Traditionally Burnley are a difficult team to play against at Turf Moor, and so it was again yesterday until the late Alexis Sanchez penalty gave us the 1-0 win.
Until then, the Gunners had been restricted to speculative shots from distance, but to their credit they played most of the second period in the home side’s half.
It was that pressure that told in the end when James Tarkowski pushed Aaron Ramsey and referee Lee Mason pointed to the spot, and it’s something Petr Cech touched on after the game.
“It’s not easy for anybody to come here,” he said.
“They are very well organised and they play simple football in a way, but they play it really well.
“You have to say that it’s no accident they’re so dangerous at home, because they use the long ball very well, they have good link-up play after that and they create a lot of chances from the sides.
“They have big players up front with a good presence in the box, and we had to make sure that we were up to the task. In the first half we were and in the second half we improved.
“We pushed them deeper into their half and then pretty much locked them there for the second half. That made the biggest difference and in the end we were rewarded for the pressure.”
It was another clean sheet for the Arsenal keeper, who made a number of crucial saves throughout, and on a difficult day in terms of weather that was pleasing for him.
“I have to say that I like conditions like this because the pitch is very quick and when you pass the ball, the game has a good flow,” he said.
“You just need to be careful when it’s very wet because when you catch the ball you have to make the right decision.
“I think it’s much better for the game than if you have a dry pitch.”
If we can beat Burnley away we can win a lot of our next few matches, just need to maintain the concentration and toughness and not get complacent.
Which is our biggest problem, let’s hope we overcome it!
Didn’t Sp*rs win a trophy for putting the pressure on? Where’s ours?!?
Funny, I thought Spurs were the side that wanted rewards for putting teams under pressure.
Maybe there should be some kind of “Putting the Pressure on Trophy”?
And spu*s would still lose that!
Yeah, but they wouldn’t care as they’d be aiming to win a BIG trophy
(whilst forgetting the last time they won ANY trophy was a decade ago and the last time they won one that anyone cared about was 27 years ago and the last time they won the league was 57 years ago)
its been the Petr Cech of old the last couple games…really hit a purple patch of form and he’s made some massive saves at critical times.