Arsenal vs Burnley: Back Gunners to bounce back against confidence crushed Clarets

It’s not been the best of starts to 2022 for Arsenal who have been dumped out of both domestic cup competitions and slipped out of the top-four down to 6th. However, Sunday’s match at home to rusty basement boys Burnley provides the Gunners with an ideal opportunity to bounce back…

Out of both cups and no European football means that Arsenal must now put all of their eggs in the Premier League basket. Mikel Arteta’s men now find themselves 6th in the table; two points off West Ham in 4th albeit with two games in hand. Spurs are sandwiched in between the duo having played a game less than Arsenal.

Scroll all the way down to the foot of the Premier League and you’ll find poor Burnley with just 11 points to their name. They do, however, have plenty of games in hand having played just 17 so far, but only time will tell if they can make up the ground on their relegation rivals: multiple postponements means this will be their first league game in a whopping 21 days. Arsenal actually haven’t appeared in the league since NYD, but they’ve since been busy with plenty of cup games.

Only Man City and Liverpool have registered more points on home soil than Arsenal (22) who have won seven of their 10 games at the Emirates this season.

Prior to a narrow 2-1 defeat to leaders Man City - a game they lost in the last minute after playing the last 30mins with 10 men - Arsenal had won their last four home games to nil, which is the bet that takes our fancy here at 11/10.

Arsenal’s cluster of young, attacking talent includes Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith-Rowe and Gabriel Martinelli, plus the experienced Alexandre Lacazette who will all be licking their lips ahead of the visit of a Burnley side who have one away clean sheet this season. On top of that Arsenal can draw on an impressive head to head record against their Lancashire opponents; losing just one of the last 18 league duels.

In truth it’s been a season to forget for the Clarets who have only one win to their name so far. One. They’ve not come out on top on the road since May when they relegated Fulham.

In the past they’ve been capable of the odd shock result away from Turf Moor but given their lack of game time, Covid cases, plummeting confidence, and poor form we can’t see them causing a stir this weekend.

Furthermore, it’s difficult to see Sean Dyche’s men offering much from an attacking perspective, they've scored just 16 this season while Chris Wood is now at relegation rivals Newcastle and Maxwel Cornet over at AFCON. They’ve failed to find the back of the net in two of their last four away trips and are likely to hit another roadblock down in London on Sunday.

Only Mohammed Salisu (7) has accumulated more yellow cards than Burnley defender James Tarkowski this season (6), and we fancy his chances of being inked in the ref’s book this weekend given that he’s up against Saka, Smith-Rowe, Martinelli, and Lacazette.

Tarkowski picked up a yellow in his last Premier League game and has two in his last four away games. He’s 2/1 with Bet365 to see yellow once again this weekend.