At a Glance:
- Arsenal are two games away from a potential Premier League title
- Burnley coach says his side will not back down against the Gunners
- This statement should worry Arsenal fans, given Burnley have nothing to lose
Arsenal only have two opponents left to face before the end of the Premier League season, with their next game seeing the Gunners face already-relegated Burnley.
While on paper this seems like a simple win for Mikel Arteta’s team, Arsenal’s vulnerabilities could be exposed against a team like Burnley, and fans of the North London club should not treat their Lancashire opponents as easy pickings.
Another factor that must be considered is the race between Arsenal and Manchester City to have a better goal difference than the other—if the two clubs finish on equal points come the end of the season, goal difference will be the first thing used to determine the league victor.
Burnley coach Michael Jackson has come out with fighting talk ahead of his team’s trip down to the Emirates, and it should leave all Arsenal fans concerned.
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Michael Jackson insists Burnley will ‘have a go’ against Arsenal
Burnley caretaker manager Michael Jackson addressed the media in a press conference on Thursday surrounding all of the noise around his club’s upcoming game in London.
On the gulf in points between the two teams—Arsenal have 79 points compared to Burnley’s 21—Jackson said:
“You look at a game like that and the importance it has for everyone in the competition. We know what we’re talking about.
“But from our point of view, you’ve got to look at it as an opportunity as well — one, to be involved in a game like that, and two, to be excited about it. It’s a platform to go and perform.
“We can’t influence everything going on around it and all the noise about this game coming up. But what we can do is make sure, like we did against [Aston] Villa [a game which Burnley drew 2-2], that we’re taking the competition really seriously.”
On the pressure when coming up against Arsenal, Jackson admitted it was going to be a factor, especially as Burnley will be the away side.
“Yeah, [there] definitely [will be pressure]. We’ve addressed that at the start of the week and we’ll keep moving towards that as we get closer to the game.
“I think everyone’s already written the outcome. But for us, we’ve got to go there with some belief and have a go.”
Burnley are not going to ‘down tools’ according to Jackson, and Arsenal fans should be worried
“I hope they don’t think we’re going to down tools. I hope there were signs in the [Aston] Villa performance that showed that… we’ve got to instil in the players that belief that they’re going to compete in [the game against Arsenal]… just strip it all back. Go and play. Go and compete. Go and do what you’re good at. Don’t try to make anything else of it than what it is.”
This was Michael Jackson’s message about his team’s mentality, and it is something that should be somewhat of a scary factor to both Mikel Arteta, the players and fans alike.
The only real motivation for Burnley to win this game, apart from not finishing last in the Premier League—a spot which Wolves currently occupy—would be to disrupt what seems to be a clear route to the title for Arsenal.
And the Clarets may have the ability to do so. While not stocked with Premier League talent, striker Zian Flemming has ten goals in 27 games this season and has become notorious for coming up with late goals throughout the year.
