Arsenal:
         Lehmann
 Lauren Toure Senderos Clichy
Ljungberg Vieira Flamini Pires
      Reyes Bergkamp

We scored just a couple of minutes in, with our first attack and after Bolton had been pressing us well from the kick off. There was probably a foul by Bergkamp in the build up, but the ref didn't give it and the ball fell to Pires. He spotted Freddie's storming run from the right, and passed forward towards the space in the box on the left. Jaaskelainen came out well but Freddie got there just ahead of him and clipped the ball over the keeper and just inside the far post.

Just a few minutes later, Bolton pressed the self-destruct button, or rather El Hadji Diouf did. They had a couple of possible pantly claims as the ball was played into our box. First Toure jumped for the ball and could have been judged to have been climbing over Kevin Davies as he went up, but the ref saw nothing wrong, probably helped in that decision by the fact that Davies didn't appear to make any effort to jump for the ball himself. Then Diouf flopped to the ground himself, under challenge, and may have been fouled but this time possibly it was the fact that the ease with which he went down looked to be out of line with whatever contact there was between him and the defender that helped the ref see it our way. As Arsenal broke, the ref blew for a foul on Flamini, and Diouf went a bit beserk. He was approaching the ref when Lehmann jogged out of his 6 yard box to have a word, and Diouf flung a hand at his face. The commentators on the BBC seemed to think that Lehmann was probably trying to calm him down, but it's hard to see why they were so sure of that when it could just as easily have been something provocative that Lehmann said. But anyway, Diouf's reaction was a clear red card offence: the linesman had a good view of it and the ref had no choice.

Bolton have a habit of making it very hard for us with their physical game, but if you're going to play that way you do need to be able to keep your cool. So it's hard to see why Allardyce wanted him. What a contrast with for example Sheffield United, who were physical with Arsenal but were happy to keep their heads and watch Arsenal lose theirs...

Not that Bolton's (remaining) heads went down. They kept threatening with set pieces one of which fell to Nolan near the edge of the box who tried a bicycle kick which was deflected but thankfully straight at Lehmann.

Pires played a great deep ball into Vieira's path as he made a run for the box but his touch was a touch strong and although he appeared to have managed to stop it on the goal-line it just carried over.

Then a cross from the left drew too many defenders to the near post and carried through off a head to the middle of the goal where Setlios attacked it well with his head, forcing a point blank save from Lehmann. A through ball came through to Lehmann with Davies trying to get there but possibly being impeded by Senderos from behind, but again he went down a touch easy.

Reyes brought the ball into the box from the right wing and after a neat 1-2 with Bergkamp in the D he found space for a narrow-angled shot which Jaaskelainen saved well with his legs as he came out.

Lehmann had to get down to make a save by his right foot, from another strong Stelios header.

But Arsenal were starting to dominate, with Bolton getting everyone behind the ball but letting us play. Bergkamp hit a decent drive which gave Jaaskelainen no problem. The there was a great move involving a 1-2 betwen Flamini and Ljungberg on the right and ending with a low drive from Lauren on the edge of the box which forced the keeper into a good save.

Flamini got away with a foul in the centre circle and the ball broke for Pires. His good run ended with him going down in the box and being booked for diving. It looked there had been some contact but probably not that much, Bobby.

In first half injury time Clichy did really well skipping along the goalline and forcing a corner. From the left, Reyes played it infield to Pires who passed it along to Bergkamp and his low shot was saved on the line.

Early in the second half there was a scary moment from, inevitably, a set play. A long free kick into the crowded box managed to evade everyone and pass out of play beyond the goal. A striker went down under pressure from Lauren near the far post but they were both just running for the ball. Bolton put a bit of pressure on for a while, encouraged by the fact that Lehmann looked to be having trouble with the sun in his eyes.

But we broke through Bergkamp who fed Reyes on the left. He cut in to the edge of the box and hit a great strike which was stopped only by a top class diving save to Jaaskelainin's left.

Stelios got behind Clichy a bit easily as a high ball came in, and directed a looping header inside the far post which Lehmann saved brilliantly, although it wouldn't have been a goal anyway as we'd been awarded a free kick, probably for a little push on Clichy which perhaps excuses his allowing Stelios the header.

Freddie had a decent chance to make it 2 with 15 minutes to go. Reyes had done well to win the corner and took it short to Dennis. His low cross found Freddie on the near side of the box and he hit a first time shot on the turn but got right under it. Moments later Clichy went on a terrific run in a move that started with his own interception deep in our half. It was played via Flamini and Pires in the middle of the pitch and on to Clichy's overlapping run. He beat his man on the touchline and cut it back to give Reyes a good chance to score, but he too hit it high.

Flamini was chasing the ball as it went out of play just inside the Arsenal half, and foolishly tried to back-heel it infield before it went out. But Gardner was right behind him and collected the ball before taking it past Flamini. Flamini must have thought he was playing Ireland today because he hauled Gardner down with a (quite good) rugby tackle, and was rightly booked. Funny though.

Pires and Ljungberg kept the ball really well under much pressure on the right wing. It was played back to Vieira who ran at the box before being cynically blocked by Jaidi. Bergkamp took the free kick and Jaaskelainin pulled off another top save as the the ball was flying into the net high to his right.

As the game drew towards the end, the 10 men of Bolton started looking tired, and Arsenal capitalised with some nice patient possession play. Lauren got angry after a late tackle by Stelios, and got himself booked for grabbing the Bolton man's shirt. Stelios was probably lucky himself though, as he was already on a yellow and probably deserved another one here too.

Arsenal hit them on the break again at the end, Vieira feeding Reyes who played it on to Bergkamp in the box. His first touch popped up a bit and Jaaskelainen did well to come out quick and force Dennis to try to to reach up and hook it goalwards, and the keeper managed to get a touch to put it out for a corner.

There was still time for one of the misses of all time, after another period of terrific patient time-soaking build up. Bergkamp played it to Pires overlapping on the left. Freddie was all alone in the box but Bobby skipped past his defender before pulling it across the box for him, thereby pulling the keeper towards him a bit more and giving Freddie the best possible chance with an open goal from 6 yards out. It probably bobbled but, really, how could he miss? Must have been celebrating it in his mind a bit too early and taken his eye off it, and somehow Freddie hit it over the bar. Anyway, it was the final act of the game.

So Arsenal go through to meet Man Utd, Blackburn, or Newcastle in Cardiff in April. Two teams looking to salvage an otherwise (and disappointingly) trophyless season, Alan Shearer looking to win something for his retirement, and errr Blackburn (who went through on Sunday thanks to a Paul Dickov penalty). Note that the home game against Everton, scheduled for April 16th, will have to be rearranged.

Arsenal will extend their record to 25 FA Cup semis, with Man Utd keeping track just one behind us. Not that anyone's counting.