Burnley lost their last game to Arsenal as the visitors scored a goal right at the end of the game in some controversial fashion as it seemed like Oxlade Chamberlain’s shot struck the arm of Laurent Koscielny and then went into the goal past Heaton but later video analysis confirmed that it was Koscielny who had the made the first and last contact. The Visitors were lucky to win all the three points from the match as the hosts gave a very good account of themselves and didn’t deserve to be on the losing side. Let’s look at what Burnley did right to contain one of the most in-form team in the league.
Defensive Organisation
The most impressive thing about Burnley on Sunday was their defensive organization. It was expected that the Clarets would adopt this approach even though they were at home, for they simply needed to. Arsenal, came to Turf Moore winning their last four games in the league and six in all competitions and the team scored 12 goals in their last four matches of the Premier League. The visitors had momentum and were the undoubted favourites but Sean Dyche put his faith in his players and his players delivered working tremendously hard off the ball to retain their compact shape to make it very hard for Arsenal to break them down.
Deep Defensive Line
From the start of the season, Arsene Wenger has been trying out Alexis Sanchez as a striker to see how he fares. So far Alexis has really struggled to have any sort of impact against teams employing a deep defensive block but wreaked havoc when the defenders pushed up the field. Burnley were extra careful not to offer spaces to the like of Alexis and Theo Walcott, two players who have been in a good run of form and also has great pace to exploit those spaces. The tactic worked perfectly once again as the visitors were unable to create clear-cut chances and finally when they did score it came from a set piece.
Midfield Discipline and Workrate
While the defenders all did a great job for Burnley in keeping Sanchez and Walcott under check, the most important part of the Burnley formation came from the exceptional work rate put in by their midfielders. Not only did the midfielders moved up quickly during the counters but also were very diligent in covering their backline dropping down almost everytime to make it extra difficult for the likes of Ozil and Cazorla to thread balls through the central areas. The Burnley midfield consisting of Hendricks, Boyd, Defour, Marney and Gudmundsson won a total of 13 tackles, made 13 interceptions, 8 clearances and 8 blocks in the defensive phase while completing 5 of their attempted 8 take ons, passing the ball with 80% accuracy and creating 5 chances for their team as well in the offensive phase to round off an excellent collective midfield display.
