Malaysian Gooner

A very impressive second half performance from Theo Walcott leaves Arsenal joint top of the league with Chelsea but the Gunners were valiantly defending their lead for the last quarter of an hour as Nicklas Bendtner decided to leave his shooting boots at home, missing countless sitters before being substituted.

Arsenal’s first home game since Aaron Ramsey’s injury was always going to be about “doing it for Aaron”, but the Gunners early pressure couldn’t pay off as Burnley found their footing in the game half way through the first half. Arsenal though, did not find much problems getting behind the Burnley defence with Walcott, Nasri and Fabregas finding themselves in space on numerous occasions. Arsenal finally found their goal n 34 minutes when a delightful lob from Nasri found captain Cesc Fabregas who put it between the ‘keeper’s legs for 1-0. Cesc though was forced off minutes later after failing to shake off an injury picked up earlier in the game, on for the captain was the returning Abou Diaby.

The second half started very well for Arsenal with lots of opportunities. Almost all of the chances falling to Bendtner, who consistently missed even when it seemed harder to miss than to score. To be fair to Bendtner, he forced good saves out of the ‘keeper on a few occasions. Just when you began to wonder if Arsenal would pay for Nicklas’ misses, disaster struck. A clearance was headed right back into the box by a Burnley defender, catching the Arsenal defence of guard. Nugent was in space and calmly put the ball past Almunia.

Arsenal responded well, with Walcott speeding past and dribbling around the Burnley fullback on numerous occasions. The Gunners just needed to finish one of the many chances that we being created. Up steps Walcott, who decided to take matters into his own hands and instead of taking on the fullback, decided to cut inside and take a shot at goal. The result, an absolute gem of a goal. 2-1 Arsenal!

Bendtner continued to miss a few chances before being replaced by Eduardo with a quarter of an hour left. Arshavin also came on Rosicky. As time ran out, Burnley pushed men forward, creating a few chances for themselves though every attack seemed to result in the Gunners counter attacking them as well. The Arsenal defence weathered the storm and in the dying seconds, Andrei Arshavin finished the match off with a world class finish.

Besides Walcott’s great performance, Nasri also had a brilliant game. He was all over the pitch, playing left, right and in the centre of midfield throughout the match. He impressed me most at one particular moment. I was rather annoyed by Arshavin’s decision to play the ball into an empty box when the rest of the team were trying to wind down the clock, I didn’t expect that from one of the more senior members of the squad. Nasri though took Burnley’s weak clearance right to corner flag and shaved valuable seconds off the clock. A year ago, he might have continued attacking and risked a Burnley counter attack, a sign of maturity perhaps from the young Frenchman. Another Frenchman,  Diaby played well after coming on for Fabregas, looked lively and dangerous when leading counter attacks. The loss of Fabregas to injury is a worry. Going to the KC Stadium against a Hull side fighting for survival is going to be tough without two of our best players this season, Cesc and Alex.

Our Carling Cup run finally came to an end with a 2-0 loss to Burnley at Turf Moor, Arsene’s first loss to an English side outside the Premiership. People are looking too much into it though, some complaining about tactics while others are jumping to conclusions on the potential of some of these kids. Like Arseblogger said, these kids are just that- kids. And with kids you get inconsistency as our first team have so obviously point out. The only player that I felt let down by was Bendtner, who really should be pushing Adebayor a lot harder for that first-team spot. Instead, we are hearing rumours that he is being shipped off for 5 million.

The CC run provided us with two incredible Arsenal performances and showed the that although not consistent, these kids do have talent. Vela, Ramsey and Wilshere will continue to be involved in the first team while the likes of Fabianski, Hoyte and Gibbs may be deployed in the FA Cup. I say may because Arsene has made indications that he may take the FA Cup seriously in a bid to salvage a season gone horribly wrong. Despite that, Clichy and Sagna rarely get rests, the former being the player that made the most appearances last season for Arsenal.

One thing is for sure, some of these kids proved that they will be fighting for first-team places in the future while others will fulfill their potential, but maybe not at Arsenal.