Arsenal were at times very close to our brilliant best against a hard working, determined and in form Burnley side. Despite Arsene Wenger making a whole host of changes to the Gunners starting line up, he was not taking this FA cup fourth round tie lightly and with a bit of luck we would have won it by a big margin.
Once more, though, Arsenal did not seem to get the rub of the green and along with the odd misplaced final ball that meant that the game was a lot closer than it should have been. But it was a positive performance as well as the right result and we also saw some valuable time for players like Elneny, Coquelin, Chambers and Gibbs.
Arsenal started well and could easily have been over the hill and far away by the time Calum Chambers found a fantastic finish to an Alexis Sanchez through ball and a sweeping team move to open the scoring after 19 minutes. We were passing the visitors off the park but we had also looked a bit nervous at the back and that came back to hurt us after half an hour.
Failure to clear the ball a few times and then a free header for Vokes gave Burnley an unlikely leveller and for a while they looked like they might cause an upset but we rallied and really should have been ahead before the break. It took less than 10 minutes after the restart, though, and just like the first it was a brilliant team goal, Alexis providing the finish this time to a cross by the excellent Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Apart from one last ditch Koscielny clearance and a bit of late kitchen sink stuff from Burnley we did not have too much to worry about at one end and we really should have finished a few more at the other, especially when Walcott was in on goal in the dying seconds, but all in all this was just what Arsenal needed.