Arsenal:
              Almunia
Eboue (Hoyte 67) Toure Senderos Clichy
    Hleb Gilberto Flamini Rosicky 
Henry (Walcott 88) van Persie (Baptista 72)

For Arsenal Manuel Almunia replaced Jens Lehmann in goal and Mathieu Flamini replaced the suspended Cesc Fabregas as Gilberto's partner in midfield. Both filled the boots (or gloves) of their first-choice counterparts with honours. Manuel might not have had a lot of saves to make but he came out to grab a good few balls that could otherwise have troubled us, and came rushing out of area a couple of times to make crucial clearances. I guess he'll be playing again on Tuesday and today he gave us no reason to fear that.

A word, too, for the much-maligned Philippe Senderos who at last asked questions about his 4th choice status. There was a spell in the second half when, time and time again, perhaps 5 or 6 times in a row, it was Big Phil who was positioned right to head the ball clear.

Thierry Henry did what he does better than anyone else, grabbing an extraordinary solo goal to turn a nervy looking end to the game into a celebration. And of course Tomas Rosicky has to get a mention for his terrific double strike that won the game.

Also worthy of mention were the Liverpool fans. I have to admit that I don't know why this particular date or match was chosen to bring the Hillsborough Justice campaign to the fore, but they pulled it off brilliantly. So much so that the first 6 minutes of the game were completely drowned out by their continuous singing of 'Justice for the 96'. The players seemed overawed by it and the game didn't really start till they'd finished. I doubt if there's any other club whose fans could have pulled it off so resoundingly.

Once the game did start, Liverpool were, on the face of it, on top. It was a bit worrying. But as it went on it became apparent that possession is far less than nine tenths of a game of football. They just weren't getting through, and on the rare occasions that Arsenal did break out we looked soooo much more likely to do something with it. Not that we tested Dudek any more in the first 20 minutes than Liverpool tested Almunia - the closest anyone got was a Gerrard shot that came closer to testing the corner flag.

Then Gilberto's touch deserted him for a second, miscontrolling a Liverpool cross into our box and allowing Alonso an opportunity to nick the ball back into the area. Gilberto slid in to try to make amends and Alonso went tumbling over his leg. There was contact, but fortunately the ref spotted that Alonso had started his fall well before contact, and gave him a yellow card for diving instead of a penalty kick. Definite justice for the Arsenal, but it could so easily have been given the other way.

Then on 35 minutes Alonso came very close with a 25 yard volley, direct from a corner. Before the home fans had time to get over their continuing misfortune, Arsenal were ahead.

We won possession a few yards inside our half and passed forward to Rosicky who brought the ball forward from the centre circle. He passed wide to Alexander Hleb on the right wing, and continued forward. Hleb passed infield to Rosicky, who quickly passed it back to Hleb. A couple of defenders were in position to try to prevent the cross but instead Hleb spotted Rosicky still in space just outside their box, and passed back to him, this time threading it through 3 red shirts. Rosicky hit the ball first time as it came to him from the right, sending a quite beautiful right-footed shot looping over Dudek and into the top left corner. Stunning.

A few minutes later, he did it again. Tomas had been involved in a patient build-up, down the left this time and this time exchanging passes with Henry. When Henry passed back infield from the wing and started a run towards the box, it didn't look like there was much on for Rosicky apart perhaps from trying to thread the ball through a mass of defenders for Henry or van Persie to try to latch onto behind them. But, one has to say, those Liverpool players were amazingly generous. Perhaps the fact that there were so many of them got them confused, but there's really no excuse for the way that 3 of them approached the man with the ball then each veered away instead of making a challenge. Rosicky accepted the offer, and carried the ball forward as they backed off, before shooting low, this time into the bottom right corner.

Liverpool came out fighting in the second half and were a bit more worrying in possession. But the Arsenal defence held firm until 20 minutes from time when Crouch got to a corner and headed it goalwards, but straight at Almunia. Kuyt had cunningly stayed in position right in front of the keeper and got his head to the ball, adding a slight deflection so close to Almunia that there was no way he could react in time to stop it going past him.

Julio Baptista replaced Robin van Persie but Liverpool kept pressing. Aurelio volleyed wide after a cross from their right had drifted over the defence to him, and Kuyt headed wide after being given too much space in the box. Many more chances like this and they'd be putting one away.

Then, with 5 minutes to go, Henry won possession in the centre circle and passed it diagonally forward towards the left touchline. He passed it to himself, but he was still in the centre circle. So, off he hares in pursuit of Jamie Carragher who was clear favourite to get there first. Carragher did just about get there first but despite a huge head start for the Liverpool defender, Henry was on his shoulder already. It looked like Carragher was trying to control the ball rather than hoof it out, but Henry was too strong for him and all Carragher succeeding in doing was keeping the ball in for the Arsenal captain. With Carragher on the floor, Henry picked the ball up and ran for the box. He came up against a defender when he got to the corner of the box, but jinked to his right to find a bit of space and fired low past (under) Dudek for 3-1. Marvellous.

I'm sure I can't be the only one whose first reaction at the final whistle was,

"Fantastic. I bet we get Bolton in the next round..."