Arsenal needs a miracle to get into the top four of the Premier League this season. In the final match-day of the competition, they need to win, Spurs need to lose, and on top of that, the Gunners need to overcome a Goal Difference of 8 over Tottenham.
It’s theoretically possible, practically not so much.
Watch Stream Burnely vs Arsenal – more Links
Arsenal will target utter domination and easy win in this tie. This is the last ray of hope they have to finish in the top four of the league, and thus qualify for the Champions League next season. If not, they will have to opt for the difficult route of the Europa triumph.
Arsenal will have entered the last week of the Premier League season with Thursday’s trip to Valencia a much greater priority than this visit to Turf Moor – even though both matches directly influence Champions League qualification.
At the time of writing, we did not know whether the Gunners had converted their 3-1 first-leg lead into a place in the Europa League Final.
But unquestionably, that competition now offers them a much easier route back to the Champions League than their domestic table.
A golden opportunity passed Arsenal by last weekend when, after their fierce rivals Tottenham had lost at Bournemouth, they could only draw 1-1 at home to Brighton and therefore left themselves three points behind their North London foes with a worse goal difference by eight.
Chelsea are now guaranteed to finish in the top four, so it’s between Spurs and Arsenal for the last remaining spot – and the Champions League finalists will fancy their chances of avoiding defeat at home to Everton to clinch it.
But at least Arsenal have an excellent recent record against Burnley, albeit they have failed to win any of their last four Premier League.
Matches which has severely hindered their prospects of finishing higher than fifth.
We are backing Unai Emery’s side to snatch another narrow success in East Lancashire against a Clarets side whose patchy campaign appears to be ending in another trough.