Well we've certainly found our shooting boots again and not only did we score another three goals we scored three very, very good goals.

The first came from Carlos Vela who broke through the Burnley defence, held off their attempts to pull him back and finished with a beautiful chip to make it 1-0. He does like that kind of finish, doesn't he?

The second goal was truly a thing of beauty. Alex Song clipped a ball over the defence and Eduardo quite deliberately finished with the heel of his left foot and put it in the top corner to make it 2-0. I don't think I've ever seen a finish quite like that, amazing. It's fantastic to see how quickly he's got back into the goalscoring groove since his return from the injury.

Arsene Wenger called it a 'beach goal'. That he even thought about doing that, let alone actually being able to pull it off, was just incredible. Certainly our goal of the season so far, and up there with anything that's been scored by anyone else. The manager also praised the character of the Crozilian, saying:

I didn't expect him to come back like that, it's a tribute to his personality. He's never complained and that is a big example in our world.

I know you can't pin everything on one player but it's hard not to think we'd have at least kept the fight for the title alive much longer last season had he been fit. You think of that series of draws and his ability to pop up with a goal might have been decisive. Oh well. It's good to have him back now. 

The third goal was like being in some magic-reverso land. An Alex Song back-heel into the path of Emmanuel Eboue who rifled it into the bottom corner. 3-0 Arsenal and the goal coming from a most unlikely combination. I'm not sure about the dancing celebration but the goal won't do him any harm at all.

Arsenalist has the goals.

There should have been more goals too. Off the top of my head I remember a great chance for van Persie when Theo (welcome back!) clipped it to the far post but he completely missed the ball. Eduardo showed he's fallible by heading one wide when right in front of goal, Theo had a one on one saved and the linesman gave Theo offside when he clearly wasn't in a move that should have resulted in a goal.

So overall we can be happy with the way we played, they really didn't offer much as an attacking threat and in terms of a warm-up for Roma on Wednesday it's sure to be a good confidence boost. There were some positive individual performances. That was probably the best game Alex Song has ever had for Arsenal and it's good to see. All the same I'd like to see more of that from him and against better opposition.

He deserves credit for the fine shift he put in yesterday but let's remember it's just one game. It was good to see Theo Walcott back too. I'm not sure about his Carlton from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air moustache but he set up a chance for van Persie and could have scored himself. A positive return.

So we go into the 6th round where we'll face Hull at home. Win that and we'll play Chelsea in the semi-final at Wembley. Tasty.

Afterwards Arsene Wenger said:

We did the job in a serious way. Before going to Roma it is good that we didn’t concede and we scored.

Tue dat. And while Burnley were poor, surprisingly poor I have to say, you can only beat what's in front of you. We scored goals, made plenty of chances, and the confidence will continue to grow on the back of that, I'm sure.

However, it almost goes without saying that Roma is going to be a much more difficult task on Wednesday night. They obviously have better players, they're at home, and while they do have some injuries they're going to be a lot better than Burnley were.

Anyway, there's plenty of time in the next few days to preview that game. Today is a day for watching replays of Eduardo's goal over and over. 

Till tomorrow. 

Morning all. A quick Sunday round-up for you.

Today is the first of two huge games inside 4 days. Our hopes of silverware this season depend on them and hopefully we'll still be in two competitions come Thursday morning.

We start today with the FA Cup 5th round game against Burnley. I think everything that needs to be said about the game has been said already. We know they're a decent team and although the personnel will be different from the Carling Cup game we need to perform because they'll be right up for this one.

If we win this game we have a 6th round tie with Hull lined up, and should that prove successful then we go into the semi-finals. Man United and Chelsea have already qualified, to be joined later by one of Everton and Boro so it's shaping up to be quite a tasty tournament.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves though, keep focussed on today and do the business until the fat lady sings and the game of two halves is over. And such.

Other than that it's interviews to fill the blog this morning. First up is a fantastic piece in the Observer in which Amy Lawrence talks to Robin van Persie. He comes across as a great guy, desperate for Arsenal to do well, almost like a fan. He says:

My ambitions are very, very high and, I think, realistic. I want to be at a level where, as a club, we are winning things, not just every four or five years, but one or two trophies each year. That's what I think this club has in its pocket.

Can't fault his ambition, that's for sure. Go read the rest yourself. I now love him a little bit more.

Next up Nicklas Bendtner in the Independent:

I know what I can do and the people that know me know that I don't come across as arrogant. I have a lot of self-belief and I don't think you could play at this level without belief [in yourself], that's true for every footballer really.

And a video interview with Andrei Arshavin from the BBC's Football Focus.

Arsene Wenger talks about security and the potential for terrorist attacks at football matches, in the wake of what happened in Pakistan to the Sri Lanka cricket team. It really doesn't bear thinking about.

And that's really about that. Kick off today is 1.30 so there's not too long to hang about the house and wait for my hangover to recede.

Come on Arsenal. More tomorrow.

So the Carling Cup adventure is over for another season after a 2-0 defeat to Burnley at Turf Moor last night.

The youngsters (and Sylvester) were found wanting at the back and up front and they were beaten by a hungry home side who can add our scalp to the one of Chelsea. The difference is, of course, that we played our young players, Chelsea had more or less their first team out.

Kevin McDonald was the hero for Burnley, scoring both the goals. Mark Randall will look at replays of both of them and be less than happy with his contribution. He failed to track him for the first and was out-muscled in the area for the second. But we had chances and the forwards didn't take them. Bendtner in particular had a very poor game and his attitude and lazy style, if it is a style and not just pure laziness, is very frustrating. He might be part of the first team squad but that doesn't mean he doesn't have to put the effort in when he plays in the Carling Cup.

