Arsenal:
                     Almunia
       Djourou (Hoyte 92) Toure Gilberto Clichy
Hleb (Freddie 77) Diaby Denilson Rosicky (Aliadiere 90)
               Adebayor Baptista

As well as those injured as described in our preview, Cesc Fabregas and Jens Lehmann were rested. The former probably because of a knee knock picked up win over Wigan on Sunday, the latter because the domestic cups are the province of Manuel Almunia.

In addition, Wenger sportingly balanced out Bolton's loss to injury of arguably their most dangerous player (given the way they play) Kevin Davies, by leaving out Thierry Henry. Captain for the night Gilberto dropped to centreback, with Johan Djourou switching to right back presumably to give Justin Hoyte a rest (though he did come on for extra time). With Cesc and Mathieu Flamini out this left Abou Diaby and Denilson as a very inexperienced central midfield pairing. They were quite superb.

Perhaps inexperience was the key. These players didn't look to have the fear that those who've been in these games so many times before often appear to take into games against Sam Allardyce's team.

The first half was simply awesome. As Arsene Wenger says, at times it was total football. Not only were we playing fast one or two touch stuff all over the pitch, playing passes that had to be incredibly precise due to Bolton's flooding of their half and quick pressing, but we were beating them in the battle too. When Arsenal didn't have the ball they attacked like demons, closing down to win it back almost immediately and coming up with by far the majority of loose balls too.

Bolton started brightly though. They pressed us from our kick-off and Djourou gave the ball away playing the ball out from the right of defence. A couple of nice touches from the home team later, Nolan was bringing the ball into the box under pressure from Djourou. But he did an air shot and fell over, only half appealing for a penalty which the ref rightly had no interest in. They continued to attack but we defender well. Tomas Rosicky nearly put Emmanuel Adebayor through on the break but hit the pass to strong.

The pattern described above soon established itself. One amazing passing move took the ball all over the pitch then up the right with Rosicky who played a one-two with Adebayor taking the Czech into the box but his teammates return ball was too strong and Jaaskelainen came out to grab it.

Another nice move finished with Rosicky jinking past Nolan into space made by a couple of excellent runs from the two strikers and hitting a 20 yard shot which swung out a yard past the last post.

The first goal came after 13 minutes. It started with a hoof from Jaaskelainen which landed halfway into our half where Diaby and Gilberto battled to win it. It went forward to Hleb on the right touchline near the halfway line who held off a couple of Bolton players to move up the line, then played a one-two with Denilson, taking the Belarussian maestro 10 yards further up the touchline where he again had 2 defenders on him. But he did a neat 2-footed trick to nutmeg one of them and play it infield. It came to Denilson who'd continued forward and he came up with a trick that made Hleb's look pedestrian, as the ball came to him he flicked it with both feet in rapid succession, playing it forward through another defender's legs to Adebayor. He then played it back to Denilson who fed it further to the left to Rosicky, in a central position now. He tried to poke the ball further left into space on that side of the box where Julio Baptista was lurking, but a defender managed to stretch and intercept. Adebayor had made a run round the back of Rosicky and was well placed to charge onto the loose ball and hit a shot low towards the left post. It hit Stelios but it only helped the ball in - the defledtion didn't alter the path but sent the ball down into the ground so that when it got to the goal it was bouncing up at Jaaskelainen and he dived under it.

Bolton tried to get back straight away but we were defending superbly. There would appear to be no worries about using Gilberto as a stand-in centre back. Bolton were struggling to get numbers forward though and as expected the biggest threat came from long throws and corners.

Half way through the half Baptista brought the ball forward in space but tried to find Adebayor to his left, where there were too many defenders. I guess he hadn't seen Hleb's run in loads of space on the other side.

Baptista and Gilberto had other chances in the first half, a low shot and a far post header respectively. And Baptista hit a 25 yard free kick which was deflected off the wall but dipped towards goal forcing Jaaskelainen to tip it over.

Adebayor got put through once and given offside which looked a very dodgy decision. But the main excitement of the half came just before halftime, at the other end of the pitch.

A long throw by Campo from their right was cleared to Andranik whose shot hit Stelios on the edge of the 6 yard box. He reacted brilliantly, turning to crash a shot against the underside of the bar. The ball popped out to Meite who thumped it towards goal only to see Gilberto get his body in the way to make a goal-saving block. The next few of minutes were frantic end-to-end stuff with a dangerous break at either end.

We were doing superbly but you knew it couldn't last for another 45 minutes. One nil up, away from home, and still Wenger was pacing up and down in front of his dug-out with a face like a nervous dog.

Right at the start of the second half a Ben Haim free kick from the centre circle was lofted into the box and Diaby got a touch taking it goalwards. Almunia was forced to dive low to his right to keep the ball out, pushing it to the right then tumbling (fortunately) into Diouf. Hleb was able to get onto the loose ball and clear. Bolton were getting more of the ball now, and attacking with greater frequency and threat, though we continued to defend well.

Stelios should have done better on 50 minutes after an Arsenal-like quick move forward (after Campo had won the ball back) came to him inside the box on their left with only Almunia to beat. But he delayed, allowing Almunia really close to him so that when Stelios tried to go round him the keeper was able to fall on the ball. There was another white shirt in space on the far side of the box too so either an early shot or a square ball might well have produced the equaliser.

Ben Haim fouled Hleb outside the box and was lucky not to get shown the first yellow card of the game. Baptista hit the free kick round the wall but straight into Jaaskelainen's arms.

