Arsenal:
            Lehmann
Lauren Senderos Djourou Cygan (Cole 34)
Ljungberg Gilberto Cesc Pires (Hleb 69)
         Henry Reyes

But for this game at least, we were back, with a bang. The crowd felt galvanised by the signings of the day before, and of course by the fact that Thierry Henry's sounding positive about staying (this was his first appearance since those comments), and perhaps the team was too. This was an awesome team performance, in which every individual played well too.

Freddie Ljungberg was on fire for the first time for ages. Robert Pires played his best game for ages, and scored a stunning goal of the sort we almost stopped expecting from him. Jose Antonio Reyes had a great game, terrifying the opposition and providing some terrific final balls to turn that terror into goals (the lack of which is sometimes the justifiable gripe some have about him). The defence was solid, when it needed to be. Philippe Senderos popped up with a goal, a header from a corner no less. Jens Lehmann had very little to do, but when called upon he made a stunning save. Ashley Cole came off the bench to shore up the left hand side, having an unspectacular but effective come-back game. Thierry Henry was Thierry Henry at his best, which is the best. And I've saved for my last individual mention in this list the young centre back Johan Djourou who I thought had a quite superb game. Terrific positioning, good use of the ball, great understanding with the rest of the defence, and some awesome tackles.

It's too late for the title this year, Liverpool and Man Utd are strong enough to make our challenge for second place very much not in our own hands, nothing can ever be guaranteed in the Champs League especially when you're playing Real Madrid next. But you've just got to feel optimistic about the future after seeing this sort of stuff from such a young side.

It took 20 minutes for Arsenal to score a goal. But it was 20 minutes of relentless attacking.

Henry played a ball over the top for Freddie on 8 minutes, but a defender did brilliantly to get across to clear the ball ahead of him. 2 minutes later the roles were reversed, Freddie's great low cross whipped in from the right almost finding Henry but again it was cleared, by stand-in keeper Brad Jones, just before reaching him on the 6 yard line.

Henry had a couple of free kicks from 20 yards, the first hitting the wall but the second beating it and bending just outside the top right corner with the keeper stranded.

On 13 minutes a long ball forward from the right was taken down superbly by Reyes in the D, who hit an early low shot which shaved the bottom of the outside of the right hand post.

On 15, the ball was played deep to the right and a defender seemed to have it safe only for Henry to slide in, take the ball, and stand up with it stuck to his foot. His cross was blocked and came back to a defender (same one probably) in the same position as where Henry made the tackle, and this time Reyes slid in to make an identical tackle, clearly taking the ball, only for the ref to wrongly blow for a foul against him. Boro never had the ball for long though, we were defending high up the pitch and battling all over it. A couple of minutes later Reyes won a free kick on the left wing after nutmegging his man who then stepped into his path as he ran round to pick up the ball. Jose swung the free kick into the box and Henry got his head on it, but couldn't get over the ball and sent it high over the bar.

Then, on 20 minutes, the deluge started. It was a terrific move, started by Johann Djourou who hit a strong long pass out to the left wing. Pascal Cygan controlled it well and fed Cesc Fabregas in the centre circle. He played it wide right for Freddie who took the ball to the goal line, looked up and saw Thierry Henry coming into the box on the other side. A chipped lay-back from Freddie put the ball on a plate for his captain, who volleyed it with the side of his foot, inside Jones' left hand post.

Less than 2 minutes later it was 2. Another nice move ended with a shot from Cesc on the edge of the D which was going just wide but which the keeper wisely decided to help over the goal-line to be sure. Reyes took the corner, from our right, lofting it to the far side of the goal where Senderos rose, unchallenged, to head in.

The Boro fans had a rare moment of excitement (apart from those provided by Arsenal of course) on 27 minutes. A cross-field pass from Reyes, intended for Freddie, was cut out by Mendieta who took the ball forward and shot from outside the box. But straight at Lehmann.

