Burnley striker Andre Gray insists he and his teammates remain undeterred in their quest for an elusive first away win of the Premier League season, after pushing Arsenal close on Saturday.
The Clarets looked to have sealed a second away point of the campaign after Gray converted a 93rd minute penalty, but Alexis Sanchez notched from the spot himself five minutes later to break Burnley hearts and maintain the Gunners’ title hopes.
Saturday’s defeat means Burnley have now lost nine of their 10 games on the road this campaign – the joint-worst record in the country, along with Championship strugglers Rotherham United – but Gray says the club are defiant and will secure that first away win sooner rather than later.
The striker says the Clarets ‘…have taken positives from a lot of away games this season, especially against the top teams,’ and admitted ‘we just need a bit of luck… we needed that on Sunday but it just went against us.’
Gray added the club ‘…just need to work on that little bit of quality in the final third, that final pass and we will come away with three points,’ and, although there are frustrations that ‘the final piece of the puzzle is what we are lacking at the moment’, Burnley’s top scorer said he is ‘sure that will come.’
'We caused them a lot of problems'
Speaking on the clash with Arsenal specifically – which saw the hosts reduced to ten men following Granit Xhaka’s 65th minute red card – Gray spoke with pride at the level of Burnley’s performance, which saw them miss out in agonising fashion.
The striker thought ‘we were in it for the whole game,’ and while ‘we let ourselves down with a disappointing set-piece,’ Gray said ‘we stayed in there and managed to get an equaliser, and once you get that you back yourself.’
Speaking after scoring his seventh goal of the season, Gray also added the team ‘dug in there and really put ourselves about and caused them a lot of problems,’ and despite the loss being ‘a disappointing defeat for everybody,’ the striker believes he and his teammates ‘must take the positives.’