And then, amid a Turf Moor uproar of noise last night, Arsene Wenger's Arsenal wonder kids fell victim to Owen Coyle's rampant Clarets.

Burnley stormed into the semi-finals of the Carling Cup thanks to a brace by goal hero Kevin McDonald, but despite a tremendous performance by the young Scot, he was not the only Burnley hero.

Keeper Brian Jensen, the star of that dramatic penalty shoot out win at Stamford Bridge, produced a string of amazing saves to keep out Wenger's kids and force Gunners striker Nicklas Bendtner to beat the ground in sheer frustration.

But in truth, the Clarets had 11 heroes on a night which will go down as one of the most memorable of the many encounters to have graced the famous old ground.

Arsenal may have had a host of golden chances, enough indeed to have killed off the game had their finishing been up to it, but Burnley deserved their win.

Not only did they too create opportunities galore, but they passed the ball around as slickly as the visitors and more than matched their illustrious opponents for long periods.

You got the feeling it was going to be one of those nights when after just six minutes, Lukasz Fabianski could not hold a wicked low cross from Chris Eagles as Martin Paterson attempted to poke the ball in, and it broke to McDonald who calmly slotted into the gaping net to put the home side ahead.

The ground erupted and Arsenal, who only seconds earlier had almost scored themselves only for Jensen to deny Bendtner in a one-on-one, suddenly had a mountain to climb.

Burnley could have extended their lead through Paterson, but this time Fabianski was up to the task, and the Gunners then laid siege to the home goal in the closing minutes of the first half.

However, the nearest they came was when former Burnley loan man Mark Randall shot straight at Jensen, and his old colleagues made him pay as McDonald added a superb second 12 minutes after the break.

Eagles' quick throw caught out the visiting rearguard and McDonald ran onto the ball, outmuscled Randall and curled home sweetly.

To Arsenal's credit, they battled on and continued to play football, but the game began to slip away from them as the crowd sensed blood.

Paterson really should have made it three only to fail to get any power behind a point blank header.

Bendtner fluffed a glorious chance to set up a grandstand finish five minutes from time, and that was that, as the Clarets played out the closing seconds in an uproar of noise to book their spot in the last four.