10-Man Arsenal climbed to second place on the table after a 2-1 crazy win over Burnley at Emirates in a match in which the referee, Jon Moss awarded two penalties within 90 seconds at the dying minutes of the game.
Chilean international Alexis Sanchez scored the winner moments after Burnley equalised through a penalty taken by Andre Gray, a childhood Arsenal fan. He slammed down the middle, Petr Cech got a touch of it but not enough to stop it hitting the back of the net. Ashley Barnes had been fouled inside the box.
After a goalless first half, Burnley’s resistance was finally broken when German international Shkodran Mustafi headed in a Mehzut Ozil corner for his first Arsenal goal to put the Gunners 1-0 up.
But the joy that greeted that opener quickly vanished six minutes later as Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka was red-carded for a silly, reckless challenge.
Despite playing one man less, Arsenal was hardly in danger of losing the points until the equaliser. But when it looked like the Gunners were about to miss another opportunity to inch up the Premier League table, Ben Mee’s foot hit Koscielny’s head as he tried to connect a last second corner, and the referee awarded a penalty to provide a crazy finish to the match.
Sanchez kept his calm for a cool finish, scoring his 15th premier league goal of the season to grab victory for his team. It was a clipped penalty in the middle – one of the coolest he has ever taken.
By Charles Ofoji
cpcnews.org 