Bolton's better use of the ball was pushing us back a bit. When Arsenal did break it was quicker and in fewer numbers. Or maybe that's what was allowing Bolton more play. On 58 Baptista put Diaby through on the left of the box but he got it all wrong, touching the ball on and easy for the outrushing Jaaskelainen to take when an early shot or drag-back might have paid dividends. Straight up the other end and Anelka had a very long range shot which started a yard wide and drifted out to 6 or so. A scramble in the box with some good play from Diouf led to the ball coming to Campo in space on the left of the box, he hit a shot into the side-netting and although it was going wide anyway he was unlucky to concede a goal kick given that Almunia had got a touch.

Then on 62 Baptista jinked his way into the box and cut inside Ben Haim who stuck out a leg and tripped him up for a cast iron penalty (although one camera angle suggested he got a touch on the ball, others showed clear air between ball and boot). Gilberto stepped up and blasted it over the bar.

Toure tried one of his super-long range free kicks but it trundled wide. A bit daft really, his return on these isn't very good.

Finally Ben Haim picked up the first booking, for a nothingy tackle on Hleb but after he'd gotten away with quite a few. Big Sam was unhappy about it because he thought that Hleb had fouled Campo just before, sliding tackle which won the ball but could have looked quite reckless from the Bolton boss's angle. He responded by bringing on Vaz Te for Stelios. It made sense to bring the nippy Portuguese striker on but I was puzzled at bringing off Stelios. Nice to see him go though.

Then we brought on Freddie for Hleb, the latter had been doing fine but I guess it was always the intention to share the game between the two who were returning from injury.

On 80 minutes Djourou got his head to a dangerous cross from their right. Almunia punched the Bolton corner clear an we broke quickly, a ball from Hleb finding Toure on the right wing and his whipped-in diangonal cross finding Baptista just outside the box. He made space for a near post shot but it deflected off a defender's foot and a foot wide of that post.

There was a bit more long throw and cross panic in our box, then Campo got shown a yellow card for an outrageous dive in there, sticking out his leg really obviously to drag it past Rosicky's as he fell over.

Bolton made a double substitution, bringing on Tal and Pedersen for Gardner and Andranik. More scrambles in our box then on 85 Adebayor broke free, got round the keeper taking the ball wide to the left, then hit his shot onto the near post. Not the easiest chance given how wide he'd bene taken, but a defeinite miss.

More scrambles. Vaz Te went down in our box under challenge but nothing was given. The board went up showing 3 minutes of added time. A cross from their left by Pedersen was heade goalwards an Almunia had to jump to tip it over the bar. The corner from their left was flighted to the far side where Campo had a lot of space thanks partly to the presence of Jaaskelaninen who I thought had fouled Kolo by clattering into him near the penalty spot. Campo headed it down and the ball went in off the foot of Kolo's international teammate Meite. There wasn't time for any more chances and, ever so painfully, the game went into extra time.

Extra time started with Jeremie Aliadiere on for Rosicky, and Hoyte replaced Djourou soon after the restart. Incidentally, I was puzzled to see Bolton kick off given that we'd started the game. Doesn't it alternate? Or do they toss up again? Adebayor looked puzzled too.

The home side started extra time in the ascendancy, as they'd finished the 90 minutes. But we started to play keep-ball better again, with both Freddie and Alialiadiere playing full parts. Anelka went down hopefully in our box. Then 6 minutes in a cross from their right was touched on by Nolan and again the woodwork came to our rescue, the ball hitting Almunia's right hand post and rebounding to safety (Djourou hacking it out of the box with an overhead kick).

Clichy gave away a silly free kick trying to get out of defence past Anelka, cutting goalside of him and having to foul to prevent the former Gunner getting away with the ball in that direction. But the free kick was swung straight into Almunia's arms.

A minute before the break Baptista was put in on the right of the box but seemed to get caught between a cross and a shot, and the ball went through the box and out for a goal kick.

Bolton were moaning a lot and maybe starting to feel the exertion more than our spry young things. Then 3 minutes into the last 15, up stepped Freddie for his first goal since the Champs League qualifier against Dinamo Zagreb back in August, and his best for a good while. We broke from deep on the left wing through Clichy who won the ball then played it up the line for Aliadiere. He raced up the wing and cut infield before slotting the ball forward for Freddie. Running into the box on the left, he had a defender in clsoe attention but controlled it forward with his right foot then quickly whipped a shot in with his left, sending the ball in front of the defender and across the keeper, just inside his far post. An awesome finish and perhaps more the sort of goal you expect to see from Henry than Freddie.

A corner dropped to Anelka just inside the box who controlled and vollyed goalward but too high. Bolton were trying to get forward but we restricted them by keeping the ball well when we had it.

5 minutes to go and Ben Haim got his second yellow, a bit unlucky this one as Baptista had pushed the ball past then run at the defender. A few minutes to go against 10 men, scripted for Bolton perhaps but the strength and pace was with Arsenal.

Jaaskelainen came up for a corner but we broke from it and Adebayor charged upfield and into their box, where Anelka just managed to catch up with him and bring him down from behind. Anelka was booked but, bizarrely, not sent off for what must be one of the clearest denials of a goal-scoring opportunity ever. There wasn't another defender there. There wasn't even a goalkeeper!

This time another Brazilian stepped up, only to repeat Gilberto's error from before, hoofing the penalty eveb further over the bar.

Scriptd for Bolton? Nah. Right at the death we broke forward, the third dangerous break in quick succession but this time their outfield players were all fully committed. Clichy started it, again finding Aliadiere further up the left wing. Again he came forrward and infield, this time hitting an earlier ball forward and central where Jaaskelainen found himself alone near the edge of his box facing Adebayor and Baptista. The latter slipped the ball sideways to allow his partner the easier finish and that was it, 3-1.

A breathtaking match and a wonderful result for Valentine's day. We love you, Freddie.