Arsenal vs Burnley: There’s more to watch for than you think

Arsenal seemingly have nothing to play for against Burnley, but that said, there is still a lot to be gleaned from the team choices that Unai Emery makes.

Arsenal have one more match in the Premier League season, and while they can’t finish in the top four, they can avoid finishing sixth, which would be it’s own mini-disaster if they had to start the following season in July.

On the surface, it doesn’t sound like much, and even feels like it could be a youth run out in order to save all our star guys for the Europa League final. But there is an importance to finishing fifth instead of sixth, and it’s more than just a matter of pride at finishing over United.

If Watford win in the FA Cup, Arsenal will then have to start their season in July for the Europa League play in, and if we learned anything from this year, it’s that exhaustion is a real thing, and it causes injuries and with the lacking depth that we have will make that more problematic as we move forward.

Stepping outside of that big picture parameter, there’s also the matter of the Golden Boot. While I don’t dwell on individual awards quite like, say, Harry Kane and the Spuds, seeing Aubameyang win the Boot would be a joy.

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Of course, it will require a hat trick for him to pass Mohamed Salah, but if he’s done it once, why can’t he do it again?

I understand the want to rest our main guys, but also consider that we don’t play again until May 29th. That’s two weeks away. If we can’t capitalize on two weeks of rest the same way we would two weeks and a couple extra days, then there are bigger issues here.

No, for as much as I want to see youth (and we still will), we still need a healthy contingent of regular first team players to make sure that the job gets done. Not least of all because the prize money is different between fifth and sixth and Lord knows we need the money.

Whichever Unai Emery decides on, I do still hope we see the likes of Joe Willock and Eddie Nketiah because it’s time we start gleaning more from their performances to see what their future might hold.

In other news, I just really want to finish above United, so let’s not throw in the towel.