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Burnley 1 Arsenal 1
Arsenal dealt another blow to their own hopes of playing European football next season when Granit Xhaka gifted Burnley a rare 1-1 draw at Turf Moor.
For 38 minutes it seemed the only question was how many Arsenal would score in their advance after Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s opener in the sixth minute, with Mikel Arteta’s team picking up where they left off in the week’s 3-1 win. last in Leicester.
But everything changed seven minutes before the break when Xhaka received a short pass from Bernd Leno while facing his own goal.
A pass to Calum Chambers looked on, but the Swiss midfielder took a bunt, looked up, then inexplicably kicked the ball into Burnley striker Chris Wood and watched in horror as it flew into the net.
The New Zealand striker looked as surprised as anyone as he walked away to celebrate, but Arsenal barely recovered until a frenzied finale in which the VAR canceled a penalty before Dani Ceballos saw a rebound off the post in injury time.
It means that this inconsistent Arsenal team have taken just eight points in their last seven games, leaving them firmly in the middle of the table as the fight for Europe progresses on them.
It could and should have been a different story, as Aubameyang led attack after attack in the first half.
The Gabon forward only needed six minutes to score six goals in his last five starts, cutting from the left to hit a low shot that Nick Pope couldn’t hold at his near post.
Aubameyang, who has scored more goals, eight, against Burnley than any other Premier League team, seemed to be in the mood, as he came close twice at the same time as he primed Bukayo Saka, guilty of a bad miss when he hit wide open, missing the chance to mark his 50th Premier League appearance with a goal.
Thomas Partey then fired from Martin Odegaard’s cut, with Burnley barely able to get out of his own half.
But then came Xhaka’s moment of madness. It was the eighth time the Swiss midfielder made a mistake that led directly to a goal since the 2016-17 season, more than any other outfield player in the Premier League.
Arsenal still didn’t seem to have recovered at the start of the second half. Gone was fluid soccer in attack, as Burnley increasingly enjoyed the ball.
Saka wanted a penalty when the ball hit substitute Erik Pieters in the arm in the 74th minute, but neither Andre Marriner nor Kevin Friend of the VAR was interested as he hit the Dutchman from close range.
Instead, Pieters’ opportunistic volley had to be hit over the bar by Leno to its full extent.
Moments later, Wood should have had his second direct shot at Leno when it was played by Matej Vydra.
At the other end, backup Nicolas Pepe missed a babysitter when he meekly swayed against Kieran Tierney’s shot.
More drama came when Marriner pointed to where Pepe’s volley hit Pieters and flew over the crossbar. Pieters was initially shown a red card, but Friend disallowed it with replays showing the ball hitting Burnley’s man on the shoulder.
Ceballos then saw his comeback shot off the post, but three points would have been more than Arsenal deserved, his defensive failures being a major problem for Arteta to resolve.
