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Page last updated at 17:55 GMT, Saturday, 02 January 2010
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WIGAN SWEPT ASIDE BY ARSENAL IN FA CUP

Hangovers had hopefully cleared for all involved today as the FA Cup entered its third round. Arsenal took on Wigan for the second time this week as they travelled to the DW stadium.

Revenge would surely have been in the mind of the Wigan players, 21 minutes into the game and those thoughts would have swiftly vanished, as Arsenal bagged three goals to secure their place in the next round of the competition.

Theo Walcott opened the scoring for Arsenal, the England international has struggled to slot back into his favoured strikers position. It’s thought Walcott will have to adapt soon, with no wingers in Cooks diamond midfield he’ll spend more time on the subs bench if he doesn’t.

Today he was impressive and looked more the natural striker he claims to be, man of the match Andrey Arshavin curled a beautiful ball into the path of Walcott. His pace was too much for Figueroa and Walcott was left with a simple pass underneath the body of Kirkland and into the net.

The early rout continued just six minutes later as Arshavin bagged a goal of his own, Walcott charged down the right wing to get the move going. His crossed ball was met by a nice flick on from Van Persie, his flick on was met my Arshavin in the six yard box and he drilled the ball low into the net.

Robin Van Persie got in on the goalscoring just two minutes later, Walcott was involved once again as he continued a fine performance. His surging run through the centre forced the Wigan backline to retreat before he fed the ball to Van Persie on the edge of the box. The Dutch striker worked himself into space with some nice footwork before lashing the ball in from the edge of the box.

Wigan soon closed ranks, the midfield sat gradually deeper until it became too congested and difficult for Arsenal to continue their raid. The other side meant Wigain were resigning themselves to defeat, it was simply damage limitation now.

As the game drew to a close Wigan did manage to nab a goal, Eboue’s loose pass allowed McCarthy to sneak in. The Scotsman spotted N’Zogbia on the wing who was soon off the ball, his cross found its way to King on the near post. Gallas shielded him closely but seemed hesitant to dive in with a tackle due to a prior booking. King used this to his advantage to force some space before firing in from a tight angle, a sloppy goal that angered Cook.

Despite gifting Wigan a late poor goal Arsenal were the comprehensive victors today over a lacklustre Wigan for the second time this week.

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Wigan: Kirkland, Boyce, Edman (Amaya ’56), Scharner, Figueroa, Won-Hee, Streit, Kapo (N’Zogbia ’68), McCarthy, Gomez, Scotland (King ’45)
Subs Not Used: Kingson, de Ridder, Routledge, Langley
Booked: Edman, McCarthy
Goals: King 86

Arsenal: Almunia, Eboue, Clichy, Gallas, Vermaelen, Song, Moutinho (Nasri ’60), Fabregas, Arshavin (Rosicky ’85), Walcott, Van Persie (Eduardo ’60)
Subs Not Used: Fabianski, Senderos, Gibbs, Vela
Booked: Eboue, Gallas
Goals: Walcott 13, Arshavin 19, Van Persie 21

Ref: Lee Probert
Att: 19,778

Man of the Match: Andrey Arshavin (8.1 on for 85 minutes)

[shanghai_nobody]

Page last updated at 17:55 GMT, Sunday, 03 January 2010
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COOK PRAISES HIS SIDES SPIRIT

Mark Cook used his post match conference to slam his clubs fixture schedule while praising his players for coming through a tough week.

Arsenal were forced to play three fixtures this week, two premier league fixtures and a FA Cup 3rd round fixture. Fulham and two games against Wigan provided the competition and now Cooks side have just three days until they are in action again, this time against Manchester City in the Carling Cup.

“It’s an absolute joke, we’re supposed to be in the best league in the world but whoever thought that organising three games for one team in a week is clearly not fit for the job.” Cook blasted today, “The FA Cup is an important trophy for this club, one we would like to win but two games before a weekend fixture is hardly ideal. Luckily we managed to get through.”

Cook went on to say if any severe injuries or loss of points had occurred his anger would be much worse, instead the Scotsman went on to praise his squad. “We’ve come through a tough and important week for this club. We picked up a difficult six points and got through to the next round of the FA cup.

