In the third round of the FA Cup this weekend the peasants met the landowners, upstairs made tea for downstairs and the proletariat spent 90 minutes with the the footballing bourgeoisie. This was a day that the wealthy and privileged met the so called riff-raff.

Truly there can be nothing like the FA Cup third round. For most of the year teams from every level of the footballing ladder slog their way through mud, rain and snow. From the prettiest local park in August to the British Gas Southern League Division One, football crosses all classes and boundaries.

On Saturday little Chasetown summed up everything the Cup stands for, performing wonders against Championship high-fliers Cardiff City. They were beaten 3-1 but the gulf between Them and Us couldn’t be detected. The 9-to-5 toilers had given their all against the upper crust of the Football League; the part-timers from the Staffordshire mines had pushed the professionals all the way.

‘Once Eduardo had given them the lead Arsenal found all those neat, geometric angles that other Premier League sides just can’t crack.’


Meanwhile, those swaggering Premier League fancy dans Arsenal wore their best dinner jackets and bow ties for the trip to Championship side Burnley.

Now there was a time when Burnley’s claret and blues were among the leading lights of football’s high society. In both the 1960s and 1970s Burnley loved mixing it with the big boys. In the old First Division Burnley were swanky show-stoppers with a twinkle in their eye. Martin Dobson, Dave Thomas, Leighton James and Steve Kindon were players from the top drawer. Dobson was the articulate playmaker who made the ball talk, Thomas was a slinky winger who later distinguished himself with Queens Park Rangers and Leighton James was all cunning on the other wing.

In the class of 2008, Burnley stretched every muscle against Arsenal but eventually received their comeuppance. After going a goal down to Brazilian-born Croat Eduardo, Burnley – managed by Owen Coyle – fought their way back into the game playing the kind of football Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger could only admire. They kept their passes on the grass with intricate triangles and the Gunners must have thought they were watching their mirror image.

There can be little argument about the style of Arsenal’s football. The likes of Gilberto, Denilson, Eduardo, Emmanuel Eboue and Kolo Toure string their passes together and move into damaging space, making the game seem stunningly simple. Once Eduardo had given them the lead Arsenal found all those neat, geometric angles that other Premier League sides just can’t crack. It was rather like watching a pinball machine in an amusement arcade.

After the Gunners had ensured their fourth round FA Cup place with a second goal from Nicklas Bendtner, the game was up for Burnley. This had not been a master class from the Arsenal foreign legion, more of a basic lesson. Burnley had been taught the brush strokes rather than the bigger picture. Still it was a classic Arsenal exhibition you’d pay good money to see again.