TO BE fair, they were everything we knew they could be. And more.

They fizzed the ball around, all crispness, creativity and fluency.

Their off the ball movement was inventive and intelligent. And as a result, plenty of chances and openings were created.

Arsenal? Well they played their part too.

Okay, no one's suggesting that the Clarets passed the Gunners off the park.

But few and far between are the teams willing to take on the best passing side in the country at their own game and give them a genuine scare in the process.

Such a display of moral courage deserves enormous credit. It was also deserving of a replay.

Owen Coyle, who has made a habit of being honest in his post-match assessments, was his usual candid self after the game.

"We ecreated opportunities that should have resulted in goals.

We were always in the game.

We committed players forward and gave them a stern test.

The score flattered Arsenal and on another day we could have achieved a positive result."

As Coyle said, the opportunities should have resulted in goals.

The problem was that they didn't.

Lafferty's thunderous header, Gray's snap shot, Blake's effort and McCann's blast over; all four were presentable opportunities which needed to be despatched for a chance of an upset.

Arsenal didn't create any more chances than the Clarets.

The difference lay in the clinical nature of Eduardo and Bendtner's finishing, and an absence of pace at the heart of Burnley's back line.

The game's other key moment was Lafferty's dismissal.

Kyle is entitled to consider himself unfortunate.

Having overrun the ball, he slid in to win the resultant tackle.

Where he got unlucky was that in making the challenge his foot bounces off the top of the ball and up into Gilberto's shin.

There was no malice. There was no intent. But in the current climate which seems to put the sliding tackle on a par with criminal assault, Lafferty stood no chance.

On what was a proud afternoon to be a Claret, there was one dark cloud on the horizon.

The attendance of 16,709 to see arguably one of Europe's top sides visit the Turf was very disappointing.

The club's insistence of making non-season ticket holders buy tickets for another game in order to secure entry to the Arsenal game, backfired badly.

Let's hope lessons have been learnt.