“The lads showed great spirit in those games especially when we were getting a little tired in the final fixture. I spoke to them at the start of the week that it wasn’t ideal but we just had to get on with it.

“That’s what they done the whole week, I never heard one complaint of being tired or run down. They still trained hard and just got on with the business at hand. That is a display of great team spirit and confidence, we don’t care what obstacles are put in our way we’ll get through them.”

All this talk may have been to cover up the rumblings of an imminent departure of Andrey Arshavin, “No it’s not, I felt my players deserved a bit of praise. If you want to talk about Andrey we’ll do that.” Was Cooks reply.

Pep Guardiola spoke out after Arsenal’s 3-1 victory over Wigan in the FA Cup, a game which Arshavin scored and was handed another man of the match award. “He’s a fantastic player to watch, it seems he is really hitting the peak of his powers. He has the ability to take teams apart on his own, he is definitely someone I would have in my side.”

Since then rumours have grown of a reported £11million bid in the offing, it was thought that would be enough to tempt Arsenal to part but apparently not the case. When that figure was offered to Cook he burst out laughing, “£11million? For a player of his class? I don’t think so, double that figure and I still wouldn’t think of selling Andrey.

“I can only talk in facts not rumours, we’ve had no offer for any of our players in this transfer window. I spoke to Andrey about these rumours, he said he is enjoying his football and wants to stay. I want him to stay so that is the end of the matter, we won’t be selling in this transfer window.”

While Cook seems confident that Andrey Arshavin will remain at the club it is no secret the Russian is a fan of the Catalan club. If an offer was to come in then Andrey might just try and force his way out of the Emirates during the January transfer window. His current form boasts 23 goals in 29 games, could Arsenal still carry on a title challenge without him? We’ll have to wait and see.

[shanghai_nobody]

Page last updated at 17:55 GMT, Wednesday, 06 January 2010
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BARRY SCORES AS CITY WIN IN FIRST LEG

Arsenal manager Mark Cook had already said he was not focussing on the Carling Cup, his stance was strengthened after his side were forced to play three times last week. City came into this match as favourites, after a healthy spending spree Hughes is expected to bring some silverware in return the Welshman is firmly setting his sights on the Carling Cup.

In the end Manchester City ran out 1-0 winners at the Emirates thanks to a 12th minute penalty, the reality is that an Arsenal side who in many ways never turned up should have been thumped a lot harder.

Van Persie, Fabregas, Arshavin, Vermaelen, Walcott, Sagna were all on the bench, it was clear that Cook was not going to risk his big names, especially the hugely influential trio of Van Persie, Fabregas and Arshavin, although they did have a thirty minute run out towards the end of the match.

The reason for such a low scoring affair was the form of both keepers, Given edged it as he took the man of the match award but his opposite number Manuel Almunia was in fine form himself.

The deadlock was broken from the penalty spot this was after a Barry freekick floated into the box resulted Eboue pushing his former team mate Kolo Toure. The right decision was a penalty and it topped off an incredibly poor performance from Eboue. Barry coolly smashed the resulting penalty into the top left corner, Almunia was left rooted to the spot.

Robinho should have doubled the score when he was set through into the box, his low drive was saved well as Almunia rushed out to palm the shot away to safety.

Come the second half Bendtner and Van Persie both had angled close range drives clawed away by Given. Those two fine saves summed up the match as a whole, impressive performances in between the sticks while both strike forces seemed less than interested.

On top of a defeat Miguel Veloso limped off at the end of the match after a late tackle from Angelo Palombo. At the final whistle physios soon retrieved Veloso from the pitch and ushered him down the tunnel.

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Arsenal: Almunia, Eboue, Clichy, Senderos, Gallas, Veloso, Ramsey, Moutinho (Fabregas ’62), Nasri (Arshavin ’62), Eduardo, Bendtner (Van Persie ’62)
Subs Not Used: Fabianski, Sagna, Vermaelen, Walcott
Booked: Clichy
Goals: None

Manchester City: Given, Richards, Bridge, Toure, Lescott, Wright-Phillips, Rodriguez (de Jong ’45), Palombo, Barry, Adebayor (Bellamy ’72), Robinho
Subs Not Used: Taylor, Zabaleta, Onuoha, Ireland, Kompany
Booked: None
Goals: Barry pen 12

Ref: Alan Wiley
Att: 60,361

Man of the Match: Shay Given (7.6 on for 90 minutes)

[shanghai_nobody]

Page last updated at 17:55 GMT, Thursday, 07 January 2010
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VELOSO TO MISS TOTTENHAM CLASH

Things looked bad for Miguel Veloso as he limped off against Manchester City. The Portuguese midfielder was clattered by Angelo Palombo late on in the match, Cook said today that he would now be out for two weeks.

