Analysis

#ARSBUR: Four things we noticed

Celebrations

We returned to winning ways on Saturday with a 3-1 win over Burnley at Emirates Stadium - but what did we learn from our Premier League outing? 

Ozil with the armband

Mesut Ozil was a surprise omission from the matchday squad for our Carabao Cup quarter-final against Tottenham on Wednesday, but he played the full 90 minutes today, and was instrumental in two of our three goals.

There were 18 passes in the build-up to Aubameyang's opener, five of them supplied by our number 10. The fifth of those was a wonderful, curling throughball with the outside of his foot, taking out the entire Burnely defence in one moment of inspiration, finding Sead Kolasinac at the far post to square for Auba. 

In injury-time Ozil received the ball from Iwobi inside the Burnley half, drove into the penalty box, and although he scuffed his shot, he got the luck his run deserved when the ball fell invitingly back to Iwobi, who had continued his run.

Overall Ozil completed 100 per cent of his (game-high) 34 passes in the opposition half, on a very pleasing return to the side for the German.

Ozil's distribution

Mesut Ozil's pass map against Burnley

Flexible formations

Unai Emery has made a habit of making early substitutions this season, but today's was enforced when Nacho Monreal was withdrawn due to injury in the 37th minute. Stephan Lichtsteiner replaced him and consequently Arsenal moved from a back four to a back three - Sokratis in the middle with Lichtsteiner to the right and Granit Xhaka once again dropping back into defence on the left of the three.

It suited Kolasinac especially, who needed no second invitation to advance into the opposition half. Three minutes into the second half, he ran onto a fine Matteo Guendouzi pass on the left, and sup-plied the pass for Lacazette to tee up Aubameyang for the second goal. 

The Gunners backline didn't look totally at home though, and Xhaka's presence in midfield was per-haps missed in the second half when Burnley put us under pressure.

Emery will now there is more work to be done at the back – Ashley Barnes' goal means we have kept just one clean sheet in our past 11 Premier League fixtures.

Unai Emery

Auba and Auba again

Our striker is once again leading the goalscoring charts in the Premier League, after another excellent double at Emirates Stadium.

He netted his 11th and 12th league goals of the season to lead the race for the Golden Boot again, and is now on 24 goals since joining 11 months ago.

Sixteen of those have come in home fixtures, and looking purely at the Premier League he has been directly involved in 19 goals in his 17 Emirates appearances – 14 goals and five assists. In his 31 Premier League games to date he has racked up 22 goals, five more than any other Arsenal player after the same number of appearances.

Aubameyang's first goal

The build-up to Aubameyang's first goal against Burnley

Leading at half-time

It took us until the 18th Premier League game of the season, but we finally won a first half! The stat was something of an anomaly, considering we had a long unbeaten run during that time, but team will certainly be happy to have put an end to it. 

The importance of gaining a half-time advantage can't be overestimated. We haven't lost any of our last 58 Premier League games at the Emirates when we've led at the interval. A run stretching back to November 2010.

Aubameyang
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