Three points secured despite Saint Nick’s generosity.
There are some fixtures in a season which attract complacency and Nicklas Bendtner could not escape its tempting clutches on Saturday. The rest of the side plugged away admirably against an uninspired Burnley outfit but Bendtner contrived to miss every opportunity that he was presented with. It was one of those days for the Dane but he will be relieved that his teammates spared him a more vitriolic reaction from the fans, after what could have been a disastrous series of misses.
The first goal came just after the half hour mark following a visionary clipped through ball from Samir Nasri. The Frenchman picked out Cesc Fabregas perfectly and the captain slotted the ball through Jensen’s legs. It was a beautiful goal crafted just before Cesc had to leave the field with a hamstring strain, an injury that has now ruled him out of the Porto game. Fabregas’ absence will be keenly felt but Nasri has been in good form and has the qualities to perform a similar job in central midfield.
Largely due to Bendtner’s sloppy finishing, Burnley still found themselves with a chance in the second half and capitalised on shambolic positioning in our defence to poke yet another amateurish goal past an Arsenal goalkeeper. Silvestre and Vermaelen are not the ideal pairing in central defence but their failure to either be in the correct position or attack the ball was abysmal. It was exactly the kind of goal that can happen when chances are squandered at the other end.
Theo Walcott had been playing well although Bendtner was determined not to boost Walcott’s assists tally so Theo decided to take matters into his own hands and confidently cut inside, placing a curling effort with his left foot into the far corner in the 60th minute. It was a vital goal that capped an assured performance and Theo made it look easy on Saturday which is a trait you would not normally associate with the young Englishman.
Despite regaining the lead, we failed to capitalise and Burnley actually had their best spell of the game, coming very close to an equaliser following our failure to deal with a corner. The score line was given some gloss by second half substitute Andrey Arshavin in the last minute of added on time but it had not been comfortable viewing for a crowd that had been slightly more subdued than had been expected following the united reaction to Ramsey’s injury.
The banners supporting Rambo were a welcome sight and must be an inspiration to a young footballer. The Grove is feeling like home now and the addition of other banners can only add to that feeling. The difference between the sanitised arena that we first moved into and the ‘arsenalised’ stadium we have now is marked but the process is still ongoing. According to Ivan Gazidis the Clock End clock will soon be moved inside the ground and the stands are going to be renamed as the North Bank, Clock End, West Stand and East Stand which is all good news. Surely the pre-match song will be the next thing to change back to the good old days...