After a very interesting day in the Premier League yesterday, we face Burnley today at home. The reverse fixture saw us fail for 90+ minutes to break down a dogged, determined defence, until we snatched a rather fortunate late winner via the arms of Laurent Koscielny.
Having seen West Brom come to the Emirates and defend like their lives depended on it, it’s very difficult to see a side that have earned just 1 point from their 9 away games so far this season do anything different. That they sit 12th in the table with 26 points is a testament to how good they are at home – and how hard we had to work for the win there – but on the road they’ve been dismal.
It means we’ll have to spend the game trying to break down a team that is set up not to concede, and it’s fair to say we’ve had some issues with that in the past. An early goal would be just the ticket, meaning at some point they’d have to make like warriors and come out and play, but the longer it goes without scoring, the more frustrating and nerve-wracking it will become.
I can’t see any changes to the team apart from the return of Hector Bellerin at right back. Francis Coquelin is fit again, but I don’t think this is a game that really lends itself to his skillset. Granit Xhaka and Aaron Ramsey seem a much better combination when you’re likely to have the lion’s share of possession.
Theo Walcott was in the training pictures despite being ruled of the game earlier in the week by Arsene Wenger, so perhaps he’ll make the bench, but anything other than a front four of Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez, Alex Iwobi and Olivier Giroud would be a surprise.
With the likes of Lucas Perez, Danny Welbeck and perhaps even Walcott on the bench, there’s plenty in reserve if we need it, but it’s hard to see past that selection who did what was necessary against Swansea last weekend.
Given that we’re at home against a team with such a poor record when they play away, the assumption is that this should be an easy win. Yesterday’s games showed us there’s a real danger in thinking like that. Swansea, who were abject against us last weekend went to Anfield and won 3-2. It wasn’t even that Liverpool were particularly bad. Similarly, Man Utd only grabbed a point away at Stoke thanks to a late free kick from Wayne Rooney, so there are lessons there about the strength of the league and the so-called lesser lights.
On paper this is a game that we should win comfortably, but that’s just not the way it works. We might have to be patient, it might take longer than we’d like to break them down, and if we turn up thinking this is a team that we’re going to just roll over then we might find ourselves in for a nasty surprise.
Our recent habit of starting games like an old turtle is a bit of a worry. It would be good to see us come out of the blocks a bit faster. Naturally as games go on the intensity increases and the pressure mounts which leads people to wonder why we couldn’t start like that, but you can also do a bit more than have lots of sterile possession in the early stages too.
A win today would take us into second place, and although there’s no way Chelsea are going to drop any points to Hull – there’s simply no possible chance of that happening – all we can do is keep up the pursuit ahead of the meeting at Stamford Bridge in a couple of weeks time.
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Time for some breakfast, a ramble with the dog, and then the game. Catch you later on.