The Burnley keeper, Brian Jensen, made a number of good saves to keep us at bay. You wonder how different things might have been had Bendtner scored with that early chance, just a minute or so before Burnley scored. But it just wasn't our night in front of goal.

Arsene Wenger said afterwards:

If you have six one-on-ones with the keeper and do not score, you have to question the qualification. You praise the goalkeeper and question the strikers.

He cut a frustrated figure on the sidelines as we saw them chase the game in the second half. Too many of the little flicks didn't come off, some of the passing, despite our possession was careless, and in and around the box the final ball just didn't happen on too many occasions. He said:

We had the potential to go through and we lost tonight against the least difficult team of the three we played. That is what young players learn. In football it is efficiency and focus from the first minute on and when you don't have the right focus you pay for it.

It's a tough lesson all right. For a lot of these players their involvement in first team football is over for the season now. Perhaps we might see some of them in the FA Cup but I'm hoping that's a competition we take seriously this season as it provides a good chance of silverware.

But nights like last night will happen with young players. They can be brilliant one game and have a complete off-night the next. I think what will have registered with the manager is the application, or lack of it, shown by one or two. It's a shame to go out as I do enjoy the Carling Cup as a competition but these lads have provided us with two of the most enjoyable nights of the season so far, the Sheffield United and Wigan games were fantastic, and they deserve great credit for that.

That Sky were talking about Burnley's win over us as a bigger achievement than beating Chelsea tells you how well the Carling Cup Arsenal is regarded. Still, there's no shame in going out of the Carling Cup to a decent Burnley side and with better finishing we might well have won.

So now the focus turns back to the league and Wigan on Saturday. We'll preview that game over the next couple of days.

Not much else happening really. There's some stuff about Patrick Vieira talking about how Roy Keane was his toughest ever opponent but it's nothing we haven't heard before, really. Anyone else think Keane with his beard looks like Harrison Ford at the start of the Fugitive? Just me them, ok.

The Mirror reports that Jay Simpson is to sign a new deal with the club. I suspect it was his little 'tache that swayed things.

So how about a little competition to take your minds off last night's defeat? I have three copies of the book Arsènal: The Making of a Modern Super-Club by Kevin Witcher (The Gooner) and Alex Fynn. Not just any old copies though. These are signed. By Arsene Wenger.

Not too shabby, eh? To win just answer the very simple question.

Before Arsene came to manage Arsenal he was the manager of a Japanese side. Was it:

a) Kendo Nagasaki b) Grampus Eight c) Ninja Antlers

Answers to book@arseblog.com, if you please. You have until Thursday night and the Random Number Generator will pick the three winners for Friday morning. If you don't win you can still buy the book at a discounted price by going here and using the code 'rocky' at check-out.

Right, that's that. Have a good day. More tomorrow.

Good morning all,

there's so much going on these day there's barely time to think. Following Sunday's game against Chelsea we have another one tonight. This time it's Carling Cup action against Burnley, the team who knocked Chelsea out in the last round.

It's another chance for some of the young players to show what they're made of. Arsene Wenger says we'll see Silvestre, Vela, Bendtner and Fabianski while the likes of Wilshere, Ramsey (who talks here about how much he's improved since joining the club), Gibbs and Merida will all probably be involved. It's another decent test for the lads on what's sure to be a freezing cold night at Turf Moor.

We have played them recently, a 2-0 win in the FA Cup last season, but after beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge they won't be afraid. The full squad should be released later this morning. Martin Keown and Bob Wilson look over some of our young English talent on the BBC.

Update: Here's the full squad. Looks like it might Sylvester + Rodgers at centre-half. 

After the win against Chelsea Cesc has reiterated the manager's words about how the team needs to focus for every game. He says:

We showed a different attitude and that is what we want to do from now on. We have shown we can do it, to beat the big teams, so we can have no excuse with not doing it against the rest of the teams.

No arguments here with regard to that. Emmanuel Adebayor believes Sunday's result sends a message to the rest of the teams in the league:

People wrote us off in the Premier League and now, we've sent out a message to every team that we believe in ourselves and we can do something. We forget about all that happened. We are always together.

The proof of whether the lessons have been learned or not will come on Saturday when we play Wigan at home. For every high this season there seems to have been a low and in December the only thing you want lowing are cattle, although not if you have a baby because they'll wake him up.

Meanwhile Robin van Persie has played down any talk of him being the one William Gallas's barbed comments were aimed at last week. When asked if it was him, he said:

Are you suggesting that William was talking about me? I don't know that, because he never told me anything and I didn't see my name in the papers, so I never felt that he was speaking about me. For me, there isn't a problem.

Which is fair enough. And at this point does it really matter who it was? It's all water under the bridge now anyway. And it was Eboue, according to a phone call left on the Arsecast hotline yesterday. So there you go.

I wonder in the entire existence of Arseblog how many times we've been linked with a transfer move for Yaya Toure. It must be close to a hundred at this stage. The Sun doesn't let us down with talk of a €6m deal in January. He's not getting his game at Barcelona though so maybe he'd fit the bill for a January transfer.

Away from Arsenal, Arseblog has been nominated for 'best podcast' and 'best community' over at the Soccerlens awards. So feel free to go and vote. For Arseblog. I should make that clear as this site is populated by smart arses.

And if you're a Twitter user, Arseblog, with almost some Arsenal content (mostly during games), can be found here.

So that's about it. I'm looking forward to tonight's game, even though I'll have to record it and watch it later. After the stress and pressure of Chelsea it's nice to be able to just sit back and enjoy the football. Come on the kids. Erm ... I mean ... COME ON ARSENAL!

Till tomorrow.