Alexis Sanchez scores controversial late penalty to lift Arsenal to fourth and leave Burnley with familiar feeling

Burnley 0 Arsenal 1: Aaron Ramsey was brought down in the penalty area a minute from time to see Arsenal snatch a narrow victory from Burnley for the third consecutive time

At some point, their luck was bound to run out. No Premier League team has allowed more shots on goal than Burnley this season, but few have protected their goalmouth better. For more than 90 minutes of this visit from Arsenal, it was much the same story, with Sean Dyche's side putting in a typical display of dogged but rarely desperate defending.

It seemed as if Arsene Wenger and his players would return to north London with nothing to show for their dominance but just as they did here last year and on Burnley's visit to the Emirates in January, deep into stoppage time, they found a winning goal.

This time, it was a foul by the otherwise excellent James Tarkowski that did for Burnley. Lee Mason's decision to penalise the Burnley centre-back for a push on Aaron Ramsey provoked debate, and Ramsey's fall seemed exaggerated, but the contact was there. Alexis Sanchez squeezed the spot-kick past goalkeeper Nick Pope to snatch the three points and lift Arsenal into the top four.

Alexis Sanchez scores from the penalty spot to seal victory for Arsenal (Getty)

Wenger saw a clear foul; Dyche largely agreed, but questioned whether his own side would have been granted the same decision. “It probably is a penalty but it was never not going to be given,” he said. “I can assure you.” It was, in any case, a cruel result for his side, who began the day level in the table and did not deserve to lose this evenly-matched contest.

Arsenal, though, always looked likeliest once they had recovered from a slow start. The north Londoners arrived just 50 minutes before kick-off after their team coach was caught up in a spot of heavy traffic and they began as if still trapped on a drizzly east Lancashire dual carriageway. All the early energy and intensity was Burnley's and when Nacho Monreal appeared to nudge Ashley Barnes inside the penalty area early on, the hosts could argue they deserved a spot-kick of their own.

The closest Dyche's side came to capitalising on this initial momentum was through the impressive Johann Berg Gudmundsson. His crossing from the right had already caused Arsenal problems when he jigged past a static Monreal and sent a stinging drive towards goal. It cannoned back off the near post after a vital touch by Petr Cech.

A quarter of an hour in, this was turning into precisely the sort of encounter that Arsenal have struggled with over the years but the visitors gradually began to make their superior talents tell. Alexandre Lacazette started brightly and comprehensively beat the claret-and-blue backline with a teasing cross after darting down the left. Ramsey met it yards out from goal but blazed his first-time attempt over.

The win sends Arsenal into the top four (Getty)

It was the only time in opening 45 minutes that Arsenal were allowed to shoot at goal without seeing several Burnley bodies blocking the path in front of them. Sanchez was briefly granted a clear sight of goal just before the half-hour mark after more lively work from Lacazette, but a superb last-ditch recovery tackle by Tarkowski in the penalty area robbed the Chilean of the ball just as he was about to pull the trigger.

Burnley had lost much of their early momentum by then but would test their visitors once more before the break. Robbie Brady went close to finding the breakthrough with a free-kick positioned a few yards outside the penalty area but Cech was equal to the winger's effort, palming it away from his top-left hand corner.

With their early jitters now well behind them, Arsenal pressed on for an opener. Sanchez found a route in behind Burnley a few minutes into the second-half and neatly played in Sead Kolasinac, who chose to evade a late Tarkowski tackle rather than tumble to ground. His reward for such honesty was to see his effort blocked then cleared.

Arsene Wenger was delighted with the late victory (Getty)

Wenger's side needed the type of invention Mesut Ozil showed in last weekend's north London derby, but their creator-in-chief through illness. Without him, Arsenal dominated possession but struggled for solutions when asked to break through Dyche's deep-set defence. Sanchez took on the mantle of playmaker and one exquisite dink over the top provided Ramsey with a half-chance. Again, he shot well over.

For all Arsenal's dominance in the second-half, they were forced to take a leaf out of their hosts' book at one point. Shkodran Mustafi forced his way in front of Burnley's best opening for some time, blocking a Brady shot from range after good work from Stephen Ward down the left.

Nick Pope punches the ball clear from the Burnley area (Getty)

Wenger called on Jack Wilshere as the minutes dwindled by and the midfielder came close to making a decisive impact. His effort from the edge of the area after a neat one-two with Sanchez deflected off Tarkowski's shin and zipped wide of goal with Burnley goalkeeper Pope rooted to his spot.

Arsenal were running out of ideas and deep into added-on time, it seemed certain that the points would be shared, only for Mason to blow against Tarkowski and spark protests from the majority of Turf Moor. Some members of the Burnley side were still arguing the point as Sanchez took the ball, composed himself and then nestled the spot-kick into bottom-left hand corner, just out of Pope's reach.

Jack Wilshere once again had to make do with a substitute appearance (Getty)

Teams

Burnley (4-4-1-1): Pope; Lowton, Tarkowski, Mee, Ward; Gudmundsson, Cork, Hendrick, Defour (Wood 78), Brady; Barnes.

Substitutes not used: Lindegaard, Vokes, Westwood, Bardsley, Long, Arfield.

Arsenal (3-4-3): Cech; Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal; Bellerin, Xhaka, Ramsey, Kolasinac; Iwobi (Wilshere 66), Sanchez, Lacazette (Welbeck 78).

Substitutes not used: Ospina, Mertesacker, Giroud, Maitland-Niles, Coquelin.

Referee: Lee Mason (Lancashire)