THEY say that lightning doesn’t strike twice but when it comes to Burnley and Arsenal, it struck for a third time on Sunday.

We can argue all day long whether it was a penalty or not, it’s just massively frustrating that for the third straight game against the Gunners we have fallen foul of some late, late drama.

For the record, I think it was a penalty.

James Tarkowski had two hands on the back of Aaron Ramsey and while the Welshman’s theatrical dive was worthy of the Olympics, I think referee Lee Mason was probably left with little option.

There’s no doubting Ramsey steps back and knows exactly what he is doing but as Sean Dyche said after the game, there is no way Mason wasn’t going to give it.

I think I must have had a rant about Mason before – and the Clarets have plenty of history going back almost a decade with this particular man in black – but if he is the best this country has to offer then we’re in trouble.

He set his stall out early by booking Steven Defour for dissent but then failed to pick up on any of the whinging by the likes of Alexis Sanchez and Shkodran Mustafi who were in his ear at every opportunity.

The 1-0 defeat is only the third loss we’ve suffered this season and Sunday's performance on the whole was very impressive, especially in the first half.

We created plenty of chances, tested Petr Cech with a couple of decent efforts were generally the better side in the opening 45 minutes.

Second half was a bit of a different story and the visitors were much more at the races. But that didn’t stop us having a couple of moments of our own at the other end,

The penalty aside, I can’t really remember Nick Pope having much to do.

Hopefully we can bounce back at Bournemouth.