He has always been really gracious and fair to us
Burnley travel to the Emirates tomorrow for what will be our 12th game against and Arsenal side managed by Arsène Wenger. It started with the FA Cup defeat at home in January 2008 and to date our only success was the 2-0 win in the League Cup in the following season which featured two goals from Kevin McDonald and an inspirational performance from goalkeeper Brian Jensen.
Tomorrow will be the last occasion we come up against Wenger at Arsenal. It’s his final home game in charge of th e Gunners so much of his words this week have been about his 22 years with the club alongside their Europa League semi-final.
Usually he has some nice words to say about us and our manager but he’s hurting after the defeat in Madrid and, as he said yesterday: “I love to win. In life we have people who love to win and hate to lose, and we are all both of that. I remember only the defeats and that stops you from feeling proud, and because we lost last night, I still suffer today.”
Sean Dyche will have a close up view of Wenger in charge for the final time on his home ground. He joked: “I didn’t pay for the seat, so that’s a positive to start with. But it’s fallen to us to play them and I probably wouldn’t describe it as a fairytale game for Arsène’s last at the Emirates, as he’d probably have preferred one of the big guns.
“That’s not disrespect to us and the fixture list could probably have been kinder, but ironically Arsène has a lot of respect for us and what we have achieved. I know that because he’s told me. He has always been really gracious and fair to us and always spent time with us, and he’s very open and good to speak to in my experience, so in that sense maybe it does fit that we are his last opponents, but we have to see beyond that.”
“It’s human nature to be fired up for your last home game, but when you factor in a legendary manager you can expect them to have that little extra edge, so we have to be ready for that.
“We hope he really enjoys his day, but not the game and that’s just our job. He would understand that we want to make sure we go hard in order to get what we want. We’ve two games to go and we want to finish the season as strong as we can.”
With Wenger departing, it means Dyche will be the second longest serving Premier League manager behind Eddie Howe at Bournemouth. Asked if there would be a present from Burnley after last week’s presentation from Manchester United, he joked: “From these parts it would be a pint or a Bene ‘n’hot.
“I couldn’t see what it was, I wouldn’t imagine, knowing the class of Man United, it’s exactly a vase. If it was I’d be thinking maybe not of a certain chain store. Arguably there’s a fair shout Sir Alex’s win cost more than the vase. In my experienced Sir Alex drinks very nice wine and I’m no connoisseur. I’m a lager man.”
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