Burnley 0-2 Arsenal – 06/01/08 – (FA Cup) 6 January, 2008
Posted by lasagnechef in Cup Games.trackback
We’re through to the 4th round of the FA Cup after beating Burnley in a game where we hardly broke sweat. We never really got into gear properly but we didn’t need to. It was a very mix and match side, Gilberto started ahead of Diarra who wasn’t even in the squad, is he leaving Arsenal then? More than probably. Other than that it was the tea I expected.
Toure was playing his last game before going off too Africa with the Ivory Coast. He put in a good performance as captain and showed how much we’re really going to miss him. As for Eboue, the African Nations Cup just can’t come soon enough for him. Kolo’s partner at the back was Senderos and he was ok, had some bad moments but he played alright and at the end of the day he helped keep a clean sheet.
The home side started well and they hit the bar after 6 minutes. It was a little worrying with Burnley on top but we opened the scoring in the 9th minute against the early run of play. Toure played the ball over the top for Eddy who timed his run perfectly and as soon as this guy is one-on-one with the ‘keeper you know it’s a goal. He took it up close to Kiraly and just poked it in the net.
The first half was quite open in terms of who might get that vital second goal. Both teams had great chances; Gilberto’s header was saved on the line and Burnley, on two occasions, blasted the ball over the bar from close range.
We were 1-0 up at half time, the Burnley fans and the BBC thought the home side were on top and the Premier League leaders were lucky. Yes we weren’t completely dominating but Burnley weren’t good enough for us even though our reserve side wasn’t playing their best football.
6 minutes into the second half Eduardo had a great chance to get his second. His finish went just wide, something we haven’t seen too much of recently. I thought after that we might have a more exiting second half to look forward too but not a lot really happened. The home side wanted something from this but their chances weren’t helped when Kyle Lafferty was sent off for a bad challenge on Gilberto. There’s been a lot of debate about it, some saying the dismissal was harsh, however if Gilberto’s studs were in the ground that could’ve broken his leg and a challenge that is that dangerous deserves a red. If he’s have got away with a yellow it wouldn’t have been the crime of the century but he would’ve been very, very lucky.
That sending off raised the temperature a bit and the home side really wanted to find an equalizer but we got the second goal with 15 minutes to go and it was game over. Eduardo played a great ball for Bendtner who made a sideways run into space. He side-footed the goalie and put the ball in the back of the net to take us through to the 4th round.
There was no comeback for Burnley now and we finished comfortable winners. Lehmann kept a clean sheet is possibly his last Arsenal performance, but with Diarra not even in the squad I think he is closer to the exit door than Jens at the moment. The back four did their job, Traore and Senderos had some iffy moments but they came through ok. Bendtner and Eduardo were great up front again. The midfield wasn’t so good, quite uninspiring which meant our game never really got going but we won so who cares? The cup isn’t about performances, it’s about results.
Next up it’s Spurs in the Kiddy Cup on Wednesday. Build up to come. Thanks for reading.
Fuckers,
Eduardo is the fucking bomb. Fucking lethal finishing skills. Fucking great nose for goal. Fucking awesome mullet. I admit I was one of those fucking doubting Thomas’ who thought he was too fucking shrimpy and shite to do the fucking job for the fucking Arse, but fuck me down… I was wrong. Fuck, I’ve never been more glad to be wrong in my whole fucking life. Why does being so wrong make me feel so right?
Eduardo makes me drool in front of the fucking TV. After a game, I’ve got to hose the screen down and wipe it with Jiff. Fucking hell, he’s a lethal cunt. If I wasn’t so enamoured with Diarra and Connolly, I’d fucking worship the fucking cunt for his sick skills.
