Arsenal pull level with Manchester City thanks to Burnley win
Arsenal’s Oleksandr Zinchenko (second right) celebrates (Nigel French/PA)
Oleksandr Zinchenko scored the pick of the goals as 10-man Arsenal secured a comfortable win over Burnley to move level on points with Premier League leaders Manchester City.
Mikel Arteta’s side took advantage of rivals Tottenham losing earlier in the day to pick-up a 3-1 victory over struggling Burnley, whose captain Josh Brownhill cancelled out Leandro Trossard’s brave opener at the Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal reacted well to being pegged back and William Saliba headed them level just three minutes later before Zinchenko’s scissor kick wrapped up the points, although the hosts did lose Fabio Vieira to a late red card.
Despite several injury doubts heading into the game, Arteta made just one alteration as Zinchenko replaced the unfit Ben White in defence as Bukayo Saka was deemed fit enough to start despite limping off in Wednesday’s 2-0 Champions League win over Sevilla.
The England winger had a great effort well saved by James Trafford as Arsenal set their stall out to attack from the off.
They would be frustrated, however, by a Burnley defence already at the stage of throwing themselves in front of shots and making last-ditch blocks before the half-hour mark, Saka time and again finding space and Kai Havertz also drifting in to cause trouble.
Havertz, still without a goal from open play since his £65million move from Chelsea, headed wide a glorious chance from a corner before Burnley threatened for the first time.
A rare mistake from Saliba gifted the ball to Johann Gudmundsson, who raced through on goal to force David Raya into a good, low stop.
Trossard was the next Arsenal player denied by Trafford, his effort from range tipped over the bar
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