Two minutes later they had another go. But Cesc intercepted in our half and played it forward quickly to Reyes in the centre circle. He threaded a pass forward for Henry to run onto. Jones came rushing out of his box but Thierry got there first and coolly slipped the ball past him, and it trundled into the empty goal.

Just after the half hour Cygan made a great tackle on the left touchline and was fouled in the process. There was amassive cheer as Ashley Cole came out to warm up. He just ran up and down once, and my first thought was that Cygan was ok after all. Then I noticed that he'd not come back onto the pitch and we were playing on with 10 men (Cesc having switched temporarily to left back).

Pires' great touch on the left made space for himself to run across the pitch and forward. Freddie made a run in the opposite direction ahead of Bobby and Bobby's diagonal reverse pass for him was just cut out. Wonderful to see them both playing so well and linking together.

Then Freddie got into an, errr, interesting tangle with Morrison, about which the least said the better.

Then, on 35 minutes, to massive applause, on came Ashley.

Reyes injured his back challenging the keeper and a defender for a high ball forward into the box, but wasn't off the pitch for long.

Henry did a couple of beautiful tricks, which prompted the Boro fans to sing "he's going to Barcelona". Not quite up with the news, then! Or had they got confused between us and Chelsea? They're going to Barcelona, we're going to Real Madrid!

Boro's rare attacks were usually beaten by a well-regimented offside trap.

In injury time, Henry picked the ball up 10 yards outside the box and central, with a few defenders in front of him. He played the ball to the left for Pires who was coming in there, and Henry continued his run in that direction and beyond Bobby, helping to create the space. A defender was criticised on telly later for not standing his ground in front of Bobby, but what wasn't on screen was Henry coming into that position - it was that which had the defender worried. Anyway it probably wouldn't have mattered - Bobby hit a sublime chip over the keeper's despairing leap and under the bar on the right of the goal. The keeper was no more than a few yards off his line: the chip had to be perfect and it was - a classic example of the very difficult made to look very very easy.

Now I have to admit that I fully expected Arsenal to take it easy in the second half, as they so often do once the game has been won. Not this time, this Arsenal was hungry for more.

5 minutes in Freddie went on a breathtaking run down the right then along the goal-line, accelerating past 2 defenders on the way. He cut the ball back on a plate for Henry whose first time shot went way over the bar, prompting calls of "what the f***ing hell was that?" (from us).

A couple of minutes later Djourou showed terrific awareness and strength to tackle Mendieta but the ref saw a foul. The free kick dropped dangerously into our box but again it was Djourou who was alert to it and made a great clearance over thge goal-line. And it was Djourou again who took up a good position at the far post to head clear when the corner came over.

On 54 minutes, another terrific run from Freddie won a free kick just outside the corner of their box on our right. Henry dummied to take the free kick then took it for real, chipping the ball in on the same side of the box. The dummy had enabled Pires to take up a position ahead of the defence on that side and unmarked, and he headed it home only for the linesman to (wrongly) rule it out for offside.

On 64 minutes Reyes won a free kick in a similar position and Henry played it similarly (without the dummy this time), for Gilberto to rise majestically and head downwards and inside the right hand post. Jones did well to get down and get a hand to it but couldn't keep it out. While overall Boro were pretty shabby, I thought Jones actually had a decent game, and did well to keep it down to 7 in the end. Are you keeping track? That's 5 so far.

5 minutes later Pires slipped the ball into the box nicely for Freddie's run but Jones did well to dive at his feet and deny him.

Then on 68 minutes we broke again and Reyes played another superb pass forward, from the centre circle, for Henry to run onto. Two touches saw him one-on-one with Jones and he passed the ball low past the keeper for our 6th, for his hat-trick, and for his 150th league goal for the club (equalling Cliff Bastin's long-standing record).

Straight away, Alexander Hleb and Mathieu Flamini were allowed to join the fun, at the expense of Pires and Gilberto.

