Burnley v Arsenal - FA Cup - Sunday January 6, 2pm

[awooga83]

Certainly wasn't a good performance but some decent individual efforts and we took most of the good chances we created while they missed there only real one.

 

[EMIR8_SOLDIER]

Think were just reserving our energy for the 2 matches on wednesday and especially saturday, got a lot of matches this month so I think Arsène just told our boys to sit back today

Just a professional performance today, some fine solo performances from denilson and the two boys up front but traore was real shaky

Think brucey will take him on loan for the rest of season which is good for him, we may need a left back short term

Lets see who we draw tomorow

 

[giuliob]

Well, I may be in the minority on this, but I thought Denilson was a big disappointment.....poor passing, cheap tackles, could have easily gotten a yellow card or two, no creative drive, and he is the playmaker in the midfield....Well, I'll chalk it up to lack of playing time....Hope he gets his act together by Wednesday.

Another one where I'm in the minority..... Eboue had a fairly decent game compared to the rest of the midfield...He showed some energy, the only one in the middle to do so, he tried to make things happen, albeit his way, but the effort was there....That's a lot more than the other three put together.....

Eduardo and Bendtner did really well considering the midfield couldn't service them, except for inept crosses from Eboue....

 

[tam1886]

Apart from the Lafferty header, they didn't create any big chances. I think people are overreacting. I don't buy the BBC crap that we were outplayed. We had 3-4 gears left.

Exactly, we were outplayed simply because we didn't play. Burnley, for all their effort and desire which is to be commended did nothing to scare us really apart from that header. They never had any clear cut chances which they should have scored. We could and should have stepped up a level until the game was safe but we made it harder than it needed to be. If we had went for it and had the second or possibly a third goal earlier, it may have been easier. We would have settled into the passing game we started to see develop just before Bendtner scored.

We were not up to scratch offensively. Bendtner and Eduardo tried all game and I was pleased to see Eduardo getting more involved in the build up play but the support wasn't coming from midfield, and when it was it was shockingly bad. We probably would have played better without wingers. I can recall five chances, Eduardo had three and Bendtner had two, and each of them scored from one. Five chances should be not be acceptable against lower league opposition, no matter the circumstances. The attitude was wrong and I seen too many players walking about the park too often when the ball was in play. The fighting desire showed by Burnley was lacking in most of our players. I'm glad we got the job done and we're through but I couldn't help fearing for the Sp**s game if the players were ever to go into with that attitude. They may have played like that because they had one eye on the Sp**s game, but that's no excuse. They should have been focused on putting that game to bed first. Despite not having any clear cut chances, Burnley did look like they might get something if the ball broke the right way, or they got that little bit of luck.

To be fair you don't go to Burnley in the FA cup and play vintage football on a s***e pitch.. This is the real world.. Look at yesterdays results, look at how s**t liverpool are againstLuton at the mo.. Some of you really have unrealistic expectations.. This was Burnleys biggest game of the season, on their park and they actually have a strong hisory of cup shocks...

Under the circumstances i think we played quite well....

We must have been watching different games then. We were poor. We had a decent 15 minutes at the end where we were in control for a change. I wasn't expecting vintage football, I was expecting a good hard working performance though. It didn't look as if we got that.

What ever cap'n.

Maybe your instinct after a game is to slate individuals, when it was a poor team effort, maybe you can't wait to come on here to ***** and generally acy like a fish wife, maybe you cannot take any positives from a victory, maybe you also wanna suck the last remaining bits of fun and enjoyment out of everything coz you're also a pedantic, over critical f*ckwit too?

Who knows? What I do knoe, od this place sometimes is like a mothers meeting; ***** ***** moan moan, and I can't be arsed with it so excuse me, I'm outta here.

No one instinctively slates individuals, especially the ones you seem to be having a pop at today. Besides the poor team effort you mention, there were some absolutely shocking individual efforts which rightly deserve criticism. What positives are there to take from the game apart from that we are through?

Whoops! Slap my wrists.

Someone needs to today. You aren't your usual chirpy self.

 

[tam1886]

Am I the only one who didn't think Eboue was God-awful?
Yeah, his play overall, but he had at least 3 shots and actually looked alright in the first half.

Those shots were atrocious for a professional footballer. Eboue cannot shoot. His shooting technique is so far behind some of our players it's laughable. That's not based on today's game but Eboue's other performances too. He can only hit it with power, and he has no accuracy.

After you posted it 20 times, I still disagree. These games are opportunities for the younger players on the fringes of the starting XI to make an impact and prove they deserve a look. Diaby is a player that wants to play more games, so when he gets a start, he needs to go 100% and prove himself, not cruise around and play like it's a pub game.

