Burnley 0-0 Arsenal: 3 talking points from the goalless stalemate | Premier League 2019-20

In their final game before the winter mid-break, Arsenal travelled to Turf Moor to take on Sean Dyche's Burnley team. The Gunners came into this match having drawn their past two league games against Chelsea and Sheffield United, while the Clarets off the back of a memorable win at Old Trafford.

After a relatively competitive opening half, Burnley upped the pressure in the second half, coming close on several occasions. In the end, after several near misses, the game would end 0-0 with both teams ruing their poor finishing. The stalemate leaves the two sides level on 30 points at 10th and 11th in the league.

Here are three talking points from Arsenal’s 0-0 draw with Burnley.

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#3 Alexandre Lacazette ineffective again

The striker has now gone 15 hours and 40 minutes without a goal in the league.

A lot has been said about the recent performances of Alexandre Lacazette. The Frenchman has gone 9 games without a goal after the encounter against Burnley. In the opening 45 minutes, the 28-year-old offered minimal on the ball, whether that be through his link-up play or finishing.

Off the ball, he was stagnant in his runs and absent in the aerial duels. In the second half, the striker’s display didn’t improve, forcing Arteta to finally hook him off 88 minutes too late. What makes his performance even harder to swallow is the fact that Arteta forced Gabriel Martinelli to play on the right-wing instead of his normal left just so this attack could function.

Even worse, is that Arsenal’s top scorer has to play on the wing just to accommodate Lacazette. Nicolas Pepe didn’t even get on the pitch today, so you’ve got to wonder are the displays of Lacazette justifying all this rearranging?

#2 Burnley’s physicality

Against the Gunners, the Burnley players won 21 aerial duels

Sean Dyche's team have become synonymous with the word ‘physicality’. His men have adopted a style of play that looks to unsettle and roughen up opponents. Particular focus is placed on launching long balls into the box and then winning the subsequent aerial duels and second balls.

Against the Gunners, the Burnley players won 21 aerial duels and tackled them 19 times. As a team, the Clarets attempted 30 tackles, made 6 interceptions and cleared the ball 20 times.

Surprisingly despite being labelled as a ‘soft’ team, Arsenal has combatted this style of play well, having beaten the Clarets in their past 10 meetings. However, today Dyche got his first point against the Gunners ever and he’ll feel maybe his team deserved more. Especially when you consider Jay Rodriguez’s miss from 5 yards out.

This wasn’t a game where Burnley sat deep and defended, they took the game to Arsenal and bombarded their goal with 15 shots. On another day, one of Burnley’s many launches into the box would have resulted in a goal.

#1 Change in fortunes for Mustafi?

Mustafi maintained a 74% passing accuracy vs Burnley

The Arsenal career of Shkodran Mustafi so far has consisted of mistakes upon mistakes. On many a high-profile occasion, the German has cost his team points and some fans have labelled that unforgivable. However, under Mikel Arteta, we’ve seen a more focused and streamlined Mustafi.

In a highly physical encounter and a game that saw Arsenal’s box come under much pressure, Mustafi defended his box with everything he had. It’s not easy to mark a 6’3” Chris Wood who is solely content on elbowing you in the face. Today, the 27-year-old impressively won 70% of his aerial duels (7). In addition to that, the German made 7 clearances, 2 interceptions and 1 tackle.

Arteta purposely started Mustafi over Sokratis as he believed he was more capable of dealing with the physical challenge posed by Burnley. We must also consider that the new manager is solely focused on playing out from the back and Mustafi once again proved he’s an asset in that department. The centre-back completed 45 passes today, the second most of any Arsenal player on the pitch.