The Table Doesn’t Lie: Arsenal show familiar resilience, Burnley continue to impress
Arsenal earned a hard fought draw with away at Chelsea this weekend, while Burnley solidified their spot in the top half of the Premier League table.
20. Crystal Palace (preseason prediction: 11th, difference: -9)
19. Bournemouth (8th, -11)
18. Everton (7th, -11)
17. West Ham (10th, -7)
16. Brighton (20th, +4)
15. Leicester (15th, –)
14. Swansea (17th, +3)
13. Stoke (16, +3)
12. Arsenal (6th, -6)
11. Watford (13th, +2)
Arsenal’s grueling march to more-or-less-70 points took an important step forward against Chelsea on Sunday, as the Gunners avoided defeat at Stamford Bridge for the first time since 2011, earning a 0-0 draw that could quite easily have been a 1-0 win had Shkodran Mustafi not strayed offside before heading in in the 75th minute, or Alexandre Lacazette not missed the target from six yards after Aaron Ramsey’s toe poke hit the post in the 41st.
In other words, Arsenal played well (away against a good team, no less), well enough we might now say with some confidence their yearly cycle of Sisyphean dumb-assery has entered its next phase. Sunday’s match was the Gunners’ third since their 4-0 thrashing at Liverpool sent the fanbase into a (customary, if severe) tailspin over the international break, and became an instant classic in a large catalogue of what might be called resilient performances.
This isn’t a compliment, really, since Arsenal’s resilience is primarily a resilience to their own incompetence. But there’s something perversely admirable about the way Arsene Wenger’s side, and indeed Arsene Wenger himself, keep going, year after year, humiliation after humiliation. The cycle might have broken lesser men, sent them spiraling off into the mid-table. Not these men.
As if to rub it in, the futility of the cycle, the Chelsea performance was everything Arsenal are normally not: gritty and messy and mean. And with Mesut Ozil out injured and Alexis Sanchez on the bench, the match was also the latest in a long line of suggestions this never has to end, that the good-but-never-ever-greatness that has come to define the club transcends any individual player, that Wenger can cobble together a 70ish-point season anytime anyhow anywhere, with 11 Nacho Monreals if he has to.
In the wake of the Liverpool defeat, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s subsequent departure, there emerged a new criticism of this Arsenal side, or else a very old criticism dressed up in new vocabulary. The Gunners are comfortable, comfortable losing to the best knowing they’ll beat most of the rest, comfortable enough to have the temerity to insist, after all this time, and all the evidence to the contrary, they have what it takes to become title winners again.
But that strikes me as a strange word to describe this Arsenal team. The humiliation-resilience sequence appears anything but comfortable, might indeed be best characterized by how uncomfortable it appears. A mild discomfort, perhaps, but insidious. Sunday’s performance looked in this light almost like a cry for help, the wild gesticulations of a man who has lost his powers of speech, trying to warn us all of some imminent disaster. These players care, of course they do. So does their manager. The trick is remembering how to do something about it.
10. West Brom (12th, +2)
9. Southampton (9th, –)
8. Liverpool (3rd, -5)
7. Burnley (19th, +12)
6. Huddersfield (18th, +12)
5. Tottenham (4th, -1)
4. Newcastle (14th, +10)
3. Chelsea (5th, +2)
2. Manchester United (2nd, –)
1. Manchester City (1st, –)
Burnley, in seventh place on eight points after five matches, away trips to Chelsea, Tottenham and Liverpool among them, are, with respect to Huddersfield, the team of the season so far. Sean Dyche’s side look and sound and smell like, and possible are, relegation fodder.
They play a 4-4-2, which often looks like a 6-3-1, their top scorer last season scored 10 goals, and may now have been relegated to the bench, the two most expensive signings in club history arrived from the Championship and over the summer they sold arguably their two best players, Andre Gray and Michael Keane.
And yet.
The Clarets beat Chelsea on the first day of the season, and have now earned draws away at Liverpool and Tottenham (though admittedly drawing at Wembley is quickly becoming the new drawing at Old Trafford). That puts them on five points from three matches on their travels, two shy of the total they managed in 19 away games last season.
Burnley have been lucky, one way or another, in all but one of the games they’ve played this season. It’s hard to imagine they would have scored three goals in a single half against Chelsea if not for Gary Cahill’s early red card. Crystal Palace gifted them the winning goal last weekend, and their matches against Tottenham and Liverpool followed similar patterns. The Clarets rarely concede a lot of good chances, but if you let the likes of Harry Kane and Philippe Coutinho take enough shots from 25 yards out, you’re going to concede sooner or later.
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But the ability to ride their luck is one of the Clarets’ many virtues, and there isn’t a team in the league more committed to a less enjoyable approach to the game. Good for them. Burnley are arguably the least talented team ever to play two consecutive seasons in the Premier League. If they stay up against the odds for the second year in a row, they will almost certainly become the least talented team to play three consecutive seasons in the Premier League.
That’s not a particularly nice thing to say about a team, but it’s important to acknowledge if we are to give the Clarets the credit they deserve. With the exceptions of Jack Cork and Matt Lowton, every player in Burnley’s starting XI against Liverpool has played more games outside (below, really) the Premier League than in it (and Stephen Defour was the only starter who has spent most of his career outside of England).
Burnley’s most threatening playmaker is Robbie Brady, a former left-back who spends most of his time playing as an auxiliary left-back in front of current and actual left-back Stephen Ward, who, fun Wikipedia sentence, “is able to play in a variety of positions, primarily left-back, but also in left midfield and as a striker.” That about sums this team up.
To criticize them for their approach, even for their luck, is to miss the point wildly. How else are they supposed to play? Dyche, who endured relegation with Burnley once already, knows his side are less talented than all but maybe two sides (Brighton and Huddersfield) in the league. His job is to keep them in the division despite this, and he’s doing it very, very well.
James Tarkowski has filled the hole left by Michael Keane’s departure by making, along with Ben Mee, a thousand blocks a match, Jack Cork has slotted seamlessly into central midfield while adding a valuable touch of technical quality and Chris Wood took only a half hour to score his first goal for the club. Every player, new or old, knows his job, and plays like his club’s Premier League survival depends on it. Which, conveniently, it does.
That is the mark of an excellent team, talent be damned.