Arsenal vs. Burnley: Match Preview

When you look at the form guide, it's a pretty sight - there Arsenal sit, right at the top, lookin' all WWWWWWW and shit. Burnley? Well, their form is a little worse than that, with five points out of their last available 18. Their most recent point was last weekend, though, against that other north London outfit, and even though they're in 19th place, they're only two points clear of safety. So it's not like they are throwing in the towel on the season.

The problem is, Burnley's towel is threadbare and doesn't really dry anything any more. Manager Sean Dyche doesn't have a really deep squad to choose from, so eight of his players have played at least 25 games; when you combine that with the fact that rarely are Burnley playing easy games, that'll start to take a toll. Of Burnley's 26 points this season, though, 18 have come at Turf Moor, which is English for "Grass Marsh", so Arsenal can expect a fairly resolute challenge from the home side regardless of rotational inflexibility.

Speaking of lack of squad rotation, the current state of boredom of the Arsenal medical staff - seriously, all those people must just be sitting around confused, wondering what to do with their days right now - means that Arsenal will probably stick with largely the same side that swatted the Beatles aside last weekend, with only Ox definitely unavailable.

If you believe that history matters in these things, Arsenal haven't won in four visits to Turf Moor since 1970; fortunately, teams from 40 years ago aren't playing, so that shouldn't be an issue. Much has been made of the fact that Arsenal have the same record right now as they did at this time last season; this also doesn't matter. All that matters in April and May, and all that matters ever, is taking care of current business. Arsenal are better at that now than they were in the fall, and hopefully that trend continues this weekend.