• ArseFan101

  < ![CDATA[Wow, new faces. Rodgers or Steer? Who will play? I love new players, they are like new signings.

  I'm keen to see more of Simpson, but I think Bendtner will be given the nod.

  This is Burnley - we really should beat them - but it's also a more physical game and away from home, so will definitely be a test!]]>

• Steve

  < ![CDATA[Remember that Burnley are 4th in the Championship. They have been having a good season and they will not scared of playing a big name team (Chelsea away?).

  That said, if the players get settled in ok and get the chance to play their football then I think we will be in with a great chance.

  My only fear is that the first 15 mins sees some tough tackles and the youngsters never get into the same flow which saw them destroy Sheffield and Wigan.

  That said I'm expecting to see good things from Vela, Ramsey and Wilshere.]]>

• zohaib

  < ![CDATA[dont think steer and rodgers are that new.

  steer's a left back according to arsenal.com.
  hoyte rodgers silvestre gibbs imo.]]>

• JDD

  < ![CDATA[fabianski
  gibbs
  silvestre
  rodgers
  g.hoyte
  wilshere
  merida
  ramsey
  lansbury
  vela
  simpson

  i reckon 4-1]]>

• Debs

  I guess we were going to get beaten sometime…

• Fabrez!

  Yup! Giant killer indeed!

• Dan

  Never mind, another good run out for the lads. What a solid team Burnley look, looks like that scottish bloke they have as manager is doing a good job.

• Debs

  yeah Dan. Burnley played like a top-half of the table premierleague team and credit to them. How odd though, that the players in for criticism in our team were the 2 old heads? Maybe we should have gone for purely youth? I don’t think so though.

• zohaib

  < ![CDATA[bcuz of the time diff, it was around midnight where i was watching it. and i was too drowsy to stay up for the second half.
  any chance someone can summarize the 2nd half ?

  i saw the first. we had the first chance which bendtner wasted. they scored. we were shaky/nervous at defending throughout. when we did get the ball and tried to make a move in their half, we always lost it again just before their 18yard box. they were defending better than us. which meant that the few chances we got, we had to convert. and wenger said we had 6 one-on-ones. i remember bendtner wasting 2 in the first half. its a shame we wernt able to convert any of the clear cut chances.

  its easy to point flaws in hindsight, but on the basis of his last performance against wigan, where he kept losing posession and didnt really do any major defending either, randall shudnt have played. i sed that before th match as well. i thought coquelin shud've played.

  anyway. it'll be interesting to see what wenger does with the CC squad. he loans some of them out wen our CC cup run ends. maybe we'll see some of them going to portsmouth ? newcastle ? spurs ?]]>

• Debs

  < ![CDATA[Zoihab, I guess the second half followed the same pattern as the first really... One-on-ones, keeper saves, we lose the ball, they score, another chance, keeper saves, they break, almost make it 3... try to create, lose the ball... Same as the first, really.

  Still a bit sad, but there's still the FA cup, though...]]>

• gunners1

  < ![CDATA[Arsenal put out not their first time, not the squad members who back up the first team, but their third team - a team made up mostly of players who we only see at Barnet in the reserves. And this morning the main football news is that the team who are 4th in the Championship beat them.

  If someone said even five years ago (by which time we were all well aware of where Wenger was going) that a team challenging for promotion to the EPL could beat our third team and it would be headline news, we’d surely have said, “well of course they will beat our third team”.

  I know we had a few players who have stepped up. Silvestre was obviously there to try and give experience, and Bendtner was there to try and help him out of the bad run he’s having, but otherwise it was the kiddies. Everyone should have expected Burnley to win - it is a tribute to Arsenal that the defeat was a “shock”.]]>

• willsscott

  < ![CDATA[Burnley deserve a lot of credit for the way they played, they did play like a mid-table Premiership side, and I think they would have given a team like City a run for their money.

  Arsenals youngsters did a good job, I think the game would have been a lot different had Bendtner put one of his many chances away, or even Randall.

  It's nice to see the young talent coming through given a chance, however, I do sometimes wish Wenger would also add a few 'first teamers' to the squad. With Chelsea and Liverpool both out, and United with a difficult tie tonight, there was a good chance we could've won this. Personally, Randall, Hoyte, Rodgers, Gibbs, aren't ever going to make it at Arsenal, and to be honest, I'm not sure Bendtner will. I'd have like to have seen Song, Djourou, Bishoff, possibly even Denilson starting, to give us a better chance, and maybe if we'd got a goal lead, then bring some of the younger lot on.

