Arsenal:
Lehmann
Lauren Toure Senderos Clichy
Cesc Vieira Flamini Cole
Reyes  van Persie

Blackburn had the best of the first half, but went in 1 down thanks to the finishing of van Persie.

As early as the first minute a dangerous cross came in from Rovers' left which Dickov couldn't quite get hold of and was cleared to midfield from where a long range shot went well wide. Lehmann warmed up by scrambling over to prevent the goal-kick.

On 6 minutes Reyes found lots of space running through the middle after a neat one-two with Cole on the left. He tried a central ball to van Persie on the edeg of the box but he was beaten by the 2 defenders there. It looked like Reyes should have put it wide right to Cesc who was in acres of space, but seeing how Robin finished a similar chance half an hour later, I'm not so sure.

On 9, Matteo was given far too much time on their left and allowed to put in a dangerous cross which was poorly cleared straight to Thompson on their right. He tried a looping volley towards the far top corner but hit it too hard.

A couple of minutes later Cesc played a terrific through ball for van Persie to run onto. Friedel did well to come out and get a slight touch on it just inside the box, just before the striker, but the ball ricocheted off van Persie and he came past the keeper. But it was going too fast and by the time he caught up with the ball it was on the goal-line and couldn't even keep it in never mind cut it back towards the inviting unguarded goal.

Cole got deep on the left and cut the ball back to van Persie central and just inside the box. He hit it first time but it was deflected for a corner. Nice to see Cesc beat the first man with the corner, not so nice to see it done by swinging the ball into the side netting (from his next one he managed to hit a defender 10 yards away, what is it with Arsenal corners!?).

On 22, Clichy gave the ball away in Rovers' half with a pass that went behind Cole. Gael did well to chase back and hassle the winger as he got level with our penalty area but the cross came over anyway and came invitingly for Pedersen to try a van Basten volley. He didn't connect properly but it fell nice for him anyway, and Lauren did well to poke the ball away from him.

Two minutes later, Vieira tackled Reid as he strode towards our box but it only came wide to Thompson on their right. He cut inside Clichy but the defender hustled him from behind (probably a good thing Thompson stayed on his feet) and Thompson scuffed his shot well short of the near post.

On the half hour Toure hit a speculative shot from 30 yards which he hit quite well but from that distance the aim's got to be perfect. Instead, it went straight at Friedel's chest. A minute later, Lehmann got a really good hand on a dangerous corner to clear the ball out of the box from the 6 yard line.

Then Reid put in a terrific cross from their left after a nice one-two with Thompson. Pedersen headed it goalwards from 10 yards out and Lehmann made a comfortable high catch.

Some great defending from Senderos on 38 minutes. Dickov had the ball with back to goal just inside the box on their right, with Senderos right on his back. The former Arsenal striker tried to turn past him but Senderos managed to get a foot on the ball as the ball went past, just before Dickov ran into him looking for the foul.

We took the lead 3 minutes before half time. The ball came to Cole in the inside left position and he turned nicely to fool his marker and make space. Van Persie was in the D with a defender on either side and Ash played it just right for him. Robin received with back to goal and turned with a Bergkamp-like cool, playing the ball between the defenders and following it up before skipping past Friedel and leaving himself an unmissable goal chance.

The home side edged the second half too. But we had our chances. A minute after the re-start Cesc went on a great run to the right of centre, played the ball to Lauren on the wing and received it straight back to take him through some space into the box. He got into a shooting position but tried to beat one defender too many. Lucas Neil got a block in and it fell to Reyes on Cesc's right who tried to place it inside the near post forcing a decent one-handed save from Friedel.

Another less clear chance came a few minutes later when Cole got into the box to try to get onto a punt upfield. He tried to receive it with back to goal but a defender looked to get an hand on it and then may have pulled Ash down from behind, but the left-back turned midfielder (and playing like a striker for much of the game) managed to poke it back towards Flamini who hit a terrific drive that was flying goalwards but deflected for a corner.

On the hour, and Reyes had the ball in a good position in the box but tried to do too much. When he failed to dribble through a crowd they tried to break up their left, but Reyes (who'd looked a bit static at times in the first half) chased back and won it back on the touchline. Lauren came to assist and ended up making a strong run forward, out-muscling the tracking Rovers man, before hitting a woeful cross that went right over to an opposition player on the far wing and halfway towards the halfway line! They attacked up that wing and played a crossfield ball that was cut out by a stretched leg from Reyes who'd made a good 60 yard run to cover Lauren's position.

7 minutes later a good move finished with Reyes' great ball for van Persie, beating the offside trap on the right of the box. He tried a shot to the far top corner and was unlucky to see it come back off the bar. It came back out to Arsenal and was worked forward to Reyes just inside the box on the right. He did well to get past the defender but the latter just got enough of a touch to slow the ball down. Still, Reyes managed to recover and turn back to get his left foot onto the ball for a shot, but it went straight at the keeper.

Minutes later there was another terrific bit of tracking back from Reyes to disposses Dickov. Good to see him putting this kind of effort in. He was wasteful in possession a few times today but it's the apparent lack of effort sometimes that pisses the fans off. None of that in the second half today... learning a thing or two from Thierry Henry, perhaps? Dickov got really pissed off, perhaps alleging a raised hand from Reyes. But he was making something out of very little at all, and got booked for his trouble.

Towards the end Rovers had a real go at us, but again the defence held very well, and Lehmann came to claim some tricky crosses, getting nothing wrong whatsoever in this game. On 82 minutes Emerton was put through on their right when offside but the officials missed it. Fortunately while he struck his shot across Lehmann pretty well, it missed the far post by a foot.

The same defender as before was perhaps even luckier to avoid giving a penalty away when challenging (possibly holding) Cole from behind in a similar position in the box.

The ref awarded 5 minutes of added time and after 4 of them Rovers had their best chance to equalise. Dickov's dummy took Toure out of the equation as the ball was played diagonally forward from their right. It came to Reid just outside the box in a central position. Lauren did well to get over to put him off, but it probably didn't excuse the woeful shot.

A good win in a difficult game, by an extremely young Arsenal side. Another clean sheet for the Toure-Senderos partnership, a great goal of the sort that van Persie has always promised, Reyes showing his commitment and doing the defensive things that it took Pires a similar amount of time to start doing well... a pretty good performance overall and second place for a few hours (Man Utd are already ahead against Fulham as I write this).