Arsenal 2-1 Burnley: Premier League 2017 match report

Well, of all the games Arsenal have played in the Premier League, that was certainly one. Here’s how the match went down.

Refereeing clown car

That was not the finest game of Jonathan Moss’ life. There were four major decisions to be made, and if you’re being lenient you can say he batted .500. Granit Xhaka’s tackle that led to his sending off was probably worthy of a red card simply through its artlessness, so I’ll give Moss that. Francis Coquelin definitely fouled in the box for the penalty leading to Burnley’s equalizer, so between the two “defensive midfielders” in the Arsenal side, the competition to see who can be the bigger idiot rages on.

But Shkodran Mustafi had a penalty claim denied early in the second half which on review was pretty clearly a penalty. And before getting kicked in the dome to draw the game-winning penalty, Laurent Koscielny was about a yard offside. So really a bang-up job by the whole crew, honestly. Arsène Wenger appears to have shoved fourth official Anthony Taylor in frustration between the two penalties, and while it was unequivocally a dumb thing to do (which will probably lead to a touchline ban), you can’t really fault the emotion.

The only positive is that the bad calls appear to have evened out, so you can’t really say Arsenal “didn’t deserve” the win. Well, you could, but you’d look like an idiot.

65 minutes of glory

“Glory” is perhaps a strong word, but before Xhaka got himself an early shower, Arsenal looked really good. Movement and passing were good, Burnley didn’t really have a legit chance on goal, and Arsenal were creating their own almost at will despite an inability to actually finish them.

Of course, Xhaka’s straight red card means a ban, which probably means an end to that fluid play for the time being. Hopefully when he’s back, the team can pick up where they left off.

Joey Barton can eat a bag of butts

He didn’t really do anything Joey Barton-y, but the mere fact I had to look at his idiot face today is a major issue. I forgot he played for Burnley so I wasn’t even prepared for it. Joey Barton is the worst forever.