Are Arsenal in a relegation fight? That question may come to look stupid in the coming months. But this dismal defeat plumbs a new depth and it is hard to see how the current set of players, who throw Mikel Arteta’s trust back in his face week after week, dig themselves out of the mire.
They had sought a goal from their struggling captain, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang; they just did not expect it to be headed into his own net 15 minutes after Granit Xhaka had changed the game’s complexion with an idiotic red card for violent conduct against Ashley Westwood. It made a deserved win for Burnley, and their first against Arsenal since 1974. For their part, Arsenal have lost four successive home games for the first time since 1959. The records are being smashed; the team itself just looks broken.
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