“It’s a thigh strain which usually means he’ll be out for around two weeks, it doesn’t seem too bad. He’s a fit lad and he should be fully fit soon.” Cook said, the natural replacement seems to be Alex Song and Cook agreed today.

“Yeah Alex will replace him, I’m happy to play him because he is solid in that position. All he lacks is a little bit of experience, he’s getting it this season with European competition and he’ll get more now.”

Veloso looks set to miss the North London derby against Tottenham and the following fixture against West Ham. “I’m not happy about missing the game against Tottenham, it’s a big derby and every player wants to be involved in their sides derbies, those matches always have a little more edge to them.

“I’m setting my sights on a return against Manchester City in the Carling Cup second leg if I can get my place back from Alex.”
Talk moved to the City game and Cooks decision to rest several key players, “No disrespect to the competition but we just played three games and I needed to rotate. Especially with our next game against Tottenham in the league we have to be raring for that.”

Mark Hughes spoke out about his sides ability to break into the top four after beating Arsenal, Cook seemed humoured by the statements from his counterpart “Yes his side won and well done to them. It’s one win each and we play each other twice again this season. We’ll see who comes out on top come the end of the season.”

[shanghai_nobody]

Page last updated at 17:55 GMT, Saturday, 09 January 2010
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ALMUNIA IN TOP FORM AS ARSENAL WIN DERBY

Arsenal were almost back to full strength for todays fixture, minus the injured Miguel Veloso Cook brought back his first team stars. With his players looking to bounce back from defeat at the hands of Manchester City, Tottenham provided the perfect opponents.

With Arsenal away from home and Tottenham keen to win it was Arsenal who for a change soaked up the pressure. Manuel Almunia picked up a man of the match award with a stunning display and the Arsenal backline were solid and resolute.

Tottenham’s constant barrage of attacks was sparked after they fell behind with just nine minutes on the clock, Joao Moutinho bagged his first derby goal to put the away side ahead. Arshavin engineered the space for Moutinho, it wasn’t difficult for the Russian as soon as the ball came to him the Tottenham backline swarmed toward him. With the attention on him he tapped the ball to Moutinho, the spaced had opened up and he unleashed a stunning low drive that drove through the unrepentant rain into the bottom corner.

The second goal didn’t come until the dying minutes of this derby, in between the goals Tottenham constantly bombed forward and Arsenal under Cook have become a club who can soak up and repel pressure. A rigid back four was aided by some stunning saves from Manuel Almunia.

Six minutes on the clock and Andrey Arshavin sealed all three points, Tottenham were caught out as they ventured forward seeking out an equaliser. Bassong swung in a poor cross easily cleared by the head of Gallas, the ball went straight to Arshavin who quickly fed it to Carlos Vela.

Vela could have charged through on goal and possibly should have instead he meandered his way out to the right, Woodgate quickly closed down and it looked like the chance was lost until the Mexican drove in a low cross for Arshavin to volley in from close range. Unmarked and with an open goal facing him it was an easy finish for the Russian.

Arsenal were beaten by economic counter attacking today, Arsenal were more impressive at the back today. They were solid and when beaten Almunia was more than capable to cope with anything Tottenham threw at him.

