Result: Burnley 1-3 Arsenal
Competition: Premier League
Date: 12 May 2019
Venue: Turf Moor
Arsenal: Leno, Lichtsteiner, Mustafi, Mavropanos, Monreal, Elneny, Guendouzi, Mkhitaryan, Willock, Iwobi, Aubameyang
Subs: Cech, Koscielny, Maitland-Niles, Kolasinac, Xhaka, Nketiah, Lacazette
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang grabbed a brace as Arsenal ended the Premier League campaign with a 3-1 win at Burnley to finish fifth in the table.
The Gabon international struck twice in 11 second half minutes to take his league total to 22, enough for him to share the Golden Boot with Liverpool’s Sadio Mane and Mo Salah.
Ashley Barnes reduced the deficit with a header as Burnley threatened a comeback before substitute Eddie Nketiah grabbed his first league goal with the last kick of the game.
First half
After arriving back in London at 6am after Thursday’s win in Valencia, Unai Emery hinted he’d rotate his squad. He didn’t disappoint. Only left-back Nacho Monreal and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, chasing the Golden Boot, were retained from the lineup that started at the Mestalla. Bernd Leno returned in goal, Lichtsteiner started on the right side of the defence and Mavropanos and Mustafi were paired in the middle. Matteo Guendouzi and Mohamed Elneny formed the double pivot with Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Alex Iwobi and teenager Joe Willock, making his first league start of the season, ahead of them.
Arsenal’s best chance of the first half came after only 4 minutes when Aubameyang headed a Mkhitaryan free-kick against the post after keeper Tom Heaton was penalised for handling outside of the box.
Between that and Joe Willock’s curler just before the break, it was Burnley who did most of the huffing and puffing. As expected, they focused on challenging our defence with long balls and carefully rehearsed corner routines.
From the latter, Chris Wood and James Towkowski both had half chances in the air. Wood also hit the post with a decent left foot effort from outside the box after he’d chased down and controlled a big hoof up the pitch.
Our defence looked characteristically uneasy with Elneny and Mustafi having to make a last-ditch tackle and clearance respectively as Jack Cork and Matthew Lowton both went close in one passage of play. An injury to Mavropanos meant he was replaced by Koscielny on 34 minutes, after which we looked a bit more solid.
The only other talking point of a pretty dull 45 minutes was Leno’s decision to go full Jens Lehmann on Ashley Barnes. Having collected a header from a corner, the German raced straight through the back of the Burnley man. In making contact he fell over, promptly got up, kicked it clear and then had the striker go for him off the ball. Mike Dean obviously didn’t see any of it, as he booked the Burnley man. He and the Turf Moor crowd were furious.
Second half
Having been clattered by Towkowski at the tail-end of the first half, Iwobi took another bad challenge that earned Lowton a booking not long into the second. Soon after, Koscielny was pushed into the hoardings by Barnes. It was classic Burnley.
Revenge was taken by Aubameyang. On 52 minutes the Gabon international pounced on a poor backpass and sped towards goal from the edge of the centre circle. He was calmness personified as he weighed up his options and slipped the ball past Heaton for his 21st Premier League goal of the season. (1-0)
Our leading scorer, desperately chasing the Golden Boot, doubled the lead 11 minutes later. Iwobi clipped a beauty of a ball to Aubameyang at the back post and he adjusted his body to hammer home a textbook volley back across the keeper. (2-0)
Burnley looked knackered and that should have been that. But this Arsenal side are capable of conceding at any moment. Two minutes later, Barnes reduced the deficit with a header as the home side kept alive a move that had already drawn a decent save from Leno. (2-1)
As the game got stretched, Mkhitaryan started to come into his own. The Armenian had a volley blocked and a long-range effort saved and then teed up Auba who produced an unbelievable miss from two-yards out. It’s hard to be critical of our striker but he does miss the odd sitter.
There were further chances for Auba to grab his hat-trick, but the earlier miss proved costly in his quest to win the Golden Ball outright. In the end, he had to settle for a share of the spoils.
With the final kick of the game, Nketiah finally grabbed his first league goal for the club. Having opened his account with his first touch in the League Cup last season he’s had to wait a long time for another first team strike. It wasn’t the prettiest, but he’ll have enjoyed that moment. (3-1)
The win, coupled with results elsewhere, sees us fall short of our quest for a Champions League place via the league. We knew that was pretty much gone after last week, but we have at least avoided any threat of an early start in next season’s Europa League, no matter what happens in Baku or between Man City and Watford in the FA Cup. United’s home defeat to Cardiff leaves them in sixth on 66 points. We end the season on 70, just one point behind Sp*rs who drew 2-2 with Everton.
This season feels like it’s gone in a flash. Only yesterday we seemed to be waving adieu to Monsieur Wenger. It’s still too early to run the rule over Senor Emery’s debut campaign in England. Much now rides on our Europa League final with Chelsea. Win that and it definitely puts a positive spin on things.
Auba oh Auba…why oh why.. you were just a 6 yards sitter away from winning the golden boots award.. ouch! Hope he takes this positively and learn to improve his conversion rate! We’ll need all the mojo you + Alex have for the finals! Go gunners!
auba coverts that penalty @ Tottenham- he wins golden boot and Arsenal are 3rd
This missed penalty narrative is a bit weird.
Arsenal as a team made more errors leading to goals than any other team
Mustafi and Xhaka literally threw away games single-handedly
Auba (22) scored as many as Mkhi (6), Ozil (5), Ramsey (4), Xhaka (4) and Iwobi (3) put together
Auba’s miss was not the problem
And even if we focus on the penalty, the ref should have awarded him a retake, and he would have put it home.
90th minute penalty misses are hard to forget, but I thought Mkhitaryan’s miss in the first few minutes against Wolves was one of the worst of the season. Neves scored soon after.
In big games, the first goal is so important
If Salah didn’t dive and scored PKs, he would be three goals below golden boot.
Did you see the list of teams awarded the most yellows for diving? Arsenal topped the table with 7!
Meanwhile Salah and the rest of the divey Scousers were near the bottom with just 1 caution all season. Imagine that
Sorry, I just double-checked – Arsenal were top with 6, and both Utd and Liverpool had 0. ZERO!
Incredible
Clearly our boys aren’t getting the coaching they need. Step it up Emery!
He still wins the Golden boot award. He just has to share it tho
Aubameyang must be absolutely gutted. The chance to score a second hattrick in a matter of days and win the Golden Boot outright, but it just wouldn’t go in. Resigned shouts of nooooooo as he fluffed the best chance of the match and then pure frustration at the failure of his teammates to complete a simple 5 yard pass to his feet. Would have been the absolute dream end to the season. What a game though – a lot better than what I was expecting. Now bring on the chavs!
I’m happy we beat Burnley and happy for Auba that he won the golden boot, but Spurs dropping points means that all we had needed to do was beat Brighton at home and we’d be in the top 4.
Great to win today , great to be in Europa League Final. BUT. We should have finished 3rd
Such a season of fine margins. 2 points behind Chelsea in 3rd, 1 point behind Sp*rs in 4th. We had chance after chance to seal top 4 but we screwed it up. Let’s hope we can win in Baku to make sure it doesn’t come back to bite us on the ass.
If only it was so simple…Arsenal played without pressure today. Had arsenal beaten Brighton, would they have won today? Would Spurs have drawn today? Since Brighton May have still been in relegation battle, would City have won?? If Liverpool won the title, would they have same hunger for the CL final?? If Spurs won the CL and birthed from their toilet cave the beast of the apocalypse, would the impending demise of all that u hold dear be worth any of it??!
All I’m saying is that butterflies are massive cunts.
Well said. If your aunt had a dick, she’d be your uncle, as my mum used to say.
equally all we needed to do was score that penalty in the derby. Or all we needed to do was not play like absolute shite against Palace, Wolves, Leicester and Brighton and we’d be 3rd. It’s all fine margins. We need a couple more players like Lacazette who just hate losing – players that will fight for 90 minutes and set the example to the rest of the team. At least one in defence and one in midfield. But, for now, every effort must go into the Europa League final. We need 90 minutes of total commitment from everyone. Also,… Read more »
I used to live in Cardiff so I have a bit of a soft spot for them (having gone to many more Cardiff games than Arsenal games because of cost (I was a student and lived on beer and chips) and distance (500 yards compared to 200 miles, but I did see Arsenal win at Cardiff, Yay!!! I also saw Wales draw 1-1 with Brazil while wearing their “classic Arsenal” red and white kit). If we had beaten Brighton we’d have got CL football regardless of what happens in Baku, and Cardiff would have stayed up too. I wouldn’t have… Read more »
I was refreshing LiveScore like 10x hoping the scorer of our third goal is Auba… dammmmmnnnn close. Almost..almost. in the end Salah, Aguero & Auba all at 22, while Mane’s at 23. That 70+ minute miss truly sucks.
Nope. Mane at 22, Aguero at 21 which means Aubameyang is the joint top scorer with Salah and Mane.
Last round of the season, a day of high drama, the impossible becomes possible…
Arsenal win away.
Unbelievable.
Agghhh if only we had got two more points from the last 6 games 🙁 nevertheless a great away win today. Well done Auba for getting joint golden boot
Was watching the City match.
Saw the line up.
I guess saving it for the Europa finals but wish we gave it more of a goal.
Last 4 league matches so frustrating. Back 4 questionable. Mustafi did not feature against Wolves, was pretty spot on (Most clearances) for Leicester despite the loss.
Again had we even nicked one goal more against BHA (Auba), we would have been over and above Chelsea in 3rd!
Vexing to say the least.
BUT Europa is do or die. Very risky but lets go for it.
Daydreaming of Mahrez in red and white …
Surprised by and very pleased with this win, especially with Auba getting a share of the golden boot, and Nketiah getting another!
