Arsenal has a quick turnaround between matches this week. The Gunners played the second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final tie just three days prior to kick off here against Burnley.
Truthfully, they couldn’t have handpicked a better side to help them wash away the painful memory of a semi-final loss. Simply put, The Gunners love playing Burnley.
Despite losing the same fixture to the Clarets last season, their record against Burnley is incredible.
Last season’s loss was their first in 18 league matches against Burnley FC. The Clarets have only won consecutive away fixtures against Arsenal twice before in their entire history. Both occurred over 60 years ago.
The scene is set for the Gunners to pick up a precious three league points and consign their semi-final loss to the history books.
Arsenal vs Burnley FYIs:
Kick-off time: 5.30 PM GMT, 23rd January 2022
Starting XI Prediction: go here
Premier League Podcast: go here
Form Guide (All Competitions): Arsenal (WLLDL) Burnley (LDLLL)
Here’s all the latest team news from the red side of North London. Both Thomas Partey and Granit Xhaka will be unavailable for this clash as they serve red card suspensions.
Xhaka picked up his red card in the early minutes of the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final.
Partey picked up his in the second leg of the same fixture. Having just returned from a poor AFCON showing with Ghana just hours earlier, Mikel Arteta substituted him on in the 74th minute. He picked up his first booking just ten minutes later and received his marching orders barely five minutes after that. Comical.
The Gunners have two players still playing at AFCON with Mohamed El Neny representing Egypt and Nicolas Pepe playing for the Ivory Coast.
That’s just suspensions and AFCON absentees.
There is a fair dinkum injury crisis that has hit the Emirates Stadium. There is even some word that this game may not even go ahead, such is the dire state of the Arsenal first-team squad outside of their starting XI.
Callum Chambers and Bernd Leno are both suffering from different back issues. Neither of the two has a return date listed, so it could be some time before we see either of them.
Cedric Soares is nursing a hip complaint that has him on the injury list for the foreseeable future as well. This is just the tip of the iceberg for Mikel Arteta’s charges. Watch this space, this match has postponement written all over it.
It is telling that even in the face of this unprecedented injury crisis, disgraced former captain Pierre Emerick Aubameyang still hasn’t even appeared as a substitute.
Although club doctors cleared him of any heart issues and COVID symptoms earlier this week. There is seemingly no way back for the Gabonese striker at Arsenal.
If this game goes ahead, I am picking the Gunners to win easily, despite their injury crisis.