. But, well, a miss is a miss.
22 min: A huge miss by Saka! He one-twos with Aubameyang and breaks into the box down the inside-right channel. He’s surrounded by Taylor, Mee and Tarkowski, but somehow manages to barge through everyone, the ball breaking fortunately at his feet. He pokes past Pope, and surely must have thought he’d done enough, but the ball flashes across goal and inches wide of the left-hand post. How on earth did he manage that?
Saka misses a great chance to double the Gunners lead. Photograph: Jon Super/Reuters
21 min: Now Partey does his work down the other end of the field, blootering a high clearance upfield with a satisfying thud.
19 min: Partey shovels a clever pass down the inside-left channel. The ball’s dropping over Aubameyang’s shoulder, on the left-hand corner of the six-yard box. Lowton sticks out a disruptive leg and connects, but the ball still falls to the striker, who pokes a first-time effort wide left. That was decent defending by Lowton, even if it looked a wee bit scruffy. He did all he could, enough to make things harder for Aubameyang.
17 min:Arsenal continue to dominate possession, albeit in the good old sterile style.
15 min: Aubameyang gets a yard of space down the inside-left, but upon entering the box can’t get an effective shot away. He looks in the mood against his bunnies.
14 min: Saka wins a corner out on the right. The set piece isn’t all that, but the ball bounces loose, 25 yards out. Partey is steaming in at absurd speed, with a view to shooting, and it’d have been interesting to see what he’d have achieved had Mee not cleared just in time.
13 min: McNeil dribbles with purpose down the left, entering the box and approaching the byline. His cross-cum-shot is snaffled by Leno. Then Burnley come again, Tarkowski launching long down the left for Taylor, who digs out a cross that sails into the stand. But the home side are finally showing signs of life.
11 min: Xhaka steals the ball in midfield and sends Arsenal on a dangerous-looking counter. He slips a pass to Odegaard, who overthinks the whole situation and eventually he loses possession.
10 min:Arsenal have started magnificently. Calm and in control. They’ve enjoyed 67 percent possession so far.
8 min: That wasn’t great goalkeeping, though Aubameyang took his shot early and caught the keeper by surprise. Pope may blame himself, given he got a hand to the ball, but not enough to stop it dribbling over the line. Anyway, it’s eight in seven against Burnley for the Arsenal striker. Throw in the own goal he scored at the Emirates earlier this season, and he’s quite the man for these fixtures.
Aubameyang celebrates scoring their first goal with Granit Xhaka and Willian. Photograph: Clive Brunskill/Reuters
Willian whistles down the middle of the park with great intent. It’s a brilliant run. He slips wide left to Aubameyang, who drops a shoulder to breeze past Lowton and into the box, then fires towards the bottom left. Pope gets a weak hand to it, and can’t keep it out.
Aubameyang scores the opening goal of the game. Photograph: Clive Brunskill/PA
4 min: Arsenal win the first corner of the game, down the left. Odegaard’s corner isn’t any good. Penny for the thoughts of Mari and Luiz, who had both trudged upfield to contest the set piece.
3 min: Saka flicks cutely down the right, making space, but is penalised, slightly harshly given his stature, for a high foot. Taylor had to stoop to head, as well. But there you go.
2 min: Mee passes long. Vydra flicks towards Wood, but Mari reads the danger well and makes the first clearance of the afternoon. “Time for Willian to build on his display of half decent footballership,” suggests Charles Antaki. “Arsenal fans would be happy with more of what he showed against Leicester, but that’s what was said after his very first game against Fulham, way back in what seems like a different century, when he was good. Odd to say of a 32 year old, but he might yet be again.”
Here we go, then!Arsenal get the ball rolling ... but only after the knee is taken. There’s no room for racism. Kick it out.
The teams are out! Burnley in their famous claret and blue threads, Arsenal in third-choice blue. We’ll be off in a minute!
Mikel Arteta speaks to BT. “We haven’t had much time in recent months to train, but this week we had some time to do that, to recover, to prepare the game as good as possible because we know how tough it is to come here ... we have to rotate ... everybody is in top form, we have four games in nine days so everyone will be involved ... Martin Odegaard is settling in really well, adapting really good ... Burnley is tough and really competitive, a real threat.”
Sean Dyche talks to BT Sport. “We weren’t a million miles off ... now and then a game gets away from you, especially when you’re up against the super powers, so I thought we bounced back well against Leicester ... it was an energetic performance ... there was a real edge to it ... Arsenal are a good outfit ... they’re in transition but they have some very strong individuals ... trust me, it’s not easy to beat these teams.”
Some breaking Burnley news ahead of the game: Phil Bardsley has signed a new contract. The 35-year-old full-back stays at Turf Moor until the end of next season.
One change for Burnley. Johann Berg Gudmundsson comes in for the hamstrung Jack Cork.
Arsenal make five changes. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Thomas Partey and Calum Chambers replace Alexandre Lacazette, Nicolas Pepe, Emile Smith Rowe, Mohamed Elneny and Cedric Soares. Smith Rowe (hip) and Soares miss out altogether.
Both of these teams are coming off the back of a promising showing against Leicester City. On Wednesday evening, Burnley, rebounding from a trouncing at Spurs, were more than deserving of a point against the Champions League hopefuls. As for Arsenal, they responded to going behind at the King Power last Sunday with a highly impressive three-goal salvo for the win.
Sean Dyche’s men were the ones most in need of a boost. They’ve only tasted victory in one of their last eight games, and are still nervously looking over their shoulder at the relegation places. They could do with completing a league double over Arsenal for the first time since 1963, having won 1-0 at the Emirates back in December, Granit Xhaka needlessly getting himself sent off, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang putting past his own keeper.
However, Arsenal are unbeaten in eight at Turf Moor, a run stretching back to 1973. They’ve also won four of their last six away games, while Aubameyang’s misfortune in the reverse fixture was very much out of character: he usually makes hay against Burnley, his seven goals against them being more than he’s managed against any other Premier League side.
Arsenal go into the match as favourites, then. But this is football, and this is Burnley, always a tough proposition when their tails are up. Kick off is at 12.30pm GMT. It’s on!
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