Pundit claims drawing with Burnley means Arsenal could be going backwards

Talksport pundit questions whether Arsenal is going backwards under Mikel Arteta.

Arsenal suffered a setback in their unlikely bid to end this season inside the top four when they were held to a goalless draw by Burnley yesterday.

Mikel Arteta had prepared his team for a tough away day by refusing to water the pitch for their training, however, Arsenal still struggled to break the hosts down after missing two glorious chances in the opening half.

That draw means Arsenal has drawn four of their last five matches in all competitions and leaves Mikel Arteta winless in his last four Premier League games.

This run of form has got Talksport’s Chris Darwen to question whether the Gunners are moving backwards under Arteta.

He claimed that Burnley is a team that Arsenal always beat and the fact that they failed to get a win over the line shows they may be regressing.

He said: “Now, considering Arsenal always win at Burnley nowadays, is this the first sign they are going backwards under Mikel Arteta? Admittedly, the Gunners were as guilty as Rodriguez for some very ropey finishing, but still – is it any better than before?”

So, it is not just some Arsenal fans that are drawing a ridiculous conclusion from a single game. Of course it does not mean they are going backwards. There is not a single team in world football that does not have a bad day, not even Liverpool.

But it is Talksport and they just love to have a dig at Arsenal no matter the circumstances.


  1. Pepe says:

    I looked at the stats before the game I saw that arsenal always win against Burnley no matter how bad they are.

    Arsenal should have won yesterday but arteta’s obsession with underperforming senior players will undo his good works, he completely handicapped us yesterday most of his decision was woeful to say the least

    1. Mohsan says:

      What can a manager do when your strikers miss so called sitters….do you want him to go and score those goals himself.

      1. Lenohappy says:

        @Morgan Arsenal strikers didn’t miss sitters yesterday, Arsenal had only one decent chance all game and it was David Luiz pass to aubamayang, he should have scored but he didn’t, does that mean we shouldn’t have created another chance, in case you didn’t remember, burnley created clear chances than us yesterday. All what we needed yesterday was for him to bring Ceballos Pepe in and we could have won but no he instead brought in wilock, I mean who does that wilock instead of ceballos, why pay such amounts to loan him if you are not going to use him and as if that’s not enough he left Pepe on the bench and introduced Nketiah in the 88th minutes lol, I love that we brought in arteta and am going to give him chance to prove himself but his team selection have to be better.

    2. jon fox says:

      Pepe, UTTER UNTHINKING NONSENSE! You speak as if Arteta had the choice of players to pick that City has. Have you not noticed our paucity of top talent by comparison to higher teams? . And if not, why not? Which better midfielder could he have possibly picked to replace the “underperforming senior players ” you mention. You don’t say, I notice and I wonder why that is! Could it be, do you think, because better players than the admittedly underperforming players do not exist, right now at our club. DUH!!! Nor in defence, nor in attack. Double duh!!!

  2. GunnerUp says:

    Didn’t watch burnley. But happy to have rocked United Beautifully and also massively improved gameplay in the other few games of his. So it’s def an improvement on emery. Might have just been an early honeymoon phase. Time will tell

  3. S.J says:

    Arteta got his formation wrong. I believe with the right formation we would have won against Burnley.

    Ozil and Lacazette should have been dropped.


    Saka, Martinelli, Pepe..

    Xhaka, Torreira..

    A. M-Niles, Luiz, Mustafi, Bellerin..


    I believe this formation would have won us the game.

    1. John Ibrahim says:

      hes new….joined the club halfway

      hes still trying to test new systems and get to know his players strength

      it takes time to change the style

      this is why he needs the summer pre season

  4. Innit says:

    Defensively we are going forward
    We’ve improved a lot

    Wish our forwards were going forward

    But not all there fault. No assistance or creativity from midfield

  5. Reggie says:

    One of the things that worried me about the game, yes we had more possession but when Burnley had the ball, they played better and sharper football. This is Burnley we are on about, the team run on a shoestring, not humping it but actually out passing us with better and swifter passing. Even on that “poor pitch” their passing and build up was impressive.

    1. Reggie says:

      They actually had a brilliant shape when attacking and players available for a pass.

      1. Tony says:

        And their 20year old player McNeil’ was far more better than ours midfielders played! What a Mess.!

        Worst Midfield of the Decade.!

        Thank goodness for the Dubai break! MA should sort out things swiftly Abit.

        1. Gunnaz86 says:

          That’s the same Burnley that beat United and high flying Leicester

  6. mikey says:

    2 season ago we lost our most creative midfield cazorla last season we lost our best goal scoring midfielder ramsey and we have replaced them with 2 championship level players in guendouzi and willock who is making this decisions

    1. Tony says:

      Douche Kreokie, Sanieli and Edu, or whatever they are called.. And Emery helped in the execution, infact Emery is the Advocate Executioner.

      Messed up everything.
      How do they even sleep at night?
      Those Men are real Vampires..


  7. Grandad says:

    Better not to listen to pundits on Talksport many of whom lack intelligence .

  8. Defensively Arteta has certainly improved Arsenal. The midfield and forward line needs to start clicking, the sooner the better. Throughout the match we had only 1 or 2 clear cut chances, what about more chances created? Ceballos would have been better than Ozil to start with and Auba should have played central with Pepe instead of Laca

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