Goals from Eduardo and Bendtner saw us brush aside Burnley in a comfortable(ish) 2-0 win at Turf Moor to qualify to the next round of the FA Cup.

The game started well with both sides creating chances. Burnley made their intentions clear in the first 5 mins when the ball was headed off the bar. They were there to play football instead of have 11 players defending or trying to rough things up. In our first real attack, Toure flicked the ball forward, and Eduardo ran through and finished again very coolly. It went back and forth after that, with Burnley playing some good football.

Burnley ended up with more corners than we did, and they had 6 shots on target to our 8. These stats show that it wasn’t as easy as many expected it to be. This doesn’t mean it was a tough game by any means, it just wasn’t that easy.

In the second half, Burnley had a player sent off for a late tackle on Gilberto. To be fair I think the red was harsh. Yes, it was late, but it wasn’t malicious and was one footed, definitely a yellow card. Anyway, a few mins after that, Bendtner finished off a great passing move with Eduardo giving him the final pass in the perfect spot.

The Eduardo / Bendtner partnership looks very promising. They both run their socks off, always involved, and seem to have a nice understanding creating some nice chances with fancy one two passing. Senderos had a good game back, while the same can’t be said about Traore, Diaby, Eboue, or Gilberto. They all had a below average game, Diaby especially, who was great when the ball was in his feet, but absolute crap whenever he tried to get it to someone else’s feet. You know what else was absolute crap? That pitch. Ridiculous! Almost as bad as Chelsea’s from last year.

The one revelation from the game has to be that Eduardo is in fact human! He missed an easy chance! I think this was his first miss of the season. It was a bit reassuring to see that he is a mere mortal.

Player Ratings -

Lehmann - 6 - Not much to do to be honest
Sagna - 7 - Solid as usual
Toure - 7 - Nice assist for the first goal and did well overall
Senderos - 7 - OK first half, very good second half. Good game to come back, not too much pressure, good for confidence.
Traore - 4 - Very poor game. Was out of position most of the time he was on the pitch. The main reason Senderos had an ‘OK’ first half was that he was going back and forth covering the left side that Traore left exposed. Again, if you had a choice about which game you’re going to have a 1 off shit game, this would be the perfect one.
Eboue - 5 - I’m a big fan of Eboue. I think he gets more criticism from fans than he deserves. That said, he had a poor game. Did well until he got near the box, then just kept the ball waiting for 2 defenders to surround him.
Denilson - 6 - Had a quiet game. Tried to make something from his time on the pitch with 3 shots that were off target, but never too threatening.
Gilberto - 5 - His first half was ridiculously poor. Looked like he was just kicking the ball randomly at times, improved in the second.
Diaby - 4 - It would’ve been a 3 if his pass for Eduardo in the second half didn’t go through. Nothing went right for him today. He always strikes me as a player who tries to impress rather than win the game. He is much better than he showed today.
Eduardo - 9 - A very cool finish and a great assist for Bendtner’s goal. He also had 2 or 3 other chances and was always threatening.
Bendtner - 9 - The boy was immense today. Took his goal very well, and was involved constantly in creating chances and defending when needed. I think he had the ball more than any other player on the pitch. I just hope he still has enough in the tank for the Carling Cup game after this performance.

Man of the match - Bendtner.