Mikel Arteta Offers Jurgen Kloppesque Excuse for Arsenal's Struggles Against Burnley

​Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has decided to blame the length of the grass at Turf Moor for his side's lacklustre performance in Sunday's 0-0 draw with Burnley.

The Gunners were wasteful throughout the game and were perhaps fortunate to escape with a point after Jay Rodriguez rattled the crossbar from close range.

After the game, did Arteta blame fatigue? His players? Or maybe his tactics?

Mikel Arteta

Nope. He blamed the grass. You know, the thing literally every professional football match is played on. In mitigation, Jurgen Klopp's busted out the same excuse a few times (plus the...wind?) and he's top of the league. So. 

"The conditions were difficult, the grass was long. They didn't put any water on it and that's not very helpful to play football," Arteta said (via ​Metro). "I didn't water the pitch yesterday in the training ground so was expecting it. That doesn't make it easier to play.

"But it’s their game, they do really well what they do. It’s their strength, you are allowed to do it, you have to adapt. We adapted well in some moments and in some others it wasn’t the grass it was the quality. What they do they do really well and we could not cope with that in the right way."

​Arsenal bosses have been more like memes than managers in recent years, so it's nice to see Arteta fitting in so quickly. He's obviously been studying the tapes.

​Burnley, who were also playing on this terrifyingly unkempt pitch, looked on top for large parts of the game and came just inches from securing all three points, which would have seen Arsenal drop down into the bottom half of the table.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang,Matthew Lowton

When you're just seven points above the relegation zone, there's probably something worse than just badly trimmed grass going on at the club.

The Gunners have won just three of their last 12 games in all competitions, seven of which have ended in draws. They have been struggling at both ends of the field for some time now, so blaming the grass probably isn't going to cut it.


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Source : 90min