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Tottenham: Gomes, Corluka, Assou-Ekotto (O’Hara ’85), Woodgate, King, Lennon, Jankulovski (Bassong ’63), Palacios, Jenas, Keane (Defoe ’85), Crouch
Subs Not Used: Cudicini, Diop, Bentley, Kranjcar
Booked: None
Goals: None

Arsenal: Almunia, Sagna, Clichy, Gallas, Vermaelen, Song, Moutinho, Fabregas (Nasri ’72), Arshavin, Walcott (Vela ’54), Van Persie (Eduardo ’54)
Subs Not Used: Fabianski, N’Koulou, Senderos, Rosicky
Booked: None
Goals: Moutinho 9, Arshavin 84

Att: 36,310
Ref: Mike Jones

Man of the Match: Manuel Almunia (8.4 on for 90 minutes)

[shanghai_nobody]

Page last updated at 17:55 GMT, Saturday, 16 January 2010
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FABREGAS CONTINUES FINE FORM WITH A BRACE

West Ham are a side who under Gianfranco Zola have attempted to play football, today they were destroyed by a team who can play beautiful free flowing football. Arsenal ran out easy winners at the Emirates today with Cesc Fabregas running the show.

Robin Van Persie returned to goalscoring ways after 35 minutes, the goal resulted in a poor West Ham clearance. Song quickly headed the weak clearance into the box, Arshavin showed some magic to chip it over his marker the ball looped over Upson and the West Ham backline, Van Persie was first to react and smashed the chipped ball on the volley straight into the net from point blank range.

Arsenal seemed to toy with the visitors for the duration of this match, West Ham just could not keep up. They were chasing the ball constantly but it seemed to allude them at all points, Arsenal found it all too easy to exploit the space afforded to them. Come the second half the toying was over as the Gunners went in for the kill with a Fabregas brace.

The Spanish maestro smashed in two lovely long range efforts to sink the Hammers in the second half. Fifteen minutes from time West Ham were opened once again. Van Persie pulled the strings as he moved out onto the left wing onto an Aaron Ramsey pass. The West Ham backline were guilty of school boy errors as two players hounded the Dutchman down on the wing, Fabregas as he so often does sprinted into the space afforded and Van Persie slipped him the ball for a first time low drive into the near post. A cool and composed finish from the captain.

As the match came to a close Fabregas pounced again, by this point a dejected West Ham were all over the place. It was almost a carbon copy again as Van Persie drifted with the ball out to the left wing, this time he found Fabregas just outside the box. The Spaniard took a touch before curling in a stunning shot to the faraway post, a sublime finish.

The only surprise was that West Ham managed to escape with a 3-0 defeat, the visitors were abject today and were pummelled from start to finish. Zola will have no doubt been looking on with envy, watching Arsenal play the way he dreams his side could.

“We were fired up today, we are in the business end of the season. With the lead we have the title is ours to throw away, every win takes us one step closer to the dream of winning the league.” Cesc Fabregas said after the match as he picked up his man of the match award.

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Arsenal: Almunia, Sagna, Clichy, Gallas, Vermaelen, Song, Moutinho (Ramsey ’45), Fabregas, Arshavin (Nasri ’45), Walcott (Eduardo ’60), Van Persie
Subs Not Used: Fabianski, Senderos, Feghouli, Vela
Booked: None
Goals: Van Persie 35, Fabregas 75, 88

West Ham: Green, Behrami (Spector ’73), Ilunga, Tomkins, Upson, Noble, Parker, Collison, Johansson, Matejovsky, France
Subs Not Used: Kurucz, Kovac, Faubert, Diamanti, Ball, Gabbidon
Booked: None
Goals: None

Att: 60,361
Ref: Martin Atkinson

Man of the Match: Cesc Fabregas (8.7 on for 90 minutes)

[shanghai_nobody]

Page last updated at 17:55 GMT, Wednesday, 20 January 2010
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CITY DUMP ARSENAL OUT OF CARLING CUP

A full strength Arsenal squad were out tonight and the same for City. The match provided a four goal spectacle and ultimately the departure of Arsenal from the Carling Cup.

It was a ponderous match, Arsenal took the lead twice only to be pegged back twice but it seems as if Cook was happy to see his team draw and go out rather than suffer another defeat. The Scotsman has already stated the Carling Cup was at the back of his mind.

Two minutes in and Robin Van Persie put his side in front, Arshavin jinked out to the left his cross seen a comical flop from Given who attempted to come and claim the ball only for Van Persie to beat him to the punch. As the Dutchman was nodding the ball into the net Given was left flapping at thin air.

Lescott levelled the scores ten minutes later, City were clearly keen to win and showed this desire throughout the 90 minutes while Arsenal seemed to be cantering through a training match.

