Arsenal are set to face Burnley at Turf Moor on Saturday, as they look to continue their strong form which has seen them win their last four games.
Vincent Kompany’s side are struggling this season, and whilst Arsenal have not lost away at Burnley since a League Cup tie in 2008, wins have not come easily at the ground.
Mikel Arteta has drawn in two of his three visits up North to Burnley, with a 1-0 win coming in September 2021 courtesy of a Martin Odegaard free-kick, and Arsenal have always had to fight hard for points there.
Ahead of this weekend’s clash, we have remembered when Arsenal secured a particularly dramatic, and hilarious victory at Burnley to steal all three points.
Arsenal’s victory away at Burnley in 2016
Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal were performing well in the Premier League in the first half of the 2016-17 season when they travelled to Turf Moor in October 2016 to face Sean Dyche’s side, who had achieved promotion back to the top flight in the previous campaign.
They faced a tough physical test, and had to be resilient to gain all three points to move one point behind Manchester City at the top of the league.
The Gunners were far from their fluid best all game, and as the clock ticked beyond the 90 minutes, it seemed that Arsenal would settle for a point on the road.
However, in the 93rd minute, Mesut Ozil played a corner short to Alexis Sanchez, who fired the ball into the box. Theo Walcott headed the ball across, and this is when the chaos began.
Both Laurent Koscielny and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain were queuing up to bundle the ball into the back of the net, and send the away end into bedlam. Koscielny appeared to have the last touch of the ball, which also seemed to come off his hand before going in, giving Arsenal the win, and leaving Dyche, the Burnley players and fans furious.
The aftermath of Arsenal’s controversial win at Burnley
Koscielny himself claimed that he had no idea which part of his body the ball had come off, and to make matters worse, it was unclear whether Oxlade-Chamberlain had handled the ball in the build-up – if he had, Koscielny would have been offside.
This meant that Arsenal had snatched a defeat with a last-minute, potentially offside, handball goal stemming from a set-piece. It was far from a usual Wenger-style win, but it was a glorious one for the travelling fans.
“I tried with my right foot and I don’t know if I touch it with my hand,” Koscielny admitted after the game.
“You have to question the added time, the corner and whether it should have come in, the handball and question whether we should have dealt with it,” Dyche claimed after his side were beaten.
“It’s a poor way to end a game.”
Whilst the full-time scenes were some that the fans in attendance on the day may never forget, they will be hoping for a more impressive performance on Saturday.
Arsenal had just one shot on target in the first half, and they did not look like scoring at all until they somehow found the breakthrough in the most ridiculous way possible.
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