Win After Two Penalties in Added Time

Arsenal outperformed their opponents throughout the entire game, although the score only started to reflect this in the 59th minute after Mustafi scored from a corner kick. A while later, however, Xhaka was dismissed with a red card and the Gunners were forced to play the game out with 10 men. In the 3rd minute of added time, the referee awarded a penalty kick as a result of Coquelin’s foul on Barnes and the hosts equalised to 1-1 – the fact that Petr was able to touch Gray’s strike notwithstanding. Arsenal was still able to remedy this by seizing a penalty kick of their own; this was granted after a challenge on Koscielny and Sanchez ensured the Gunners would leave with three points.

“We’re all happy it ended this way,” Petr was relieved. “It wasn’t a simple game at all, since Burnley have been on top form recently and defend extremely well. That’s why it took us so long to push through. It was the corner kick which broke them,” stated Petr. “But then the dismissal came and we were forced to retreat. They simplified their gameplay and sent tall men to the front, but we were able to defend ourselves. It was only during added time that the penalty came up. I waited till the last moment and was able to touch the ball, but unfortunately it had already gotten through to such angle behind me that I wasn’t able to bump it out,” said Petr.

Luckily, the Gunners didn’t lose hope. “There were three minutes left and we managed to get in there. The penalty given to us was a reward for our courage and determination while playing with ten men. Alexis used it pretty cleverly. You could tell just how relaxed and confident he was,” Petr commented on the ending. Sanchez scored his 15th goal this season and thus now shares the top scorer title with Costa from Chelsea. The Gunners used their rivals Saturday hesitation since Liverpool had lost and Manchester City drew with Tottenham. “Even in this regard it’s a valuable win. We needed three points and now we have them,” said Petr.

But how does he perceive Arsenal’s chances as a result? “Chelsea are doing well, they’ve been winning one game after another, which is why they are where they are. They’ve got it all in their hands. We need to keep winning now in order to be able to catch them. They’re the favourites at the moment and are ahead of us, but we’ve got yet to play them, so we’ll see. Ideally we’re looking to take their points away but till then there’s still two other games which we need to deal with,” added Petr.