A Stephen Ireland cross was met by Lescott who easily lost his marker, Senderos was left watching as the England centre back smashed in a powerful header. The Swiss defender was swiftly given a few angry words on the touchline from Cook.

Before the break Arsenal took the lead once more, a neat one two between the Russian and Arsenal captain Fabregas opened some space for Arsenal in the City half. Arshavin whipped the ball out to the left for Clichy to latch onto, his cross to the back post was met perfectly by a tap in volley from the Russian to put Arsenal ahead in away goals.

Pablo Zabaleta scored the goal that secured Manchester City a place in the Carling Cup final against biggest rivals United. Maxi Rodriguez jinked his way down the right wing, his low driven cross should have been stopped by Almunia but the Spaniard fumbled the ball and Zabaleta was left with an open goal to pass the ball into.

Come the full time whistle City were celebrating and Arsenal marched off to a hearty handshake from their manager, “This match was the least of our problems, at the weekend we have a FA cup fixture and of course our main focus is the league. We would have liked to go to the Carling Cup final but now we can focus on other things.” Cook said after the match.

His opposite number Mark Hughes spoke out, “It’s going to be a great final. A derby between us and Manchester United will be great viewing and really help the profile of Carling Cup. We’re looking forward to the match and a chance to secure the first silverware of the season.”

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Manchester City: Given, Zabaleta (Kompany ’89), Lescott, Richards, Bridge, Wright-Phillips (Onuoha ’45), Rodriguez, de Jong, Ireland, Adebayor (Bellamy ’45), Robinho
Subs Not Used: Taylor, Denilson, Sylvinho, Mee
Booked: Rodriguez, de Jong
Goals: Lescott 12, Zabaleta 70

Arsenal: Almunia, Sagna, Clichy, Senderos, Gallas, Veloso, Moutinho (Nasri ’72), Fabregas, Arshavin, Vela (Walcott ’66), Van Persie
Subs Not Used: Fabianski, Vermaelen, Eduardo, Gibbs, Ramsey
Booked: None
Goals: Van Persie 2, Arshavin 44

Att: 47,405
Ref: Howard Webb

Man of the Match: Pablo Zabaleta (8.1 on for 90 minutes)

[shanghai_nobody]

Page last updated at 17:55 GMT, Saturday, 23 January 2010
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ARSENAL SQUEEZE BY STOKE IN CUP

After being ditched out of the Carling Cup Arsenal would be looking to win today to see themselves through to the 5th round of the FA Cup. They didn’t make things easy for themselves but eventually ran out victors with a scoreline that flattered Stoke.

Sagna gave the home side the lead with an own goal, the right back could do little to stop the ball deflecting off him and into his own net. Whelan whipped in a cross that Fuller met with a header, Veloso attempted to block it only for the ball to bounce off his knee and hit Sagna who marked the back post and into the net.

Perhaps fuelled by revenge it was Sagna who levelled the scores with a stunning long range effort. All of 40 yards out the French left back spotted Sorensen off his line and launched a vicious dipping shot that smashed straight into the top corner, great vision from Sagna to get his team back into the match.

Minutes later the visitors took the lead from a stunning Fabregas shot, the Spaniard has made scoring just outside the box his forte in recent matches. Again he found the ball at his feet 20 yards out and swung in a stunning curling shot that Sorensen had no chance of getting to. Clearly he didn’t want to be outdone by Sagna’s effort.

As the hour mark came a place in the next round was all but secured for Arsenal. A swift counter attack was finished by Eduardo, Fabregas played an inch perfect pass into the Croatian strikers path. Despite his lack of first team action and poor performances his first touch was to drill it low across Sorensen and into his opposite corner, a return to the old Eduardo.

Senderos was deemed to have fouled Ricardo Fuller with minutes to spare, closer inspection looks like Fuller dived before the Swiss man touched him. Either way the result was the same as the ref pointed to the spot. Higginbotham drilled the resulting penalty low into the right corner, Almunia was desperately close as the ball skimmed his fingers as it made its way into the net.

The scoreline was flattering to Stoke, an unlucky series of deflections resulted in their first goal and the second was arguably not a penalty. In the end Arsenal will be happy with a victory that sees them marching further on in the FA Cup.

