FA Premier League
ARSENAL 3 (Trossard 45+1, Saliba 57, Zinchenko 74)
BURNLEY 1 (Brownhill 54

LEANDRO Trossard up front, now there’s a thought!

The livewire Belgian forward made the most of his opportunity in the central striking role for Arsenal this afternoon (Saturday) as he pulled the strings in a fairly straightforward win over drowning Burnley.

It is not always clear whether Gunners manager Mikel Arteta best knows how to deploy Trossard and too often this leaves him watching the start of matches from the bench but today there was the zip and verve on display which the home fans have often craved from Eddie Nketiah, the more familiar deputy to the regularly injured Gabriel Jesus.

Trossard is always engaged, always looking to make something happen. So perhaps it should not have been a surprise that he was the one to break the deadlock against Vincent Kompany’s team. The visitors had almost split a stalemate of a first half when Trossard arrived at the back post to force the ball over the line. He collided with the goal frame in doing so and looked in visible pain. There was no opportunity to celebrate but he must have been chuffed.

Arsenal had a sleepier start to the second half and Burnley pulled level when Josh Brownhill’s drive was directed beyond David Raya with the help of a deflection off Jay Rodriguez.

Parity lasted barely three minutes when Trossard lifted a corner towards the goalkeeper only for William Saliba to step in front and plant a simple header into the net.

Arsenal had a never ending supply of corners and had been wasteful in the first half with nearly all of them, bar one which Kai Havertz headed over during another listless performance.

In the second half, the range was found and the killer third came from the same source. A Trossard corner eventually found its way to Oleksander Zinchenko. He’ll remember the day he cracked a half volley into the top corner with a horse kick swing.

The grey lining on a silver crowd was substitute Fabio Vieira’s late red card for kicking out Brownhill. It didn’t look overly malicious but it was careless and late, and the sending off is a blow to his continued attempts to earn more game time. He will be suspended for the next three matches.

After recent controversies, Arteta simply said afterwards with a smile: “The red card, yes the VAR was right, the ref was right, good decision.”

He added: “This win puts us in a really strong position going into the international break. We’ve got eleven games in December, so we’ve got to get everybody back fit, but I’m really happy.”

ARSENAL: Raya, Tomiyasu, Zinchenko, Gabriel, Saliba, Rice, Jorginho, Havertz (Vieira 59), Saka (Nelson 81), Martinelli (Kiwior 89), Trossard (Nketiah 81)
SUBS NOT USED: Elneny, Ibrahim, Ramsdale, Sagoe Jnr, Walters

BURNLEY: Trafford, Vitinho. (Odobert 88), Taylor, O’Shea, Beyer, Berge, Brownhill (Obafemi), Gudmundsson, Koleosho (Bruun Larsen 80), Amdouni (Ramsey 80), Rodriguez
SUBS NOT USED: Cullen, Delcroix, Redmond, Roberts, Vigouroux