Arsenal Vs Burnley: 5 things we learned – The modern midfield

4. Defending crosses

Burnley do not surprise you with how they are going to attack. They have two physical, bullying centre-forwards lead the line and bombard you with crosses from deep and wide areas. They are unapologetically old fashioned, and it is an extremely effective way of playing. So Arsenal knew what to expect when they wandered back into the Emirates stadium at Saturday lunchtime.

That preparation, though, seemingly did not help. As a collective defensive unit, the Gunners had little clue of how to deal with the size of Chris Wood and Ashley Barnes. They failed to challenge either in the air, a lack of height a major weakness of the team, but compounded this by repeatedly failing to win second balls and not putting pressure on the crosses into the box.

When you provide decent players with time to deliver to big strikers, the end result is somewhat inevitable. And predictably, that is precisely what happened. Burnley actually out-shot Arsenal in the first half, scoring the equaliser from a deflected cross into the box. There were plenty of positives from this performance, but Unai Emery and his team must learn how to defend crosses if they are to take the next level.