Match of the Day pundit highlights how Arsenal exposed a key Burnley weakness

Two of Arsenal’s three goals came from that route as Mikel Arteta’s men claimed a relatively comfortable 3-1 win on Saturday.

James Trafford was bombarded in his six-yard box on every occasion and always looked uncomfortable dealing with balls close to his goalline.

For Arsenal’s second, William Saliba was able to head home unopposed from barely a couple of yards out, while their third also followed more confusion inside the Burnley box.

According to Jermaine Jenas, it was clearly something the Gunners had worked on ahead of the game.

“They really highlighted Burnley’s weakness,” he told presenter Gary Lineker.

“I will show you how Burnley set up. They had [Charlie] Taylor at the near post, then they mark zonal along the six-yard box and the rest of the Burnley players are blockers, which I’ll tell you why is an issue a bit later on.

“From an Arsenal point of view, the thing they did all day was put Declan Rice on Trafford the goalkeeper and they said ‘you’re not going anywhere’. They whipped in balls to the near post and caused them problems.

“The issue with the blockers I had was the people picking them up. They had [Zeki] Amdouni picking up Saliba, you’ve got Vitinho picking up Gabriel then you’ve got [Josh] Brownhill picking up [Takehiro] Tomiyasu, so you’ve got three of their weakest against three of Arsenal’s best and strongest.

“They just kept dragging them into the six-yard box and the more bodies around Trafford, the worse and harder it got for him. He’s very inexperienced and it got a lot tougher for him.

“For Saliba’s goal, Arsenal’s second, he just jumps in front of Trafford. He’s not even able to get his hands higher than Saliba’s head. He’s pinned in and they really recognised Burnley’s weakness.”

Burnley now aren’t in action until Saturday, November 25 due to the two-week international break.

Vincent Kompany’s men have some key fixtures coming up with games against Sheffield United, Wolves and Everton also on the horizon.