  I think if players like Diaby, Eduardo, Toure and Eboue weren't all injured, he may have done that.

  Anyway, it was still nice to see that talent we do have, and on another night, it could so easily have been a different result.]]>

• zohaib

  < ![CDATA[thanks debs !
  and yep. the fa cup is probably where we'll see the youngsters next. after wat hapnd last season maybe its not a priority for us anymore. maybe we can afford to give th youngsters another 'educational' few matches.]]>

• zaheer

  hahaha i think its only a matter of time before wenger brings in 14 and 15 year olds into the first team:p

• ray

  < ![CDATA[jay simpson the other night made me realise. Arsenals biggest problem over the last few seasons has been our wingers.

  pires and ljunberg where amazing players and both match winners. they both where very fast and could score out of nothing especially pires. nasri is a player i love and will be world class, but he slows play down and doesnt track back ( being a little harsh i know).

  nasri is two times as good on the right flank , the position he was bought to occupy then the left . rosicky is a player we miss. he is practically are best and most experienced midfielder. we seriously miss the goals our wingers created. we need a winger like jay simpson someone fast and powerful with a big build. he looked terrifying running down the wing.

  In january do we need any strikers ? no way? i expect simpson and vela to go out on loan with eduardos recovery. do we need any wingers? debatable its a 50/50 but on the whole if rosicky is back and fit before january then no. do we need a defender? no. do we need a central midfielder to defend ? yes. imagine our team with someone like mashcerno or de rossi!]]>

• brum,fan

  < ![CDATA[As a Birmingham City fan who rather enjoyed the splendid talents of Nicklas Bendtner on loan two seasons ago, I must admit feeling a little saddened by both his current plight and also those who are lining up to fire volleys of reactionary ignorance. I can surmise that the likes of Pete Andersen doesn't watch very much football, or at least watch football outside of the narcoleptics convention they call The Emirates, because the Bendtner he bemoans in ten steps is as far a cry from the one we saw at St. Andrew's as William Gallas is from being a high-functioning adult male of the species.

  Bendter was superb for Blues, the best player in the division by a long stretch. He had outstanding one-touch control, was great both on the floor and in the air, could shoot with both feet, manipulated the ball like mercury and possessed a weight of pass not incomparable with a young Denis Bergkamp. He's an arrogant son-of-a-gun, and he did alienate our support onoccasion with his attitude. If you possess the emotional maturity not to be offended by the moronic posturing of young multi-millionaires, however, and judge them purely on their ability to play the game, then it was clear that Bendtner improved our team by roughly 407%.

  What's happened between then and now I'm not sure. Perhaps we at Birmingham have bred all of this goodness out of him by transplanting him from the'hole' in which he seemed most comfortable, putting him back-to-goal and making him pluck impossible balls out of the air for 80-odd minutes a week. Perhaps we've misled Arsenal into thinking that he's merely a piece of meat with eyes to win those flick-ons so despised by their acolytes, rather than a player with the kind of nascent ability to find space that can't really be taught.

  Perhaps enduring a season's worth of turgid hoofball has stunted his growth irreparably. Either way, Gooners will rejoice as one (raising the mutest of whispers) to learn that they can blame those scoundrels at St.Andrew's for ruining their season once again.

  Mean, nasty Birmingham.

  But I digress. I'll admit that some of the accusations levelled at him do ring true. No, he doesn't have a trace of confidence right now. He can be selfish, although this is a characteristic often desirable in a forward. His pink boots are, quite frankly, embarrassing. But he more than any other appears to be both scapegoat for and embodiment of Arsenal's stuttering run, and is nothing like the talentless hod-carrier that some of their spoilt support appear to have mistaken him for. If Wenger can make a footballer out of the lump of clay which became Emmanuel Adebayor, then there's no reason to discard Bendtner so soon.

  Unless it's to us, of course, in which case go right ahead. January is fine by me.]]>

• debs

  Where are thou, Oh Dev?! Is wordpress at it again?

• devday

  Hey Debs, Indeed, blog vs big corporation is never going to work!

• Debs

  what, r u leaving us Dev? Noooooooooo! lol Where’s Jatmeister when you need him?

• http://kierandelaney.net/blog kierandelaney.net/blog

  < ![CDATA[Dev I have hosting and I use wordpress as you've probably seen on my site - if you'd like free hosting and use your current address and that, interference free I may add, drop me an email, i have loads of server space and bandwith.

  hello at kierandelaney dot net]]>

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