Arsenal 2, Burnley 1: Gunners advance to 2015-16 FA Cup fifth round

It was a tale of two halves.

No, not the first and second half of the 90s minutes. It was a tale of the forward half of Arsenal's attacking formation who consistently peppered Burnley's defensive shell led by Alexis Sánchez and Alex Iwobi shadowing a suspect Arsenal defense headlined by Laurent Koscielny and Gabriel.

The lineups alone suggested this would be a relatively new affair for Arsenal with new signing Mohamed Elneny in front of a returning Francis Coquelin with Kieran Gibbs and Calum Chambers manning the fullback slots. It took a while for things to start clicking, but some nice interplay between Iwobi and Sanchez opened up space for Calum Chambers who calmly (and expertly) curled one across the goal to open the scoring.

But less than a dozen minutes later, some sloppy defending including a friendly fire challenge from Gibbs that took out Coquelin, opened up space for a cross that Sam Vokes snuck between Chambers and Gabriel to put away with relative ease.

Arsenal's attack would challenge Burnley into halftime and thereafter taking just eight minutes for Iwobi to feed Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who played across the box for Alexis to cleanly take on the half volley.

Sanchez would nearly notch a brace off of a free kick not long after, but Arsenal saw the game out. Mikel Arteta, Tomáš Rosický (!) and Theo Walcott all came on as second half subs with the latter of the three nearly able to add a late goal on a counter that left him one on one against Burnely goalkeeper Tom Heaton.

Arsenal's patchwork defensive effort was enough to see it out and will advance to the fifth round of the 2015-16 FA Cup.

The fifth-round draw will take place tomorrow, January 31. The round proper is schedule to take place on the weekend of February 20.