Well finally the FA cup has started. Last year it was the FA Cup which tired us out with all those replays and ended in us getting knocked out of 3 competitions in 11 days. Still I think the kids have grown up this year and understand how to play against lower ranked teams as well. AW will have to balance the squad as if he puts out too many of the kids ; it might be too much to ask them to play Spurs as well on Tuesday; and Spurs are a much improved side this time round under JR so it might not be that easy. I’m not familiar with any of the Burnley players apart from their striker Andy Gray whom I’ve heard speaking to the media recently and is their lead scorer. Quite frankly with no disrespect to Burnley I’d expect us to win this one…I’d like to see more movement like in the second half against West Ham and less long punts and crosses upfront. Sure they gave us crucial wins; but its a danger to depend on them too much lest we stop playing the way we should play and switch to the easy option. I guess that’ll come with time: knowing what option to choose when like at Everton. We knew we couldn’t get through Neville Carsley and Cahill in the middle so we cut them out completely and then started playing keep ball again. The team; once its intelligent enough to change tactics midway if one way isn’t working will be even better than it already is. You can call it a Plan B if you like…and that sounds better. Anyway I’d settle for an early goal or two and us easing off the gas and resting some legs for Spurs. Here’s the team Arsene will put out tomorrow:

Lehmann
Traore Senderos Toure Sagna
Eboue Diarra Denilson Rosicky
Eduardo Adebayor

Looks a surprisingly strong squad but I’m guessing AW doesn’t want Bendtner ploughing alone up front and then playing again in 3 days time. Then again he has had a rest as well so you never know. Think I’ll go with a Arsenal win though.

Burnley 0 – Arsenal 2