An event of biblical proportions

However, it was going to take an event of biblical proportions to get anything from the Emirates - but when sacred symbols started creeping into the day, I had faith that a miracle could happen.

Simon Doyle reports from the Emirates

The day started with me encountering a `vicar' standing beside a cannon and was due to end in Angel later that night.

Ahead of the match some of us would have been forgiven had we prayed to St Jude - the patron saint of hopeless cases.

Then there was yet another church-like atmosphere, the match being played in the middle of Lent.

Burnley also managed to get away with the pioneering `12 disciples' formation, employing Nicklas Bendtner as an extra defender.

The Dane put on a defensive clinic - spurning attack after attack. When he was finally withdrawn, the Burnley fans, graciously, gave him a standing ovation.

Danny Fox - tortured by Theo Walcott

Had it not been for Bendtner's atrocious finishing, I may have stuck to my original plan to ignore the match and instead write about my weekend in London, having expected to be mauled by a rampant Arsenal.

The ever-impressive Cesc Fabregas opened the scoring, following an excellent pass by Samir Nasri. The goal left Graham Alexander and Brian Jensen arguing about whose fault it was, but really it was just a good goal.

Still at 1-0 down the miracle was still achievable and when Nugent equalised some of us believed `it's going to happen'.

In the pandemonium that followed Nugent's goal, one Irish fan that shall forever remain unnamed, lost his mobile phone.

The rest of the match was unsurprising. Arsenal attacked and attacked and attacked and finally it paid off. Our defence parted like the Red Sea to allow Theo Walcott the space to score the goal his performance deserved.

Some argued that Walcott should have walked after he took exception to a challenge by Danny Fox, but he stayed on and tortured our left back for the remainder of the game.

It could have, and should have, finished 7-1. We were somewhat upset that Arshavin's injury time goal took the gloss off a, by and large, good effort by Burnley, but realistically we should have been hammered.

While we played with passion, we are not as zealous as we were once this season. We still need that miracle if we want to stay in the top flight.

On the tube after the game I encountered a group of gloating Stockport County fans. Rather than turn the other cheek, I stooped to their level by asking them how many they lost by in their League 1 game at Charlton.

One of them admitted "I'd much rather be a Premier League laughing stock, than be where we are". Indeed.