FA Premier League
ARSENAL 0
BURNLEY 1 (Aubameyang og 73)

BURNLEY did little more than come to the Emirates Stadium this evening (Sunday), hand Arsenal a shovel and ask them to start digging.

It was the erratic Granit Xhaka who put in most of the spade work, but this latest home defeat, the fourth in a row, was the work of a team together severely lacking inspiration.

Sean Dyche, the visiting manager, and his victorious players afterwards talked of this ‘not being an easy place to come’ but right now such a footballing cliche has a risible quality in terms of Ashburton Grove.

Of first concern for Arsenal must be that this was meant to be a bounceback fixture, one that the head-scratching head coach Mikel Arteta had identified clearly in his programme notes as being crucial to win. That the players lacked any urgency for the task hints at a wider sickness.

Rather than an electric start where you might have expected there was a point to prove, Arsenal once again got bogged down into a pattern of ineffective crossing and a heap of dud corners. They had seven of them in the first half – about one every six minutes if you will – but each were taken as if the idea of a corner had just been invented and that it was not quite clear how they could be used to trouble the scoreline.

One effort saw Willian and Hector Bellerin exchange four short passes without ever producing a delivery for the big defenders who had marched forward into the opponents’ penalty area for some reason or another.

On the ball, Bakayo Saka still looks the most promising hope, driving forward with energy and enthusiasm but both Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette now look petrified that they may have forgotten which simple levers they used to pull to get the ball into the back of net. For one close range opportunity, Lacazette was on the ground, swinging limbs around as if he was drowning.

At the other end, the infectious drowsiness which has undermined the Gunners defence this season struck again when the dawdling rearguard allowed Chris Wood a free header from which he should have scored. It drifted wide.

There was a sense that Arteta has some capacity for stirring his team to arms when for a period after the interval, Arsenal suddenly looked sharper, pressurising the Burnley defenders and creating shooting opportunities. Goalkeeper Nick Pope was tested, albeit without ever being widely stretched.

Then came the latest self-inflicted wound.

Burnley looked to break from another limp Arsenal corner. Granit Xhaka fouled the escaping Dwight McNeil. A scuffle ensued during which Xhaka stupidly grabbed Ashley Westwood’s throat.

A check of VAR and off he went; a senseless act which comes soon after Nicolas Pepe’s red card for violent conduct at Leeds.

There will be blame on individual players but it’s the manager’s job to keep them calm and draw the best out of his team. Arteta has so far been unable to do that. In doing so, he has to explain why the players on the field are the right picks ahead of others who have been frozen out or not been given the same opportunities. Put more simply, if you kick out Guendouzi, Ozil and Saliba, you have to be better than Guendouzi, Ozil and Saliba – and not get sent off when your back is up.

The red card instantly changed the match and Burnley’s retreat was switched to an aim of winning the match.

Ironically, the secured their win from a corner – while Arsenal spent most of the evening spamming corners like they were an inconvenience, Burnley curled one into the near post and under pressure Aubameyang flicked it past his own keeper.

It was a catastrophe which sort of summed up these recent weeks and months.

Saka pressed on admirably but he was on his own for the large part.

Arteta reached for Eddie Nketiah from the bench; he must have been the only guy in the stadium who thought that might help and the substitute hardly touched the ball.

These are decisions that Arteta owns, which is why there will be so much debate over his future now.

Trust the process has been the tagline, but there are a list of big calls under review. The sale of Emi Martinez. The acquisition of Willian. The ‘locking up’ of Saliba. The embarrassing situation with Ozil. The formation which has seen Aubameyang struggle for the first time in his career. And the decision to bring back Xhaka and Mohamed Elneny when it seemed some time ago that they had run out of road with their time at Arsenal.

Then there’s the whispers about a lack of harmony in training, however big the smiles are when photographs are released. In a way you can’t blame them for the static if the players do not understand why some colleagues are dropped like a stone and others get to play every week regardless of how poor they are at taking corners.

Arteta said afterwards of Xhaka: “It’s a game you clearly have to win  – and with ten men obviously it makes it much more difficult and you give the opponent a chance and you end up losing on a set piece.”

It wasn’t mentioned that Arsenal ended up with 13 corners and plenty of set pieces of their own without ever really looking like scoring.

The sight of Bernd Leno being urged up in the final seconds to try and help salvage something from a home match against a team who fear a relegation fight of their own was a picture of desperation in itself.

ARSENAL: Leno,  Bellerin (Maitland-Niles 74), Tierney, Gabriel, Holding, Elneny, Xhaka, Saka, William (Nketiah 82), Aubameyang, Lacazette (Ceballos 60)
SUBS NOT USED: Mustafi, Runarsson, Smith Rowe, Willock

BURNLEY: Pope, Lowton, Taylor, Mee, Tarkowski, Westwood, Brownhill, Brady, McNeil, Rodriguez (Barnes 59), Wood (Vydra 70)
SUBS NOT USED: Benson, Dunne, Long, Peacock-Farrell, Pieters