Arsenal vs Burnley: Recap, highlights and analysis from Wenger farewell

Arsenal showed up for this one, slaughtering Burnley in Arsene Wenger’s last home match. Let’s take a look back at every minute of this beauty.

The headlines were written before the match, and were merely waiting for the result. There were only one of two things that could have happened as Arsenal welcomed Burnley, in what was Arsene Wenger‘s last ever home match.

Either the Gunners ran rampant and gave the boss a fitting farewell in front of a raucous atmosphere of love or adoration, or the team looked uninspired and stale and that atmosphere wasn’t enough.

I think we all knew what would happen.

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From the off, the Gunners were steely with and without the ball, attacking with precision and incisiveness and defending quickly, rarely letting Burnley get even a whiff of the 18-yard box. Every attack seemed to start the same way, the ball would be won back, sent to Granit Xhaka, who played a pressing ball into the final third and any of the numerous creative attackers would deliver some sort of substantial threat to the Burnley goal.

It opened up in the 14th minute. Alex Iwobi played a nice give-and-go to Alexandre Lacazette, who wheeled on a ball, sending it towards the far post, but, seeing that it was headed wide, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang toed it home. Have a look:

1-0 would remain the scoreline, despite the constant threat from Arsenal. All the while Konstantinos Mavropanos was slaying Burnley attackers to great applause from the Emirates faithful.

As half time neared, the deceptively-close scoreline widened a bit, as Alex Iwobi played another pre-assist to Hector Bellerin, who crossed in for Lacazette to tap in. Here it is:

2-0 going into half, a very conclusive 2-0 and a fitting one for Arsene Wenger’s final home match.

It would get even better, as the Gunners were intent on giving Wenger the send off he so rightly deserved. The next goal would come by the thundering foot of Sead Kolasinac, who hungrily got into the action:

Don’t worry, there was another (and another). Perhaps as a sign of things to come, Alex Iwobi displayed a final ball the likes of which we have been begging to see, and he did so in the form of a goal. He may have had all the space and time in the world, but he’s missed these before. Have a look:

And more was yet to come. After having had a fantastic, man of the match performance already, Aubameyang wanted more, and he got another closer to the goal than the opposition ever wants him to be.  Have a look:

Despite a Danny Welbeck thundering volley that struck the crossbar, it was 5-0 that it would finish. It was the perfect send-off for Wenger, despite how little it meant in the grand scheme. If there is an emotional bone in your body, you felt it watching Arsene Wenger and Per Mertesacker hug in the BFG’s final cameo in the 83rd minute.

It wasn’t how we dreamed it would be, but it was a fitting send off, and now it’s time for a new era at Arsenal.