Arsenal 3 - Burnley 1: Slow but Exciting.

So, Arsenal have drawn blades with the other big knights, Man Utd and Chelsea, and are now equal on points with Chelsea, and 2 points behind Man Utd. I am bittersweet about this result, it is bitter because we took so long to seal the deal and now have Fabregas out, sweet as it increases the pressure on the other teams who know they cannot afford to slip up.


The first goal, it saw Fabregas connect with Nasri, the latter it seemed looked to have dwelt too long and looked indecisive, but Fabregas made a small run and he lofted it over the defence with precision for Fabregas to slide under the keepers legs, really nice stuff.


After that, we were treated to a Bendtner masterclass in how to miss chances, it was trully ridiculous how many chances he missed, headers, tap ins, shots, the lot, he managed to mess them up. is Luciano Moggi of calciopoli his agent, because it is madness to miss so many chances?


Nugent broke the offside trap and again we were treated to an Almunia slow motion save, 1-1, with Burnleys only chance of the game. Almunia and Silvestre were awful, even Vermaelen for that, watch the man and get the line right.


Walcott was playing decently, and he scored the second, cutting in from the right and for a change, using his left foot to guide a shot beyond the keeper, 2-1. Arshavin and Eduardo came on, they never added much urgency, the former scoring the third with a low hard drive in the box.


This game shows some flaws in the team, you cannot spurn so many chances and hope to win a championship. Added the fact they play Porto for CL qualification, the team should have had an easy last 30mins to save up energy, instead they had to play the entire 95mins to secure a result, big shame. Nice to see Nasri centrally, more of the same, Bendtner needs to learn to score, Walcott needs to learn elementary control, some of the lapses of control he showed were a disgrace for a professional footballer.


Player Ratings

Almunia 4: Not much action, but failed to save the Nugent goal, wake up.

Eboue 5: Nice thrusting play from him, he should work on his left foot though.

Vermaelen 5: Decent, at fault for the equaliser though.

Silvestre 4: Attack the player, don't stand off them.

Clichy 4: Not much work, but should add much more in attack.

Denilson 5: Decent passing and squeezing space.

Nasri 6.5: Why isn't he deployed here more often? Not likened to Zidane for nothing you know Wenger!!

Fabregas 5: Injured, but scored a nice goal, big loss for Porto.

Rosicky 5.5: I love this guy, very involved and his intelligence is key to the team.

Walcott 5: Lots of speed, but his crosses need to be more measured and he needs to learn basic control.

Bendtner 2: 1 for being present, 1 for trying, but seriously, no striker for a team looking for titles can spurn so many chances, really ridiculous performance by him.


Wenger 5: Easy game to manage, but why play Silvestre and why not take Bendtner off earlier? Forget being nice, do what is right for results, take Bendtner out earlier, the game may have been over by 60mins and the team will be less fatigued for Porto.

Burnley 1 - Arsenal 1: Arsenal are scared and don't have balls.

Ahhh, just as we thought we were ready to show we really wanted the championship, we go and drop 2 points away from home. I won't write a lot on what happened last night, it was clear we needed 3 points, and whilst we took advantage of last weekend, this week we haven't and we have given 2 points basically to the leaders.

If we cannot cope with such a crucial point of the season, there is no hope for us winning the championship, you cannot say 1 point is good because Burnley beat Man Utd there, who cares, Man Utd beat us, so we have to win there, we need 3 points, 1 point does nothing for us.

What also irritates me is that the players never stood up and showed they wanted 3 points. Fabregas did, but he probably realised the others didn't and walked off with injury, awful mentality from the players. Champions always give their best, always force the issue, always go for a win, always find a way to win. Sadly we never.

8 points behind Chelsea, we better concentrate on Aston Villa for now, they are hot on our heels right now, if we aren't careful, they could cause us trouble again. We need to finish 3rd to ensure automatic qualification to the CL, that gives us an extra week or two off next summer (already talking about that, how sad for us fans).

As for player ratings, they all sucked apart from Fabregas who showed lots of quality before his injury, the type of form that commands a transfer war in the summer. Whoever fights that war will win as the rest of the players tonight never wanted a win. The worst offenders, Almunia, what a joke of a performance, he can't even kick the ball properly, and Walcott, if England take him to the World Cup and start him, they will get no goals created from him, he shouldn't be at any World Cup anytime soon until he can shoot or has more tricks.

Hull, oh well, lets hope for the best, and hope others drop points as well.