I kinda thought Burnley's drive to succeed would be partly matched by the fringe players getting another opportunity to stake a claim for a place or showcase their talents yet again. Wasn't the case though.


I thought the only ones to come away from it with a good performance were Eduardo and Bendtner. Toure, Sagna and Senderos deserve a mention too but you wouldn't expect any less from them really. Gilberto was ok too but he is a world cup winner so same applies to him, despite his recent poorer form.

For me Eduardo gets MOTM for our side. He got himself involved in the game and he had more of an influence than he has had before, partly due to the poor offensive nature of the midfield. A goal and an assist gets him MOTM in my eyes.

Bendtner was good too. I'd say the same for him as I did Eduardo. Him and Eduardo had to do it themselves. I not only seen Bendtner drop deep to midfield, but even playing passes from inside our own half because he didn't have options open.

The rest didn't do enough for me. Denilson played ok but not for long enough. The rest I thought were poor. Not for the way we played, but for the amatuerish mistakes they seemed to make and the lack of effort or desire to make something happen at times.

 

[Rohit]

We played well within ourselves, it was a professional performance. We really didn't tire ourselves and most of the times jumped out of most 50-50's, i guess their mind was already on the game on Wednesday, which might not be too important for some fans but for these players on the fringes of the first team is huge. A chance to go to Wembley (?) and play a Cup Final will surely be at the back of their mind.

Also we would have won much more comfortably had the pitch been better.

Just to mention, the Burnley fans can be proud of their team, they really played very well and showed a lot of heart.

 

[sabret00the]

Denilson had a good first half in my opinion, not so good second half- maybe he was tired from carrying the rest of the midfield for 45mins.

i'd agree with that. gilberto definitely didn't finish that much looking better than denilson.

 

[Macho]

Burnley played with so much heart. Its a shame we didn't.
O'well, we can't expect our players to turn it on every single time.
Our strikers were brilliant today.

 

[Wednesdayware]

in reality, it is "fans" like you who are a f****g disgrace.. don't question anything or criticize anything.. yeah, we won the match, but we were very poor.. i am normally QUITE positive, but when we play a game like this, those players who played poorly deserve to be criticized.. a better team would have BURIED us today....

why is it that you cannot see that? f****g ****

Because

a) you're Waaaaaaaaay overreacting.
b) You're getting hysterical about a game that was seriously never in doubt.
c) This side was hardly indicative of our normal side, so it's insane to get hyper-critical about how well they gelled together.
d) It's likely hard for the side to get excited about this match.
e) It's okay for fans not question or criticize every single second of every single match.

We didn't play our A game, but neither did we play our A team. If we have this kind of day when Cesc, Hleb, Flamini, Van Persie,and Gallas are playing, then I'll get excited and critical.

This was a nothing match against a weaker side, with a result all but guaranteed. (Had we lost, it might have been better for our chance in the League and the CL.)

So, why are you getting all crazy?

 

[Mostarac]

A solid performance today but nothing spectacular. Burnley were only really dangerous in the start of the match where Lafferty had that incredible chance. Thought Bendtner and Sagna were our best players today, but guys such as Eboue(****ing awful), Traore, Gilberto and partially Denilson have to improve. Obviously we need to improve ahead now, but that should be expected when we start to play our 1st team again. By the way, what is going on with the attendances in the FA Cup, last night Aston Villa could not sell out Holte End, today Burnley did not sell out on of their stands aswell, ****ing ridiculous.

 

[Nyingmeh]

Do we really need our A team to beat Burnley ?

I cannot really pin point though, apart from Diaby ( he's got to learn how to pass and support his CB ) I cannot see another player that was completely off. Diaby's selfishness, lack of involvement sent an average Traore below par. A team B or whatever, we were far below our team B level and credit to burnley they took the game to us.

Seriously, if Diaby won't change am sure wenger would run out of patience soon. He's no Zidane.

 

[qs]

Well, I may be in the minority on this, but I thought Denilson was a big disappointment.....poor passing, cheap tackles, could have easily gotten a yellow card or two, no creative drive, and he is the playmaker in the midfield....Well, I'll chalk it up to lack of playing time....Hope he gets his act together by Wednesday.

Another one where I'm in the minority..... Eboue had a fairly decent game compared to the rest of the midfield...He showed some energy, the only one in the middle to do so, he tried to make things happen, albeit his way, but the effort was there....That's a lot more than the other three put together.....

