Alexander spot-on as Gunners fail to fire

ARSENAL showed that if they had turned a corner with their gritty win at Liverpool, it was straight into a cul-de-sac, as they buckled and threw away a chance to keep touch in the title race by giving away a great position at Turf Moor.

A little like Liverpool were at Anfield, they were in complete control and deservedly a goal up through Cesc Fabregas only for Graham Alexander to level from the spot and open up a game that the hosts could easily have won.

Arsene Wenger was adamant his team will win the title after their victory at the weekend but just three days later, that bullish prediction was already looking a little silly.

Burnley wasted no time in showing Arsenal could be unnerved, with Chris Eagles swinging in a free-kick from the left, picking out Clarke Carlisle, whose looping header was helped on by Thomas Vermaelen and pushed on to the bar by Manuel Almunia before Bakari Sagna hacked clear.

Shortly after, the hosts showed up one of the holes in Owen Coyle’s flexible formation, with lone forward Steven Fletcher doing well down the left and sending a decent cross into a deserted area.

But, with six minutes gone, Fabregas took full advantage of hesitation at the back to give Arsenal an early lead. Kevin McDonald and then Andre Bikey took an age to clear and Fabregas was straight onto the opportunity, holding off Carlisle with quick feet before prodding low into the corner of Brian Jensen’s net for his tenth goal of the campaign.

The Arsenal captain could have doubled the lead just a couple of minutes later as he lifted the ball over Bikey and burst into the area only to hit a shot into the side netting, and Vermaelen was also encouraged enough to run 50 yards unchallenged before sending a low drive wide of Jensen’s goal.

Though the visitors were completely in charge, they still looked troubled by balls into the area, with another Eagles set-piece finding Fletcher unmarked at the far post only for the Scotland forward to lift his header over.

But soon Andrei Arshavin was determined not to be left out and he raced onto Samir Nasri’s flick and hit an early shot that deceived Jensen but bounced away off the foot of the post.

Arsenal, though, seemed to be finding it a little too easy and should have been clear by the time Stephen Jordan picked out Bikey in the area and the Cameroon midfielder went down under Vermaelen’s stupid challenge.

At 38, Alexander has experience on his side and thumped the resulting spot kick straight down the middle to score a 100th league goal of his career and convert his 70th penalty from 74 attempts.

Nasri missed with a wild drive and Arshavin stung Jensen’s gloves with a trade-mark cannon of a shot with little back-lift.

Further frustration came for Wenger a couple of minutes before half-time when Fabregas had to be replaced by Aaron Ramsey after he looked to have injured his shoulder in a challenge with Bikey.

But shortly before the break Mikael Silvestre’s cross found Arshavin, who was denied by Jensen’s low save and after Burnley failed to clear the corner that followed, Nasri’s cross was met by Vermaelen and pushed off in spectacular fashion by Burnley’s goalkeeper.

There was little improvement after the restart as Arsenal almost let themselves down at the back yet again. William Gallas’s slack clearance allowed Bikey to steal the ball from Vermaelen only to scuff his shot straight to Almunia.

The visitors were growing increasingly anxious and Theo Walcott exacerbated that feeling when he was on the end of a flowing passing move but fired a shot straight into the stand.

Burnley continued to threaten and Eagles saw a shot crash against the post after he beat Silvestre and Nasri before Fletcher fired wide from a Bikey cross from the left.

Former Hibernian forward Fletcher even had the ball in the net but was ruled to have moved offside before Kevin McDonald could pick him out at the far post with a drilled cross.

Eduardo had earlier failed to show the strength to win a ball from Jensen that should have been his but finally threatened with a curling free kick that the Dane just kept out of his top corner.

BURNLEY (4-1-4-1): Jensen; Mears, Carlisle, Caldwell, Jordan; Alexander; Elliott, Bikey (Gudjonsson 70), McDonald, Eagles (Blake 83); Fletcher (Nugent 83).

ARSENAL (4-4-1-1): Almunia; Sagna, Gallas, Vermaelen, Silvestre; Walcott (Eduardo 64), Song, Diaby, Nasri; Fabregas (Ramsey 43); Arshavin.

Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral).