After six of the best at West Ham, Arsenal put on a five-star showing at Burnley with Mikel Arteta’s side once again sharing the goals around the squad.
Martin Odegaard led the way with a beautifully taken opener, Bukayo Saka tightened the screw with a penalty and then lashed home a third before Leandro Trossard stand Kai Havertz rounded things off.
The win means the Gunners now have the best goal difference in the top flight and ensures the gap to league leaders Liverpool remains at two points.
Here’s what the managers, players, pundits and stattos had to say…
Mikel Arteta on his players clicking…
That’s what all managers hope for, that they connect with each other, they move in relation to each other, they know what to expect from each other. And at the moment it is clicking and, and I see certain behaviours on the pitch that that they want more still, and they’re not satisfied with certain things. And that’s a great sign. They wanted more, they wanted more, the way they tracked back in the 95th minute, it was just incredible. But that shows you the desire that everybody has in this squad; the finishers, the starters, the players that are out there. So it was a really good afternoon.
Source: Sky Sports
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Burnley manager Vincent Kompany…
Not good enough. I think in moments like this, you take it on the chin: they were better than us. But we didn’t perform to our best possible level. For many games now, the last 14 of 15 of them, we didn’t question the performance. But today was a bad performance which can happen sometimes. We can’t let it affect the next games. This week will be one where we focus on the next game and make sure we stick together and show what we want to be about.
Source: Sky Sports
The first time @Arsenal have scored 5+ goals in back-to-back away matches 👏 #BURARS pic.twitter.com/IMxjraGmCj
— Premier League (@premierleague) February 17, 2024
Kai Havertz on Arsenal’s form…
I think we are in a good moment. We won all of the games so far this year. It feels good but behind all of that was hard work. There are many more hard games to come, the next one’s on Wednesday in another competition. We have to continue that hard work. We wanted to start the game very well, we lacked that a bit at West Ham. The early goal was very important for us. We scored another couple of good goals and we’re happy with the win.
Source: Premier League
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Burnley captain Josh Brownhill on his side’s performance…
Overall it wasn’t good enough at all. We can work as hard as we want but the quality wasn’t there. Some of the goals weren’t acceptable. We’ve shown we can compete against some of the top teams and today it didn’t feel like we did. The majority of the goals we could have done better. Switching off when they had a throw-in, getting out to the ball at the edge of the box, I could go through them all. It looked too easy for them. There is no doubt Arsenal are a top team but today it goes down to us.
Source: BBC Sport
24 – Arsenal’s 24 set piece goals this season (including penalties) is their most on record (since 2004-05) in a single Premier League campaign. Weapon. pic.twitter.com/iXKfpger67
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 17, 2024
Kai Havertz on Arsenal’s men and women challenging for their respective league titles…
It’s amazing. We are all together, us, the ladies, the youth so there is a good connection and a good dynamic. We try to push each other every day.
Source: BBC Sport
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Arteta on Bukayo Saka’s consistency at just 22…
We don’t really see it really and especially forward players, wingers with a level of consistency and numbers at his age is something really strange to find but it’s not a coincidence that’s for sure when you look at him every single day, the way he trains, the way he applies himself, the qualities that he has, he can do more.
Source: Post-game press conference (via Hayters)
In their last five games Arsenal have given up shots worth 1.7 expected goals.
The average xG allowed per game in the Premier League this season is 1.6.
No team has had shots worth more than 0.5 xG in a league game against Arsenal in 2024.
Oh and Arsenal have scored 21 too.
— James Benge (@jamesbenge) February 17, 2024
Bukayo Saka on his wait for a first hat-trick…
Of course, I’m happy to score two, two weeks in a row and hopefully, the third one will come soon. It’s coming. It’s coming, but I need to be patient!
Source: Arsenal.com
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Arteta on his plans for the journey home and Wednesday’s match in Portugal…
As soon as I go on the bus, I will review the game and then it’s Porto and that’s going to be a really tough game. It’s a really experienced team in the competition. They create a special atmosphere, we really have to feel ready to be ourselves there.
Source: Arsenal.com
Another top performance @Arsenal expected to win but you’ve still got to do the job 👏😁
— Ray Parlour (@RealRomfordPele) February 17, 2024
Glenn Hoddle on Arsenal’s need for a striker…
Everyone’s talking about, do they need a centre-forward, will [Ivan] Toney go to Arsenal? They are getting goals from left, right and centre, they don’t need that number 9. I think it would be an added bonus if they do get the right bonus, but [Gabriel] Jesus has come out of the team and everyone is questioning will they score enough and they’ve scored 11 away from home. They are free-flowing.
Source: Premier League Productions
All of a sudden, Kai doesnt look bad for 65 million. I’d pay 70 for what i saw today.
I’ll probably never like the price, because I’m not sure who we were bidding against, but also who care?
I’ve been defending him since the beginning and appreciate him making me look smarter than I am.
Would Bayern have paid 70 million for him? Feels like that’s the only club we might have been bidding against, or just Chelsea claiming they would rather keep him than sell him for less. I reckon you’re right, we could’ve gotten him for 50 or so, but then maybe you’re negotiating until deadline day “Wenger-style” and he comes in with the season already under way and takes even longer to settle, so maybe it was worth the extra 15 or so mil to have a settled squad for preseason and give them more time to gel…? Certainly looking like some… Read more »
He’s done fck all, up until a goal against Burnley, whoopy fkn doop. Prove it against top 6 teams and CL then we can talk.
He scored the winning goal in the champions league final against a ‘top six side’.
I’m already a pretty big fan of Kai. Not feeling the same about Nketiah.
I love Nketiah to succeed , but I think he had enough chances to show his stuff and failed.
