What a screamer!

Arsenal-v-Burnley 06/03/2010 (K.O. 3pm)

The title of this post is, sadly, in reference to the lady sat next to Stuart today, rather than to the match itself. As a quick aside, one of the regulars had sold his seat to a woman who had a rather, er, piercing squeal whenever things got vaguely exciting. I feared Stuart might be deaf by the end of the match, or that he'd have beaten her to death with the free inflatable noise-making wotsit he'd been given...

...But enough of that. Back to the game itself...

We were playing Burnley, not bleedin' Barcelona, but my gods we made hard work of it. I have to say that the boys looked ok, they didn't seem to be holding back from tackles in the wake of last weekend's unfortunate incident, but there was the indecisiveness which has become a trend over the past season. When players are within spitting distance of the goal and have a chance at a shot, they should take a punt, not automatically cross it to someone else, or dither until they lose possession. Just SHOOT!

Cesc did, half an hour into the first half, but I missed the actual goal (thanks to Stuart, who was particularly talkative today...) - looked good when they replayed it on the big screen, but I'd like another look on MotD later. Unfortunately Cesc had to go off not long after, and fingers crossed he'll be fit for our upcoming match against Porto on Tuesday.

Going back to my rant... Of course, when players do decide to try for a goal it would be good if they employed some degree of accuracy. Bendtner, I'm looking at you. Yes, the man who says he wants "to be top scorer in the Premier League, top scorer at the World Cup and...among the best strikers in the world" just couldn't score today, despite having ample opportunity. I lost count of his botched attempts, but if he hadn't cocked them up we'd have been four or five up by the end of the game.

Burnley equalised just after half time, due to some frankly piss poor defending on our part. Our spirits sank a bit - as you can imagine. Finally, an hour in, little Theo finally found the back of the net after trying valiantly throughout the game so far. Cheers, applause, and Stuart loses a little more of the hearing in his left ear as the strange woman squeals like a stuck pig.

Bendtner finally went off to be replaced by Eduardo. Huge sigh of relief from me, because he'd just been having one of those day when he couldn't score for toffee and I was quite frankly pleased to see the back of him.

The game pootled on, and Arshavin settled the matter in the last minute of added time bringing the score to 3-1, which scoreline is very satisfactory.

Final score: Arsenal 3 - 1 Burnley