Arsenal beat Burnley to draw level with Manchester City at top of Premier League

Gunners triumph at home while Everton grab late win away at Crystal Palace

Arsenal's Oleksandr Zinchenko, second right, celebrates after scoring his side's third goal in the 3-1 Premier League win against Burnley at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday, November 11, 2023. PA

Oleksandr Zinchenko scored the pick of the goals as 10-man Arsenal secured a comfortable win over Burnley to move level on points with Premier League leaders Manchester City.

Mikel Arteta’s side took advantage of rivals Tottenham losing earlier in the day to pick up a 3-1 victory over struggling Burnley, whose captain Josh Brownhill cancelled out Leandro Trossard’s brave opener at the Emirates Stadium.

Arsenal reacted well to being pegged back and William Saliba headed them back into the lead just three minutes later before Zinchenko’s scissor kick wrapped up the points, although the hosts did lose Fabio Vieira to a late red card.

Despite several injury doubts heading into the game, Arteta made just one alteration as Zinchenko replaced the unfit Ben White in defence as Bukayo Saka was deemed fit enough to start despite limping off in Wednesday’s 2-0 Champions League win over Sevilla.

The England winger had a great effort well saved by James Trafford as Arsenal set their stall out to attack from the off.

They would be frustrated, however, by a Burnley defence already at the stage of throwing themselves in front of shots and making last-ditch blocks before the half-hour mark, Saka time and again finding space and Kai Havertz also drifting in to cause trouble.

Havertz, still without a goal from open play since his £65 million move from Chelsea, headed wide a glorious chance from a corner before Burnley threatened for the first time.

A rare mistake from Saliba gifted the ball to Johann Gudmundsson, who raced through on goal to force David Raya into a good, low stop.

Trossard was the next Arsenal player denied by Trafford, his effort from range tipped over the bar after Declan Rice had robbed Brownhill of possession in a dangerous area of the pitch.

The Belgium international was deployed as a central striker once again and gave the hosts the lead with his sixth goal of the campaign, turning home Saka’s header from close-range as he crashed into Trafford and the frame of the goal in the process.

Burnley were level nine minutes after the restart, Brownhill firing home after good work from Luca Koleosho led to the ball breaking for Brownhill, whose finish flashed in off Gabriel Magalhaes.

The goal stood despite a VAR check for a potential foul on Takehiro Tomiyasu but to Arsenal’s credit, they did not let the equaliser play on their minds.

The lead was restored from the resulting corner as Saliba moved in front of Trafford to rise and head home Trossard’s delivery from close range.

Zinchenko’s strike came from another Trossard corner as Dara O’Shea first headed the ball against his own crossbar before clearing into the path of the Ukraine captain, who finished acrobatically.

Burnley tried to find a way back into the game and were given some hope when substitute Vieira was dismissed, shown a straight red card by Michael Oliver for a high challenge on Brownhill.

Meanwhile, Everton beat Crystal Palace 3-2 at Selhurst Park as Idrissa Gueye’s goal four minutes from time capped a superb away performance from Sean Dyche’s team.

Everton's Idrissa Gueye celebrates scoring their winner against Crystal Palace with teammate with Dwight McNeil. Reuters

Palace twice came from behind, with Eberechi Eze’s penalty quickly cancelling out Vitalii Mykolenko’s early opener and Odsonne Edouard capitalising on a howler from James Tarkowski to level up after Abdoulaye Doucoure’s goal.

But they had no answer a third time after Gueye kept his cool to seal victory and propel his side to consecutive away wins.

Doucoure received the ball in midfield and looked up to see Gueye racing through the centre. Doucoure’s pass was weighted expertly and Gueye needed barely to break stride as he evaded Tyrick Mitchell’s lunging challenge and guided it beyond Johnstone.

Updated: November 11, 2023, 5:49 PM