Unai will badly hope to lay hands on a quality winger. Auba’s movement in the attacking third is sensational. Having a winger or even wingers to feed him would definitely add more to his tally as we saw with the AMN cross on Thursday.
P.S. I know many of us don’t rate Iwobi… But how good was he today?
Nelson might well be the internal solution to the wide-right player when we set up with wingers, and I imagine AMN could do a pretty good job playing as a right-sided midfielder (in whatever setup) ahead of Bellerin, offering us plenty of speed down that flank.
Today summed up Aubas season. Two great goals and missed a sitter
I couldn’t believe what I’d seen but at the same time it was classic Aubameyang. Could easily have had about 30 goals this season if he’d scored the sitters.
You lot do realize that Messi, Aguero, Kane, Salah… also do miss so called sitters? We should be happy to have a player like Auba.
It’s not an attack on him, just a frustration that so many comparatively easy opportunities are missed by a world class goal scorer
Some of you remind me of those Barca fans at the airport screaming at Messi for missing chances agains Liverpool
Imagine he played for Liverpool or City? He’d have won the golden boot weeks against. Joint top scorer of the league playing for a pretty average Arsenal team.
Now let’s go win that Europa final!
Also, people moaning that our 30 goal a season striker doesn’t score enough. Classic Arsenal.
I love Aubameyang and I think he’s brilliant, but he played badly last week when we should have won, and missed a last minute penalty vs Spurs that would have got us top 4. The criticism is valid at times
The criticism is dumb. It’s so fucking dumb to single out the flaws in your biggest contributor instead of talking about the team as a whole
If a team scores fewer goals and finishes above you like Sp*ds did, the problem is not your team’s attack, it’s your team’s defense
Even the best players can have the odd off-day. Almost everyone in the team gave away a goal or missed a few sitters this season. Pointless and a bit unfair picking on any one in particular.
Unai please please please please buy Brighton defender Lewis Dunk…..this good defender and aerial threats.
Please my fellow gunners let’s raise money to buy that defender
I know we fucked up royally over the last few weeks, but I prefer to blame Anthony Taylor for costing us St Totteringham’s Day: https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/arsenal-penalty-vs-tottenham-jan-vertonghen-pierre-emerick-aubameyang-referee-anthony-taylor/
Yeah, but people just don’t care about the poor quality of the officiating in the PL despite the mountains of evidence week after week: “it all evens out over the season.” Right.
That was the last Premiership game without VAR. Happy days imo.
That today I mean…:-)
I said after the draw with spurs that the missed penalty could be the difference between reaching the top four and not. I know that we threw away so many of our last few games but it’s the small margins and that what separates the top teams. In this case it would have also put us above the Lilly whites. Anyway we have one game left let’s hope that we can end the season on a high and start building for the next campaign. Fingers crossed.
There were many moments we will regret. For next season, we need our wingers and full backs to contribute more in attack if we have any chance of winning anything. The first half we were slow, the second was much better.
All in all it was a pretty fun season. The fact that it went by so fast unlike last season really says a lot.
Unai please please please buy Brighton defender Lewis Dunk
I hope he read my comments
Hi, It’s Unai
I won’t be buying him because he’s not a top top drawer player
Cheers
Kismayo, Kissmyarse.
Regards,
Unai
No
After the PL season is over it’s always important to look at the big positive we can all agree on: Ole’s at the wheel!
Why were Stoke wearing those weird uniforms today? Oh well, it’s always fun to beat the orcs and thugs of Stoke.
Should of put that penalty away against the spuds! Top four and golden boot! But meh, all the should ofs this season would be a rather long post!
Outright golden boot I mean
Or even should haves.
Overall we finished 1 place higher than I expected, and stayed in the race for top4 for a long time, which I wasn’t really expecting….. Thought Guendouzi was class today, he’s the find of the season, and once he adds more aggression and some physicality in the challenge, he’s going to become an absolute baller. He’s had plenty of games you’d expect a 19/20 Yr old to have, but it’s clear this lad has something special. Nice for Eddy to get his goal, and Aubameyang to get joint top scorer, he’s been brilliant since he signed, 22 goals and 5… Read more »
A good away win at the new orcs, Laca player of the season, Auba wins the Golden Boot, what’s not to like!
Two points from 4th place and a St Totteringham Day celebration. 🙁
With the run in we had against lower table teams and the amount of games we lost, will this be seen as a huge missed opportunity or is it just the teams below the top six are getting a lot better?
Huge missed opportunity, but water under the bridge now. Focus on the final, and start building for next season. Let’s hopefully see more academy players getting their chance to become regular Arsenal players, and hopefully fan favourites.
Oh well Oils well that ends well…;-)
Notwithstanding the missed 4 spot, still a better season than last. 7 more points, and EL final which means that altogether will get at least an extra 6 millions comparing to last season (it will be 10 mil and CL, if we win in Baku). Also more point against the other big 5. It’s a disappointment we lost a lot of points in the last few games, we need a few additions in the first team and some good effecting subs.
COYG