Arteta blasts dry pitch as Arsenal stay stuck on six wins

LONDON • Mikel Arteta blamed the Turf Moor pitch after Arsenal were held to a 0-0 draw at Burnley that left them the ignominy of having the fewest wins at this stage of a league campaign in the last 107 years of the club's history.

He saw his team squander several chances to take the lead in a match they could easily have lost with better finishing from Burnley on Sunday.

The Spaniard claimed the long grass and a dry pitch had played a crucial role in preventing Arsenal playing their normal passing game.

Indicating a couple of inches, he insisted: "The conditions were difficult. The grass was this long and they didn't put any water on it, and that's not a very helpful thing to play football.

"I didn't water the pitch yesterday at the training ground because I expected it, but that doesn't make it any easier to play."

Arsenal are stuck on six wins and have drawn 13 league games - also the joint-most in a 38-game top-flight campaign in their history - this season. Only Watford (five) and Norwich (four), the bottom two sides, have fewer wins.

Arsenal, 10th on 31 points, actually sit closer to the relegation zone - seven points away - than the Champions League places (10).

Burnley could have snatched the lead when Jeff Hendrick scooped wastefully over from Dwight McNeil's cross.

Arsenal's defence were exposed in the air time and again as Burnley dominated after half-time. They stood rooted to the spot when James Tarkowski headed a free kick wide before Hendrick nodded past the post from McNeil's cross.

Jay Rodriguez should have won it for Burnley when he met McNeil's cross with a close-range volley that hit the bar and bounced down on the line.

"I thought we did enough to edge it, we had a couple of golden chances and kept them to meagre ones," said Burnley manager Sean Dyche.

Arteta had his players run into boxing bags at the club's training ground this week in an unusual attempt to prepare for the physical test posed by Burnley. And he will now turn his attentions to a training camp in Dubai to help the players recharge their batteries and soak in his attacking philosophy.

"We have to improve quality-wise. We're very far in terms of what I want in sustaining attacks and being unpredictable in our play, but that's a process," Arteta told Sky Sports. "In the next two weeks, we have longer periods for training and I'll use them."

Arsenal return to Premier League action against Newcastle on Feb 16.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on February 04, 2020, with the headline Arteta blasts dry pitch as Arsenal stay stuck on six wins. Subscribe