With just over a quarter of an hour to go, Henry set off from the centre circle clearly intent on beating the whole Boro team on his own. Doriva, who'd been booked earlier, tugged at his shirt to slow him down, and was sent off.

In the Clock End, we tried to get Lehmann involved by chanting "Lehmann Lehmann what's the score?". But I think he didn't quite understand, and just gave us a little wave. If anyone's reading this who speaks to Jens, please explain to him that he's suppsoed to hold up the appropriate number of fingers. It'd do wonders for his relationship with the fans. Not that many of us don't like him - he's playing pretty well. It's just that we got so used to David Seaman's fantastic rapport with the crowd, and if Lehmann could develop that side of the game I imagine he as well as us would get some pleasure from it. Once he's got the "what's the score" one sorted, we can move on to "Lehmann, Lehmann, do the twist". Oh, and please tell him not to take the "Mad Jens" stuff too seriously ;)

On 78 minutes another terrific headed clearance by Djourou was lobbed very high and back into the box, where Riggott got behind the defence at last and knocked the ball onto the bar just to Lehmann's left of the centre of the goal. It came out to Yakubu who headed the ball goalwards. It was heading just inside Lehmann's top right hand corner but the keeper, who'd tried to get a touch on the first shot, recovered brilliantly and leapt up to touch it round for a corner (this was the second of Boro's 2 efforts on target... we had 17). He followed all this up with a great punch from the corner.

From this, we broke forward again, ending with a low cross from Reyes which Freddie nearly turned in at the near post only to be denied by Jones.

Then there was the breathtaking trick by Henry which, in case you haven't seen it yet, is bound to be shown again and again. Feinting to cross with his right foot, he instead passed the ball with his standing foot, out to Reyes on the right wing. You've got to see it, really, I can't do it justice in prose (the file doesn't work for my outdated s/w but apparently you can download it)

Hleb played a neat ball forward for Freddie (I think there were 2 Freddies on the pitch, one on the right wing and one playing as centre forward), only for a very good sliding tackle to deny him the chance of a shot.

With just over 5 minutes to go, Freddie played the ball forward from the halfway line, up the right wing for Henry. He held the ball up outside the box on the right then slipped it into the path of Reyes run into the box. The run had attracted 3 defenders and the 4 of them collided, Reyes ending up tumbling over a pile of them. I think the ball hit Reyes. Whoever it was, somehow the ball came through that pile to the far side of the box where Hleb had come in unmarked, and he fired inside the left post, a nice cool finish for his first Arsenal goal.

We still wanted more. A cushioned header by Hleb put Reyes through on the left. His cross nearly found Freddie for a diving header but defender got a touch. It fell to Hleb but bounced first and was rising as he struck it, and he couldn't keep the shot down.

There was just time for another good save by Jones, denying Freddie who'd again been put through by Hleb.

I've kind of rounded up already, at the start of this report. So, to end, a few comments about Djourou from Swiss-based Gooner Colin Bosworth (I have to admit that I didn't know a lot about Djourou till his recent first team appearances)....

"I also watched Johann Djourou as a youngster - he was at the Payerne football academy just down the road from here. He grew up playing centre midfield! He could easily end up going to the World Cup with Philippe Senderos if he gets a decent run in the first team. Djourou played for the Swiss U19s at centre midfield in the European Championship in 2004, and did very well - getting to the semis. I think that when he signed for Arsenal he thought he was going to understudy Vieira. Yesterday he looked like he'd been playing centre-half all his life."

Can I suggest "Djourou really wants to hurt you" as a chant, or is Culture Club a bit old hat these days? Appropriate for the Arsenal though, when they're in this mood!

Oh, by the way, this equalled our record Premiership win (against Everton last season). See record-breakers page for more Arsenal records).

One more thought: aren't you glad that Ray Parlour wasn;t playing? Not because he would have made much of a difference, but because it would have hurt to have to watch him endure this...