We can only hope that anyone who's been putting money on 3-0 to Arsenal with Wiltord scoring first, didn't change their bet after it came up with last weekend's cakewalk against West Ham.

This was oh so similar, Arsenal taking an early lead and capitalising on a shell-shocked opposition to make it a stroll in the second half. But unlike last week, perhaps it could have been different.

In the first minute Bent rose unchallenged to head a cross from their right just over the bar. And before 2 minutes were on the clock, Arsenal had gone up the other end and scored a beauty.

The ball came from the left wing to Lauren in the centre, and he fed Pires on the right. He brought it just inside the corner of the box, and bypassed Dixon's run inside him to find Wiltord in the centre with a square ball. Sylvain hit it first time, and with a slight curve it went outside a defender in front of him, probably unsighting Freidel in the Blackburn goal, and just inside the right hand post.

On 4 minutes we broke again, Bergkamp making a strong run down the middle. He tried to find Pires, on the right again, but it was intercepted. Dennis chased after it and won it back, getting it out to Pires this time. Pires gave it back and Dennis hit a dipping shot wghich Friedel did well to tip over the bar.

Cole came over to take the corner from the left, and swung it in for Adams to run onto from the edge of the box. Towering above 2 defenders, he powered the header inside the far post.

Blackburn were getting plenty of possession but couldn't do much with it. The closest they got to a goal was when Berkovic went down in the box. It looked a good shout for a penalty, contact clearly being made. But the ref was in a good position and waved play on, possibly influenced by the Israeli's extravagant fall. Moments later we had a shout too as Bergkamp went down in their box. I didn't have any kind of a view of it, but on the radio they seemed to think it was as good an appeal, if not better.

4 minutes before the break, and Wiltord hit a great cross-field pass from the left to Pires. He took in on the run, touching it forward and then blasting the shot high into the net from a narrow angle.

Arsenal had started with Henry and Vieira on the bench, and they both came on in the second half along with Silvinho. Luzhny was Adams partner in defence, with the still-improving Lauren having another good game alongside Grimandi in midfield.

Good performances all round, and a bit of a rest for everyone in the second half. Sometimes you can see why Tony Adams says this is the best Arsenal squad he's seen. Those times are when Tony Adams in on the pitch, he gets an extra 50% out of everyone around him.

Blackburn, to be fair, kept trying, and looked 10 times better than West Ham looked last week. To be fair to the Irons, they were heavily depleted last week whereas Rovers were almost at full strength, and we can only wish them all the best against Tottenham tomorrow.

Rovers became more threatening after Matt Jansen came on for Mark Hughes, and we can only be grateful that they didn't start that way. I'm sure that Hughes's experience tells against first division opposition but against Arsenal today he looked an old man. Rovers' supporters were feeling understandably confident before the game, and many of us Gooners had a bad feeling about the game (for my part, I almost always have a bad feeling before the game) . Fortunately none of this appeared to be reflected in the way either team, or their coaches, approached the game.

10 minutes into the second half and Rovers were perhaps unlucky to have a goal disallowed. It came when McAteer blocked a Cole clearance, and apparently the Arsenal free-kick was given because he used a hand. From the other end of the pitch it didn't look like he could have done much about it, if indeed it was hands.

David Dunn had a good chance saved when Seaman did well to come out, make himself big, and block. That one came from a Vieira error shortly after he'd come on. And in the last minute Bent was unlucky, beating Seaman with a shot from their right only to see it hit the post and screw across the face of goal.

We had our chances in the second half too though, and special mention goes to Ashley Cole for 2 excellent runs each of which nearly created another for Wiltord.

Stats junkies will already have noticed that this will be Wenger's 3rd FA Cup semi in 4 attempts, an extremely impressive record, and that Sylvain Wiltord has scored in every round so far.

We'll have to wait till tomorrow evening for the semi-final draw. At the moment the only other team definitely in the hat is Wycombe Wanderers. They took the lead at Leicester only to be pegged back to 1-1, then came up with an injury time winner to stun the Premiership club.

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