Eduardo and Bendtner did really well considering the midfield couldn't service them, except for inept crosses from Eboue....

I'd agree with all that. Denilson is still a long way off being ready to step up seriously for us. This season he's been ordinary in most games. He's very young though and I expect him to grow. I think too often we expect teenagers to be Fabregas and be at the top of the game by 20. 24 or so is a much more reasonable time frame.

Again a similar situation with Traore, he's just not ready. If we had to play him in the league I'd seriously **** myself. Loads of potential but he needs a loan spell.

Kolo and Phil looked solid, hopefully Phil can take some confidence from today and carry it forward for the next month or 2.

Front 2 did well too considering their lack of service.

 

[True Gooner]

I think Prem league teams in general approach these games in a far too candid way.....which explains the upsets in the FA cup..I think our players need to be reminded that football is played on grass and not on paper...Id have thought we learnt that lesson last season when we lost to the lower sides..the second string will have to learn this...

From what I hear, we won this game on sheer quality and nothing else...I hope Wenger gives our players a talking too..

 

[RocktheCasbah]

1-0 up after 9 minutes, maybe some here were expecting us to stick 5 in. The FA Cup doesn't always work like that.

Thought Diaby and Eboue were crap, Gilberto did bugger all of note (the header aside) Denilson? Well, he tried to get us playing imo. The two guys up front did well to win us the game off scraps.

I enjoyed the game, I have to say- a typical english cup tie- shame some of you seem to be having a paddy about what was a professional performance. Tottenham back at ours on Wednesday night will be completely different.

I think.

 

[TheThoss]

Do we really need our A team to beat Burnley ?

Nope, 2-0 says that

 

[True Gooner]

in reality, it is "fans" like you who are a f****g disgrace.. don't question anything or criticize anything.. yeah, we won the match, but we were very poor.. i am normally QUITE positive, but when we play a game like this, those players who played poorly deserve to be criticized.. a better team would have BURIED us today....

why is it that you cannot see that? f****g ****

USArsenal, I think you should just forget this game..it happens we under-estimated this game and Burnley had a point to prove, lets not forget that on an average the same players have done well for us this season..again I have not seen this game but I have seen alot of terrible performances from Arsenal over the years but its really not a big deal if you look at the big picture...poor performances are a part of the game..(Chelsea, Liverpool and Man Utd were as bad in the 3rd round)
If we played a better team I am 99% sure that our performance and our drive would have been much more...

I know that your replying to Ukmegani (however you spell his name) and you were probably wound up then but I personally feel that you shouldnt lose your nerve about the performances...yes we were terrible but it happens..the same squad has done wonders in the past..

Lets just celebrate the fact that we dont have a replay like LIVERPOOL!!!

 

[Illusion]

I think we did fine, not everyone was up to the standards I would want day in day out, not everyone played their best, Burnley did well and we scored two very nice goals.

Always looked like we'd win as far as I was concerned, their defence looked unable to deal with some of our manouvres and I had complete faith in Eduardo's ability to bang one in.

Some are saying we weren't that great and a better team would have beaten us today, but against a better team we'd have played a better team and raised our game, that's a natural part of football.

We're through, lets hope we get a Chelsea style path to the Final this time around. No Blackburn banana skin around to give us trouble this time. We are approaching the business end of the season, a chaotic jam of crucial fixtures which will dictate whether we make it to a final in any of the three Cup's we are in and whether we get the league title back after it's three year hiatus from our trophy cabinet.

 

[bertlb2]

How is it to have the Brazil skipper in the B team? A more dynamic CM/DM (Flamini) is more suited to this kind of game while Gilberto is much more useful in a AC Milan type of opponent, don't you think?

 

[RockyRocastle]

A good old school third round day out today.
Got the coach up early doors, picked up by the old bill and escourted to right outside the away end, so didnt take in any of the cultural delights of Burnley. Im sure I didnt miss too much though.

And as for the 'David Fishwick stand', **** me! Obviously not a penny spent on it in over 20 years. **** hole.
Not surprised we all stood up today, those seats were a joke! A different universe to AB.
Proper scrum trying to get a beer aswell.

As for the game it was their cup final and we did enough. Always thought we had another couple of gears if needed. Wasnt the best but job done.

Great support from us aswell. Arsène Wengers red and white army got a good 15 minutes straight. A few of the old school classics brought out aswell.

Had great banter with the inbred northern monkeys down to our right aswell. Was hilarious watching them getting progressively more and more wound up.

All in all not a bad day out. She wore.

 

[EMIR8_SOLDIER]

Good to see JD back with us, he was on the bench today....May even start on weds