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Stoke: Sorensen, Wilkinson, Dickinson, Faye, Shawcross, Tuncay (Lawrence ’73), Pugh (Higginbotham ’56), Diao, Whelan, Beattie (Sidibe ’62), Fuller
Subs Not Used: Simonsen, Huth, Collins, Griffin
Booked: None
Goals: Sagna OG 26, Higginbotham pen 87

Arsenal: Almunia, Sagna, Clichy, Gallas, Vermaelen (Senderos ’75), Veloso, Ramsey, Fabregas, Arshavin (Nasri ’64), Eduardo, Van Persie (Babacar ’64)
Subs Not Used: Fabianski, Gibbs, Moutinho, Bendtner
Booked: Gallas, Vermaelen, Senderos
Goals: Sagna 38, Fabregas 41, Eduardo 61

Att: 27,500
Ref: Andre Marriner

Man of the Match: Cesc Fabregas (8.1 on for 90 minutes)

[shanghai_nobody]

Page last updated at 17:55 GMT, Tuesday, 26 January 2010
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NASRI HELPS BRUSH BURNLEY ASIDE

Arsenal were back to the serious business of the Premier League, it has clearly become the new managers main target. In their previous fixture in the FA Cup, Aaron Ramsey was given a start along with Khouma Babacar coming off the bench to garner some rare first team playing time. But today was his strongest starting eleven that ran a riot over visitors Burnley.

The first half only yielded one goal and it was again the Arsenal captain who scored, Cesc Fabregas is enjoying his most productive season in terms of goals.

It was a rare headed goal for the Arsenal captain, Arshavin swung in a pin point corner from the right and Fabregas bustled with Carlisle before beating him to the ball on the six yard line, what Fabregas lacked in height he made up for with conviction, Carlisle simply could not marshal the Spaniard.

After the opener Burnley managed to repel the free flowing football of Arsenal until the hour mark, after that the floodgates opened and Arsenal scored another three goals in the remaining half hour. The turning point was the introduction of Samir Nasri, while Cook likes the Frenchman the form of Arshavin has cut down his first team chances.

Within two minutes of coming off the bench Nasri set up Arshavin for the second who moved up front before getting a brace of his own. A patient build up led to a delightful through ball from Nasri for Arshavin who peeled away from his marker, clean through on goal the Russian rounded the keeper before passing it into the net.

Nasri bagged his first goal with a memorable freekick, his vicious strike from 35 yards out smashed into the top left hand corner. Penny managed to get a finger tip to the ball which is a compliment given the pace of the strike but the Burnley keeper could not halt the inevitable as it found its way into the top corner.

The second goal was gifted to Nasri by some poor Burnley defending, as Burnley cleared a cross Eckersley was the only man at the back not to rush forward. Veloso headed the ball back into the area with Eckersley keeping Nasri on side and with just the keeper to beat, like Arshavin before, he rounded Penny to complete a torrid day for Burnley as Arsenal went four goals in front.

Arsenal played like consummate champions in the making, they destroyed Burnley who failed to create a clear cut chance, instead they were left with lacklustre long shots that never troubled Almunia. If it wasn’t for the woodwork then Arsenal would have enhanced their lead by another two goals, “This is kind of result only happens when you don’t get complacent. We are pushing for the title and every point counts, we giving everything we have against everyone.” Cook said today, it seems the title is now Arsenal’s to lose.

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Arsenal: Almunia, Sagna, Clichy, Gallas, Vermaelen, Veloso, Moutinho (Ramsey ’72), Fabregas, Arshavin, Vela (Eduardo ’58), Van Persie (Nasri ’58)
Subs Not Used: Fabianski, Senderos, Gibbs, Walcott
Booked: Veloso
Goals: Fabregas 7, Arshavin 62, Nasri 72, 80

Burnley: Penny, Duff, Carlisle, Easton, Eagles (Jordan ’45), Brennan (Eckersley ’62), Edgar, Alexander, McCann, Blake, Fletcher (Thompson ’72)
Subs Not Used: Jensen, Elliot, Mears, van der Schaaf
Booked: None
Goals: None

Att: 58,299
Ref: Alan Wiley

Man of the Match: Samir Nasri (8.7 on for 32 minutes)