Martin Odegaard came to Arsenal‘s rescue with a stunning freekick, guiding the London club to a 1-0 victory against Burnley, whose winless home run in the English Premier League was extended to 13 matches on Saturday.

The Norwegian international, who returned to Arsenal on a permanent deal from Real Madrid this summer, curled home the goal in the 30th minute of the game to further ease the pressure on Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta after suffering three straight losses in the opening games of the season.

This is the North London side’s second successive win in the league after narrowly edging Norwich in a similar 1-0 victory last weekend. However, the match wasn’t without its share of controversy as Burnley felt robbed of a second-half penalty after VAR intervened to adjudge otherwise. 

Referee Anthony Taylor initially pointed to the spot when Burnley substitute Matej Vydra went down under Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale’s challenge, only to change his mind after watching the replay.

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Meanwhile, Burnley edged the opening 20 minutes in terms of half-chances, with two efforts from striker Ashely Barnes sandwiching James Tarkowski’s header.

Arsenal lacked the pace or creative spark to threaten Burnley’s well-drilled 4-4-2 system during the opening 25 minutes, but that all changed after Barnes tripped Bukayo Saka in a central position 25 yards from goal.

The referee handed Barnes a yellow card, and Odegaard curled the following free-kick past Burnley goalkeeper Nick Pope for his first goal of the season and Arsenal’s third overall.

Burnley pressed forward in search of an equalizer before the break and Barnes, under pressure from Arsenal defender Gabriel, failed to get his shot on target after Josh Brownhill’s clipped ball into the box.

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Arsenal went close to doubling their lead on the stroke of halftime when Emile Smith Rowe curled a first-time shot just off target after being picked out by Nicolas Pepe.

Burnley manager Sean Dyche made a double replacement in the 56th minute, replacing Johann Berg Gudmundsson and Barnes with Maxwel Cornet and Vydra, and it had an immediate impact.

The newly signed Cornet was greeted with rapturous applause, and he boosted the home supporters, even more, when he forced Ramsdale into a flying save minutes later.

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Vydra was also ready to provide assistance. He raced on to a short back-pass from Gunners defender Ben White, and as the Czech Republic striker was brought down by Ramsdale, referee Taylor awarded a penalty.

Taylor watched the footage after a VAR intervention and quickly changed his judgement.

Arsenal held on to the lead to extend its unbeaten league run at Turf Moor to 10 games and leave Burnley with one point from its first five matches.

With inputs from the Associated Press