Five-star display for Arsenal

Arsenal thrashed Burnley 5-1 in the 3rd Round of the FA Youth Cup on Friday night. A hat-trick from Henri Lansbury, plus strikes from Mark Randall and Kieran Gibbs set up an enticing 4th Round tie with Liverpool later this month.

 It wasn’t the best start, however, for the Gunners as they went behind in under two minutes after some poor defending. However, Arsenal bounced back and Lansbury drew Arsenal level on 13 minutes after Burnley struggled to clear. Henri was to have a fantastic game and was involved in the second goal as well, laying on the ball for Mark Randall to score. Mark then crashed a header against the bar as Arsenal seized the initiative. Just before the break Kieran Gibbs effectively sealed the tie with a sweet strike from a tight angle. Gibbs played with more freedom tonight and performed much better than he did on Monday for the reserves. Perhaps he saves his best for the big occasions, having performed well against Man.Utd last year and also against Inter in pre-season. Burnley tried their hardest to get back into the game, but their hard work was to no avail. Lansbury and Randall linked up well once more, this time Henri finished from Mark’s pinpoint cross. Lansbury completed the rout, and his hat-trick, towards the end of the game to seal a fine performance from the young Gunners. Merseyside awaits, and considering we were without the likes of Merida, Barazite, Nordtveit and Murphy makes the result much, much sweeter.

 Arsenal: Szczesny, Ogogo, G.Hoyte (Bartley), Dunne, Steer, Rodgers, Randall, Fonte, Watt (Sunu), Gibbs (Thomas), Lansbury. Subs not used: Shea, Cruise

Burnley preview- Do Bould’s boys have what it takes?

So, the day has finally come. The FA Youth Cup tie against Burnley which was postponed last month because of a waterlogged pitch at Accrington Stanley FC is taking place tonight. A lot has changed since then; Fran Merida and Vincent van den Berg have both gone out on loan, so we will be without them. However, the good news is that we don’t have to play James Shea, as Wojciech Szczesny has recovered from his dislocated finger. It looks as if Gilles Sunu will feature at some stage, although he looked a little rusty in the Reserves on Monday. Havard Nordtveit is unlikely to be risked after such a long time out and Rhys Murphy is still missing too. Of course, we are still without Barazite as well. The team should be mainly similar to last year’s squad, with a few alterations. This is what I think it could be, although we’re still waiting for official team news from both sides.

—————-Szczesny————-

-Ogogo—–Rodgers——G.Hoyte (c)———Steer

-Watt——Lansbury—–Dunne———–Gibbs

———-Sunu—————–Fonte

subs: Shea, Emmanuel-Thomas, Cruise, Wilshere, Ramussen

Now, I’m not too sure whether it’ll be Watt or Wilshere on the right-wing, but whoever plays will have to be at their best because I’m telling you now, this game is not going to be easy. These night games have more of an atmosphere, the crowd becomes intimidating and the players have to react. The ball is in Burnley’s court and we have to grab it and run because if we give them any kind of incentive, then they are going to take it with both hands. What I am worried about is going forward and our attacking threat. Without the creative influence of Fran or Nacer, we will struggle to create chances and that is one of the reasons why I would start Wilshere ahead of Watt, because he can whip in crosses from midfield and his scoring rate for the u-18s this season has been phenomenal. Murphy is a big loss too but we will just have to cope with whoever is out there on the pitch for us, and have no excuses if we fail.

 The way we went out of the Youth Cup last season was very unfortunate. We led 1-0 from the first leg and after Murphy had scored, I thought we had done it, but it wasn’t to be. Paul Rodgers admits he still has nightmares about that day and is looking to put things right this time around.

Of course, there’s the added incentive of facing Liverpool if we get through. But we’ll think about that later as we have to concentrate on tonight’s game first.

To be honest, I’m not confident at all going in this game, especially after the Reserves match on Monday, where we struggled to create chances. However, if we start off well, then we should win this one. The Academy league season has gone well so far, but we did lose that game to Ipswich on a cold week-day night, and I’m worried that tonight’s game could be a similar situation.

Just a note that Jonas Ramussen has been added to the Arsenal.com squad list. So, does that mean he’s playing tonight?

Perhaps, but whatever happens keep the faith and thanks for reading.