BURNLEY’S convincing win over Derby has left manager Owen Coyle confident that his players are gunning for Arsenal.

The Clarets boss was delighted with the manner in which they disposed of Derby County in preparation for tomorrow night’s Carling Cup showdown with Arsene Wenger’s young side at Turf Moor.

And Coyle believes Saturday’s 3-0 win makes for an even more mouth-watering contest.

“I’d said to the players, we’ve got a massive game on Tuesday with the quarter-final of the Carling Cup against Arsenal, but it was important that we went into that game on a positive note,” said the Burnley boss.

“We can look forward to the game now. I think it would have been bitter sweet if we hadn’t, so the fact that we have it sets us up.”

Martin Paterson returned to the starting line-up for the first time in six league games to add to Kevin McDonald’s early opener with a second consecutive brace.

And Coyle is delighted that his decision to rest his leading scorer for the past month has reaped such rewards.

“I said at the time I felt he’d lost his touch of sharpness. He was still working his socks off but (on Saturday) he was doing it with purpose; the sharpness and the edge he had to his game,” said the Clarets boss.

“I felt that level of edge was missing, and we’d players obviously champing at the bit to come in and they were as fresh as a daisy – Robbie Blake and Chris Eagles at that time.

“At this stage of the season a lot has been asked of him, given that he’s led the line for ourselves and been away on international duty three times.

“There’s been really no let-up or days off to recover.

“I know how fit my group of lads are; we test them every four or five weeks to make sure the levels are what we want them to be, because the way we play we want them to have a high level and high pace in the game.

“He’d had no opportunity really to rest up, but Pato’s come back in and showed that he’s back to everything that we know he’s capable of, and then some.

“One of the reasons I brought him to the club was that I felt I could improve him and make him a bigger asset for our football club and improve our team.

“He’ll tell you, there’s not a day goes by that we don’t chat. We do take time to try to nurture him and bring him on.”

Of McDonald, who marked his return to the starting line-up after over two months with his first goal for Burnley, he added: “I’m delighted for him. He was only out of the team through injury and Joey (Gudjonsson) came in and performed terrificly and kept Kevin at bay.

“We get lucky with our decisions sometimes but we just felt it was the right day to bring Kevin back in.

“I’ve known he’s a goalscoring midfielder and it’s probably been a source of frustration for myself that it’s taken until now for his first goal.

“He has been a little bit stop-start with little niggles and injuries here and there, but the age he’s at he’s only going to get better.

“I think he’s looking more like a man by the day with the power and strength he has. When he runs with the ball, for a lad of 6ft 3ins he’s so elegant, and that augurs well for the future of the club.”

But Coyle admitted he feared thickening fog would force the game to be abandoned, after Burnley had established an early three-goal lead.

“After half an hour I was cursing the fog because you’re always thinking to yourself - certainly with the luck that we’ve had lately - that it could obviously conspire against you,” he said, “Fortunately it never turned out to be that way. I think Paul (Jewell) might have been blowing it in at that point, and if I was in his shoes I’d have been hoping for the fog myself and getting another bite of it.

“As it was it managed to stay playable and I’m absolutely delighted.”