Arsenal:
             Lehmann
     Toure Campbell Cygan Cole
Pires Gilberto Edu Ljungberg (Keown 87)
Bergkamp (Clichy 76) Aliadiere (Wiltord 66)

Leicester had the best of the first half by some way. As befits the home side, they were rather more adventurous than Fulham. It'd be easy to blame our failure to exploit that fact with our usual aplomb on the absence of Henry, so what the hell, I'll do that. Explaining the way in which there was a general lack of a cutting edge would take much longer.

City nearly scored within 10 minutes, Scowcroft getting a free header which was nearly tapped in by Ferdinand. That was the story of much of the game really. Some fans of other clubs will be puzzled at us being jealous of Leicester but really, the idea of having 2 strikers who are good in the air so that it's worth bunging the ball into the box at every opportunity is quite appealing.

Ferdinand should have scored again a few minutes later. He beat Campbell and Cygan to set up a one-on-one, and though he committed himself a bit Lehmann did well to force Ferdinand wide without bringing him down. Still, the City man will have been disappointed to miss the target.

We had out first chance after 20 minutes, when Aliadiere chested on a chip over the top of the defence from Freddie, but mishit his volley. That was about it for the first half.

The second started similarly, although Gilberto did force a save early on. Then Campbell was lucky not to have a penalty awareded against him when Bent got into the box on their right hand side and Sol appeared to catch him after he'd switched feet to cut back inside the defender.

We went ahead on the hour, against the run of play. It was a nice quick break started by a throw-out from Lehmann. It came up to Bergkamp who skipped over a challenge then whipped in a terrific cross which Gilberto buried with a bullet header.

A few minutes later Campbell met a Bergkamp free-kick with a lovely volley but Walker made a great point-blank reaction save. Aliadiere tried to head the rebound goalwards but couldn't get any power on it. Moments later, the youngster was replaced by Wiltord (who did pretty well in his 20-minute spell and may have edged to the front of the queue to deputise for Henry if he's not available on Wednesday).

A bit more than 15 minutes to go, and Ashley Cole was sent off. A straight red for a stupid two-footed over-the-top lunge on Ben Thatcher. It was on the right side of the pitch and not even in a dangerous position. He might have been frustrated by the fact that his own bad first touch had given Thatcher the ball. Ash made things worse by arguing with the ref about it. I hope he gets fined extra for that because it does suggest he's somehow not learned the lesson of handbag-gate.

Captain Bergkamp came off (handing the armband to Sol) so that Clicky could come on at left back.

Since the goal Arsenal had come to life somewhat, and we continued to have the better of it even with 10 men. Toure for example found himself upfield on the break, set up by a Freddie-Wiltord combination, but onlky lashed his shot over the bar.

Near the end Leicester had a flurry of attacking, bunging the ball into the box. Keown came on for Freddie to shore things up a bit. But 2 minutes into the 3 minutes of injury time, Scowcroft (I think) rose at the far post to meet a hopeful cross, nodded it down, and the sub Hignett poked it in.

Rupe adds...
Cole apologised after the game and both he and Wenger accepted that it was a red card. In Cole's case, given his remonstrations at the time, one might conclude that someone had given him a sharp talking-to in between. We'll be without him for 3 matches, presumably, unless they decide to give him an extra game because of his previous. So Cole gets xmas off (Bolton away on the 10th, home to Wolves on the 26th, and away in Southampton on the 28th). Gael Clichy will presumably, hopefully, step in.

Rupe adds...
It looks likely that I have misjudged Cole's reaction to the sending off. See this article.