Burnley 0 Arsenal 2:In the end, it was easy to sympathise with Burnley. There is a stereotype of such clubs, where the ground is surrounded by terraced streets and the panorama of heavy-stone mills, factories and chimneys looks straight from a LS Lowry painting, that the only way of beating Premier League opposition - especially from London - is to kick them off the pitch.
Instead, Burnley produced some crisp, refined football and caused some considerable problems before finally succumbing to Arsenal's extra bit of class.
"You need more foreigners," the visiting supporters taunted on yet another day when Arsene Wenger's starting XI did not include a single Englishman, though there were three on the bench and Justin Hoyte did get on for 20 minutes. Eduardo da Silva, a Brazilian who plays for Croatia, did much of the damage, with a splendidly taken goal as well as the killer pass for his Danish colleague, Nicklas Bendtner, to make the game safe. In between, Burnley's left-winger, Kyle Lafferty, was sent off for an over-the-top challenge on Gilberto Silva and, a man down, there was a grim predictability about the way Wenger's reserves and up-and-coming stars picked them off.
With the exception of Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Eboue, this was a second-string Arsenal and Wenger was entitled to be impressed by their application on a weekend when so many other Premier League managers paid a hefty price for making wholesale changes against lower-league opposition.
"It was a good test for my young players," reflected Wenger. "I'm never scared to rotate my squad because we have exceptional hunger and, again, that has come out in our performance. I rested a few players because we had a lot of games over Christmas but the players who came in did a great job."
Wenger went on to eulogise Eduardo and, after a slow start to his career in England, there have been encouraging signs recently that he is slowly coming to the boil with six goals from his last four games. The pass for Bendtner's goal was measured to perfection and the manner in which he opened the scoring summed up his blossoming confidence.
His elusive running first took him away from Burnley's centre-halves and, after gathering Toure's pass, Eduardo waited until the last possible moment before applying the deftest touch to flick the ball past the goalkeeper Gabor Kiraly. In short, it was the kind of finish the supporters at Turf Moor will rarely witness in their league.
It was a brutal reminder of the gulf in status and, briefly, it looked as though Arsenal's slick, pass-them-into-submission football would make it a chastening experience for their opponents. Yet Burnley, once they regained their nerve, did not look like a team without a win on their own ground since October 23rd.
The Championship side had already penetrated Arsenal's defence when Lafferty headed Andy's Gray sixth-minute cross against the crossbar and the manner in which they tackled the Premier League leaders was reflected by the applause with which they left the field, both at half-time and the final whistle.
There were still moments when Arsenal's triangular movements and off-the-ball movement reminded the spectators of the imbalance in talent, but it was a valiant effort from the home side and their manager, Owen Coyle, was not exaggerating when he praised his players afterwards.
James O'Connor and Chris McCann were superb in midfield, while Wade Elliott made it a difficult afternoon for Armand Traore, Arsenal's young left-back, and it can be bewildering sometimes that Robbie Blake has played so little in the top division.
"I've got nothing but praise for the way they went about it," said Coyle.
The one blemish on an afternoon of mutual appreciation was Lafferty's red card. Coyle was disappointed with the referee Alan Wiley. "The kid doesn't have a bad bone in his body and it wasn't two-footed," said Coyle.
