Arsenal’s Alexandre Lacazette is off target as resilient Burnley hold out

Age cancels out beauty. No goals, and a sense of an opportunity missed for Arsenal. No goals, and a precious away point for Burnley. The top flight’s oldest and youngest squads by average age cancelling each other out.

On a weekend where relegation rivals Newcastle and Norwich picked up wins, Sean Dyche’s side return north happy. Arsenal fans will wander toward Finsbury Park wondering how they failed to secure the three points that would have lifted them, temporarily at least, into the top four. However their damp squib of a January ends winless.

Owing to Covid outbreaks (of varying degrees) this was the first Premier League fixture since 2022’s opening weekend for either team. Both have surrendered their cup hopes in the meantime. Arsenal sought the type of routine home win this youthful iteration wants to be known for, while Burnley were after anything they could get.

What Arsenal lacked from the start was a little urgency. Forgivable given that, bar Rob Holding who replaced the injured Takehiro Tomiyasu, Mikel Arteta named the same starters who had huffed, puffed but lacked a little bite in Thursday night’s Carabao Cup semi-final defeat against Liverpool.

But whereas the Emirates of old might have grown frustrated, there is a newfound buzz in the stands, an energy and togetherness absent in season’s past. Lazy Europa-enforced Sunday afternoons replaced by North Bank and Clock End supporters making standing starts.

And the patience of home supporters was both required and tested. In the first half in particular, clearcut chances were at a premium. Alexandre Lacazette – Arsenal’s elder statesman as the only man in the match-day squad to have passed 30 – miscued a strike harmlessly wide having skipped past Ben Mee,