Arsenal vs Burnley: 5 things learned in gross affair

Arsenal traveled to Turf Moor with a new look team, but Burnley are never an easy opponent and they followed through here. Here are five things learned.

Arsenal knew what was ahead of them going into Turf Moor. If they won the match, they would jump up just one point behind Tottenham, depending on the result the Spurs had against Manchester City.

It still provided for the opportunity to leap frog three teams that the Gunners should be ahead of. It also would have put them right into contention for the top four again, with how hot and cold Chelsea have been lately.

Mikel Arteta changed things up. Nicolas Pepe and Lucas Torreira moved to the bench in favor of Gabriel Martinelli and Matteo Guendouzi. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang returned, Mesut Ozil and Alexandre Lacazette return their spots and Shkodran Mustafi kept his spot as well, despite Sokratis’ return.

Certainly some head scratchers, but Arteta claimed to be playing the team for this specific match. You may have found yourself still scratching your head after a gag-worthy first half that was lucky to finish scoreless. Awful missed chances from Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and a frantic attempt to maintain presence in the midfield left the Gunners scrambling the later into the first half we went. Changes were needed at half.

Those changes didn’t exactly come. It looked like much more of the same. And so, let’s skip right on to the part where we learn lessons. We start with lesson No. 5.

5. Bernd Leno is helping us forget stress

For so long, Arsenal fans had to stress about what was going on at keeper. We were wondering what keepers we could nab in the transfer window. We were wondering who the future of the position was. And we never had an answer.

To make matters worse, when we did have talented players—Wojciech Szczesny, for instance—we didn’t manage them properly and they went on to become elite keepers elsewhere.

Bernd Leno has completely changed the outlook of this defense. And I’m not even talking about the Burnley match in particular, it was just during Burnley that it hit me yet again—I no longer worry about our keeper making mistakes. I worry about our defense making mistakes, and our keeper having to deal with it, but I actually have faith in that. I have so much faith in Bernd Leno that I often take it for granted.

It feels good to not have to worry about something on the pitch, because we worry about so many other things.

On to No. 4.