Arsenal 5-0 Burnley: Five-Star Gunners See Off Legendary Arsene Wenger in Style in Last Home Game
Arsene Wenger saw his Arsenal side triumph 5-0 over Burnley in his last game at the Emirates as the Gunners' manager on Sunday afternoon.
Goals from Alexandre Lacazette, Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, Saïd Kolasinac and Alex Iwobi sealed a comfortable victory for the home side.
Arsenal came into this fixture on the back of a disappointing midweek performance in the Europa League Madrid, where they lost 1-0 to Atletico Madrid to bomb out of the competition. The performance caused Wenger to field a nearly entirely changed team for the game against Burnley, with Mesut Özil among the seven who were replaced.
Alex Iwobi came into the line up to replace the German star and performed well on his chance to shine. The Nigerian played a crucial role in the opening goal, and finished well to score Arsenal's fourth of the afternoon.
The Gunners started the first half brightly, as chances fell to Lacazette and Iwobi before Aubameyang slotted home after 14 minutes to give the home team the lead. The goal came after a classy Arsenal move. Iwobi played a nice one two with Lacazette to move into the Burnley 18 yard box.
The Frenchman attempted a shot across goal but his effort fell into the path of Aubameyang, who slid the ball home.
Arsenal moved the ball well all game, and found joy consistently down Burnley's left flank. Mkhitaryan had the two best chances to boost Arsenal's lead before the second goal came later in the first half. The Armenian blazed his first effort over the bar, and his second was well saved by Nick Pope in the Burnley goal.
The crucial two goal cushion came when Bellerin was released again down Burnley's left flank. The Arsenal full-back slotted the ball into the path of Lacazette who cooly found the bottom right corner.
Burley came out of the half time break better with Sam Vokes forcing a save out of Petr Cech, but Arsenal quickly got a foothold back into the game. Kolasinac was released by Jack Wilshere who finished well into the bottom right before Iwobi fired into the roof of the net to top off what was a superb performance for the young Arsenal star.
Aubameyang slotted home a second to complete the five goal rout of Dyche's Burnley side who defended uncharacteristically poorly all afternoon.
Arsene Wenger said farewell to the Emirates in perfect style. Arsenal performed in a manner reminiscent of Wenger's early days at Arsenal. The home fans put any animosity between themselves and the era defining manager behind them.
Chants of 'there's only one Arsene Wenger' rang around the ground after the full-time whistle sounded reminding everyone what good football Arsene Wenger teams can play.