Arsenal’s Alexandre Lacazette drifts off goal as Burnley hold steady progress | Premier League

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Age cancels out beauty. No goals and missed opportunity for Arsenal. No goals, valuable away point for Burnley. The oldest and youngest teams in the first division by average age cancel each other out.

On the weekend, as rivals Newcastle and Norwich clinched the victories, head coach Sean Dycke’s side moved back north despite staying at the bottom. Arsenal fans will roam Finsbury Park bemoaning their team’s inability, at least temporarily, to elevate themselves into the top four. Their wet net in January ended without a win, and they are now goalless in about seven hours. Mikel Arteta was not unnecessarily worried: “Today was not about the position you make but the quality of execution you need to beat teams like Burnley. We have that quality and we need to put the games to bed. You need a spark, someone has to win the match, if You want to be in the Champions League.”

Due to the Covid outbreak (to varying degrees), this was the first Premier League game since the opening weekend of 2022 for both teams. Both gave up their hopes for the cup in the meantime.

While Burnley were looking for just about anything they could get their hands on, Arsenal sought the kind of routine victory at home that this young iteration wants to be famous for. But what they lacked at first was urgency.

It was forgiving given that, bar Rob Holding, Arteta named the same junior players who were grumbling, but lacked a little in Thursday night’s Carabao Cup semi-final defeat to Liverpool.

While the old Emirates may have been disappointed, there is a new buzz in the stands, and the energy and teamwork of past seasons has been lacking. The patience of home support was required and tested. “I didn’t see that desire from the start,” Arteta admitted, warning his team to be slow to get out of the blocks.

As the first half grew, so did Arsenal. Alexandre Lacazette – the team’s oldest statesman as the only man in the match-day squad over 30 – mishandled a long shot mischievously, before Nick Pope denied Martin Odegaard’s foot. Ben Mei threw himself on following Lacazette.

Burnley’s Eric Peters and Arsenal’s Martin Odegaard compete for the ball. Photography: Tim Judd/PA

Bukayo Saka was finding happiness on the right flank against Eric Peters, on one occasion when he was riding Kieran Tierney through Lacazette. Stuck between placement and strength, left-back lifted. Shortly before the break, Saka came close to scoring by Odegaard.

Ødegaard’s slightly deeper role was an unexpected plus from the hosts’ midfield crisis. A player who has enjoyed the most fruitful period of his career. As was the case 72 hours ago, most of Arsenal’s adventures came through him and his left foot.

In the second half, Saka continued not to rebel on the wing. Conor Roberts brilliantly prevented Gabriel Martinelli from hitting a cross at the back post, before Odegaard found the roof of the net from a Saka free kick.

Momentum was building. Ødegaard found Emile Smith Rowe in the penalty kick with a smart corner, but the kick was not clean. However, it was good that Bob avoided it. “Very different,” Arteta said of the second 45 minutes. “We were more dynamic.”

Smith Roe raced down the left and squared off for Lacazette. Only a targeted effort was needed for the potential winner. It was widely poked. Resignation of frustration ran on the ground.

To their credit, Burnley knocked out the rest of the competition. With eight men aged 29 or older in the starting lineup (plus seven others on the bench) they needed to, or else they could run the risk of overtaking the youngsters.

Daiichi’s description was “a building block”. “The mentality was the most important thing for me. It’s an embarrassing moment and we have some real challenges. There were two or three who weren’t under normal circumstances. We talked to them about doing the basics well – the physical and tactical side – and I think they did that today.”

Solid, then, if slightly toothless. While Daichi has given Clarett’s Premier League debut to amateur woodworking fan Roberts at right-back, what he craves is a striker following the departure of Chris Wood. Worryingly, his team’s paper has only scored five league goals this season between them.

Their fine streak was commendably gritty, but Josh Brownhill was running too far from midfield to join Mate Vedra and Jay Rodriguez in pressing from the front. Sometimes they were a little enthusiastic. Kieran Westwood’s first-half challenge to Tierney was amber.

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Honestly, the two times Aaron Ramsdale was called out were cross-shots. The first came early and required an alert for Ramsdale to step back and get a hand of steel for Dwight McNeil’s brutally skewed center attempts. Immediately after the break, Ramsdale descended to his right to prevent the same man from sneaking into his nearby position.

Regardless, Ramsdale has rarely looked under threat as he has netted 10 clean sheets in 18 first-class games since many mocked his possession. He delivered an uncharacteristically heart-in-the-mouth moment when he lost a punch from an early angle. It was difficult to be McNeill in first-half injury time did not fly. Do it the same way, but do it better.

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