Which is a fucking nice segway to my next point – Diarra not starting for the Arse. As the good ‘chef puts it, Gilberto starting in place of Diarra means that Diarra’s on his way out. After all, if you’re selling a fucker in the Jan window, you don’t want him cup-tied. But fuck if I don’t see another reason behind it. Maybe he wants Bertie in the shop window. Maybe Wenger wants to trot out ol’ Bertie one last time before he sends that fucker off to Juve, or Villa, or one of the other geriatic stud farms that we post our oldies out to. Maybe Wenger wants to lay the fucking law down on Diarra, and let that fucker know that we OWN him for the next three years, and we can do whatever the fuck we want with him.
Now, you might think I’m fucking up the wrong tree, and you might think I’m so blinded by my Diarra fixatation that I can’t see that the bald dwarf is on his out way, but think about this – there was no fucking reason to give a spot to fucking Jens and keep lil’ Luke on the bench, was there? Fuck, Wenger’s a senti-fucking-mental cunt. Farewell appearances for Jens and Bert? It’s the only reason I can see.
Anyway, if FlamBlamThankYouMa’am is out there, I agree with you on one point – it’ll be a travesty of McClaren-ish proportions if both Flamini, Diarra AND Berti leave. We NEED some fucker in the midfield to do the hard yards. I prefer Diarra because I’m a fucking intelligent, insightful, profoundly knowledgable Arse fan and I can see past bullshit. I’m sure you’ve got your own reasons for wanting FlimFlam. Let’s not argue about semantics and let’s agree over what’s really important – Flamini truly is an ugly, ugly, fucker.
He isn’t pretty, but then the only long haired beauty enforcer around is R. Savage esquire which is a good reason to be ugly as sin.
Like you and everyone else I’m not sure what Wenger is up to with the 3 defensive midfielders and to be honest I’m spending more time than usual sitting on the shitter worrying about it.
No Diarra in the squad mixed with Wenger’s positive comment about him on the official website means Diarra is looking up the word patience on google cos out means down and he knows it. Let’s hope you’re right and Juve make an offer for Bert, Wenger gives the hairy one and the bald one a game each per week for the rest of the season and we win some fucking silverware.
True, true FlamBlam. A bit like good cop, bad cop. We’ll treat the fans to a truly hideous fucker one day, and then indulge them with the handsome visage of shiny-scalped bald one the next. We’ll have the opposition second-guessing themselves to see which fucker is in the fucking squad. I can just see inside the opposition dressing room when the fuckers groan in fear and trepidation as they realise they’ll have a hairy, hideous, hellishly-horrible harridan on their heels for a full 90 minutes. They’ll be pissing themselves because they WEREN’T expecting the cruching tackles of the terrifying terrier, because who in their right mind would chose that fucker over the beautiful, bonsai bandit, the hacker with the lip-smacking positional sense, the only dog braver that Old Yeller, the one and only Lassie Diarra?
Fuck me if he isn’t the ugliest fucker I’ve ever seen. I don’t know how I’m going to get through the rest of the season. Fucking hell. I’m going to have to gouge out my eyes or tatoo little Scarlett Johanssons on my eyelids or something. Fuck, 07-8 will be a long, long season.
Eduardo is a rat. Wenger motivates him by ketting him run around the kitchen at the emirates if he scores. At half time the players all get an orange but eduardo gets a mop to chew on. Its worked as well, wenger man-management cannot be questioned
The Eduardo – Bendtner partnership is really looking better with every game.
I really like Adebayor, and he is our main man up front this season without a doubt, but he hasn’t really clicked with any of the other strikers. In a 4-5-1 he is our number choice for sure, but who would partner him now on a 4-4-2?? My guess is Eduardo for now, but what about when Van Persie is fit?
Wenger will have a selection problem up front, but the good kind of problem, not a lack of choice.
What a Bendtner over-head !
Alex, It was embarassing like your clothes
Do you ever do spell check??????????
[...] came Eduardo, opened the scoring act in the ninth minute for his six goals in four games. Eduardo received a neat ball from Kolo Toure before beating keeper Gabor Kiraly with [...]