Think this is his last season with us. He’s a trier. Just not good enough.
Just got to keep the good times rolling, that’s how we can win this title. Each win builds more momentum into the next game, and it also chips away at the confidence of the teams we are playing before a ball has even been kicked. So much more daunting for any opposition standing in the tunnel against a team that has won the last 4 or 5 games on the bounce scoring nearly 16 plus goals. Then when it really makes a game seem so much more arduous if they then go a goal down early doors, just saps their… Read more »
We have
My assessment of the game. A massive win especially after beating the Hammers 6:0 last week. It is human tendency to sit in the laurels of a certain positive outcome & bask in it. However repeating that feat was amazing. Summary: Pros: 1) Repeating a thumping win with another 5-0; 2) Goals distributed across the team.. 3) Kiwiors solid defensive performance. Cons: 1) Nketiahs abysmal headless performance. 2) Aaron should have be given an opportunity at 65 min, like earlier promised by MA, but was ignored deliberately. 3) Very less time for ESR, probably an attempt to show him the… Read more »
haha, complaining that we didn’t substitute our goalkeeper in a game we won 5-0. Imagine how determined you have to be to find ANYTHING to give out about.
I am just highlighting the politics which MA had played earlier.
With Nketia we know what we are getting and hopefully next season we can upgrade in that position. The Ramsdale situation is uncomfortable, and sadly we don’t have the fa Cup anymore. I look at it they way that if Raya gets injured we have a solid keeper to replace him. I hope he gets a few games before the end of the season. ESR, we don’t really know his fitness levels and we just have to trust that they manage his minutes well and avoid another injury.
Thanks for the constructive response.
That was the crispiest Havertz have of the season, he made the ball flow and didn’t have that delaying the pace of the move as he’s had a tendency to do since his arrival. Hopefully this is him finding himself in the fit.
Team is humming. Some BIG fucking games coming up! COYG!! LET’S GO!
I have a secret conspiracy theory that we only paid 20 mil for Havertz. The extra 45 was a smokescreen so Todd B. could evade FFP rules.
Why would we help TB’s PSR standing and hurt our own?
Bessed contact of a ball all game was Martinelli’s strike at green balloon after his Ode’s set up ..
Is the phrase “in a good moment” some idiosyncratic Arsenal media training thing? I don’t hear it much anywhere else.
Maybe it’s a too-direct translation from the Spanish? In French we often say we “passé un bon moment” for “had a good time” so maybe it’s from something like that?
Yeah you’d say “estamos en un buen momento” so it’s a word for word translation
how do you say it in Basque though is the quesiton… 😉
momentu onean gaude
apparently. Hope Tierney is taking notes.
It’s weird to hear our resident German say it too but its nice to see players adopting Artetaisms, says a lot about the “moment”.
I agree, it’s a translation from other languages, so it is not Arsenal-exclusive:
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22In+a+good+moment%22+-arsenal+site:www.bbc.co.uk&sca_esv=9e981a18954981ed&rlz=1C5CHFA_enES885ES885&sxsrf=ACQVn08467VeoIXvBNtdFHzs5R0tnPkjtg:1708199042403&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiWyIKpkbOEAxUygf0HHc3zAf4Q0pQJegQIBhAC&biw=1440&bih=754&dpr=2#ip=1
More amusingly, it is creeping into natives’ speech:
https://www.bbc.com/sport/articles/ceevx5zxzp2o
https://ccmariners.com.au/news/we-are-in-a-good-moment-jacko-looks-ahead-to-perth-glory-clash/
It’s possible the phrase comes from Rinus Michels, who passed it on to Cruyff and then to Guardiola, and through him to Arteta. Or maybe not,
One thing is certain, it would not have come from Allardyce.
He was never a good moment.
Dunno. How do you say that in Walrus?
You sign it….. by chewing gum furiously 🙂
A generation ago, no American would have said “at the end of the day” (they would have said “when all is said and done”). Now it is ubiquitous.
All the Havertz haters and doubters can leave off now because the man has arrived big time. The price is irrelevant he was a good acquisition.
😂 Seriously fkn delusional. He’s been shit 95% of the season. He played ok against burnley and scored. Cue the Messi comparisons from the fan boys…lol.
If the price is to be believed and wasn’t just an inflated a lie to help Chelsea round FFP rules.
We are terrifying and at the exact right time of the season. If we can keep banging them in anything is possible.
That 5+goal back to back stat.
I can’t be the only one who nearly choked from laughing so hard at the first comment.
We’ve bettered Man Utd’s goal difference for the last 2 seasons…..in the last 2 games😂
Why is it that every time we beat someone it’s down to their bad performance, you all made those mistakes due to the Arsenal, does wind me up!! Up the GUNNERS, and fuck everyone else!
Gotta agree. Both WHU N Burnley managers (and players) stated “we were below par and didn’t play how we wanted or can”. Why don’t they just be honest and say ‘we were outplayed by the better team and they didn’t give us a look in” and we’ll all agree that at last managers are telling the truth. When we beat CFC, Speerz and City what will their respective managers say then?
Job protection!
PR 101
Alan Shearer every single time he analyses any losing team ever: “They just didn’t show up today”.
We should have done much better with sending their fans home earlier. This is something we have to sort out next game. We can’t let the poor Porto fans sit and watch that in the rain.
What, me worry?
We could do a lot worse in the summer than luring Rasmus Hojlund from Man U. He’s young, and a great striker and why on earth would he want to stay with them anyway 😉
I agree he’s too good for them, but not our style I don’t think.
So you do think he is our style?
Boyhood MU fan isn’t he?
New leadership, massive club, no chance to lure him over.
Look elsewhere.