Arsenal:
               Lehmann
       Lauren Toure Senderos Cole
 Ljungberg (Cesc 50) Vieira Gilberto Pires
Bergkamp (van Persie 83) Reyes (Aliadiere 90)

Rovers started the game better than Arsenal. A Pedersen free kick went close after 5 minutes, and a couple of minutes later we were saved by thelinesman when Dickov raced onto a through-ball and was wrongly ruled offside.

They got another free kick and this time Pedersen slipped the ball to Steven Reid whose shot forced a saved out of Lehmann.

With 10 minutes to go before half-time Arsenal upped their attacking tempo and started to really play for a while.

On 36 minutes Reyes chested the ball on, receiving it on the edge of the box, and went down as he tried to burst through 2 defenders. There was contact, but he didn't have much chance of getting to the ball anyway and did look like he was playing for the foul, so one can't really complain.

Moments later there was a great bit of approach play. Pires came in from the left and played the ball to Bergkamp in the D. He slipped a delicious ball to the right for Reyes to run onto. He opeened his body up to aim a shot past Friedel's right hand inside the far post but the keeper got down low to make a terrific one-handed save. The ball came out to Pires but Friedel bounced up very impressively and got forward to block the follow-up shot.

The breakthrough that this spell of continual pressure deserved finally came on 42 minutes. Vieira chipped the ball diagonally into the box from right to left and although it got a flick-on in the box it came through to Toure deep on the left (can't remember what he was doing there!). There was a defender between Kolo and the goal but side-stepped infield, bringing the ball onto his right foot, and squared low across the box. Freddie stretched but missed it, but Pires was in position behind him and made no mistake. No Henry on the field, but those fools who think we rely solely on Henry for goals would do well to remember who were in line for this cross, and take a look at the Premiership goalscoring tables while they're at it.

Freddie had to go off shortly after halftime. It'd obviously been doubtful whether he'd come out after the break at all, He stretched for the ball and immediately felt something, waving at the bench for the substitution they'd been expecting to have to make. Cesc came on.

On 56 the ball was played in square from from the left wing (Pires?). Cole let it run on to Cesc in the D whose fierce shot was blocked.

There was more good stuff from Friedel, denying Gilberto's powerful shot after Vieira has set him up. Rovers managed to scare us a few times up the other end, mostly with crosses, but the Toure/Senderos partnership continued its excellent run.

Friedel denied Gilberto again (close-range from a Bergkamp free-kick), and then Cesc (who did well to hold off his marker and force a finger-tip save).

Bergkamp was taken off on 83 minutes with his fellow countryman van Persie coming on. Slightly surprising that it wasn't Reyes that made room, seeing as he'd had one of his ineffectual games. But no complaints about the replacement. Before you knew it, Robin had made it 2-0. First on 86 minutes he received a short pass from Vieira, slalomed round 2 defenders, and hit a perfect shot into the corner of the net.

Then, right on 90 minutes, the ball was played to the left wing for Pires to run onto. He squared for van Persie who whacked it home from the edge of the box. This was when the dodgy incident happened because as the Arsenal man wheeled away in celebration, he ran straight into the raised elbow of Rovers skipper Andy Todd and needed treatment with a fair bit of blood coming from his face. It has to be said, the replays looked dodgy (why was that elbow so high?). But hard to be sure, and harder to prosecute, because in Todd's defence it was van Persie who was in motion.

So, is this the moment when van Persie comes of age? Or another false dawn? Whether or not he could ever prove to be as effective as Bergkamp over 90 minutes or, more's the point, more reliably effective than Reyes, remains to be seen. He does seem to have a good knack for these cameo super-sub appearances though.

Man Utd beat Newcastle in the other semi-final, to set up the final that everyone (except Alan Shearer et al) wanted.