Arsenal:
             Lehmann
     Toure Campbell Cygan Cole
Ljungberg (Edu 83) Vieira Gilberto Pires
     Henry Bergkamp (Parlour 74)

Dwight Yorke missed a great chance within the first minute, when a ball into the box just eluded Campbell's outstretched toe and found Yorke unmarked near the penalty spot. He had plenty of time but placed his shot a foot wide of the right hand post. 8 minutes later Lehmann came out to make a good catch to intercept a cross from our left which would otherwise have given Yorke an even easier chance. Lehmann had a good game throughout, but there were a few hearth-stopping moments later on when he came a long way out to make a catch. And a few of those times he seemed a little lucky, in that the cross only just evaded a Blackburn head before it got through to the keeper.

After the first 10 minutes or so Arsenal started to take complete control and dominated the first half pretty thoroughly. The fact that we scored after 12 minutes didn't do any harm, as it forced Rovers to make a bit of an effort and hence leave us a bit of space to attack in. I'm not saying they wouldn't have done so anyway, but we'll never know will we? I heard a few people on the way out of the ground saying stuff like "at least they had a go, Fulham just came for the point". But the thing is, after 12 minutes Blackburn didn't have a point to protect. I dare say Fulham would have attacked more if they'd been 1 down.

Anyway, the goal came after a long passing move from Arsenal. The ball ended up with Toure on the right wing about halfway into their half with Gresko in front of him and with the crowd yelling "skin him" Toure obliged. He took the long way round Gresko, heading for the goalline and then turning 90 degrees left, and beat him more with strength than pace. He kind of lost the ball at the end, with Gresko stretching to get a slight touch on it, but although the ball had been touched away from him Toure's strength got him to the ball first and he managed to poke it back to ergkamp who was unmarked 8 yards out. One touch to control, and another to pass the ball just inside the near post, nutmegging a defender to unsight Friedel.

On this showing, we may have to learn to live with the fact that Toure is also our best right back. We may not be able to clone him but let's hope it's not too long before his brother can join in!

Arsenal should have scored a few more in the first half. Freddie set Bob up nicely but he shot straight at the keeper. Then Freddie broke down the right and passed to Henry in the D, he turned 18 degrees and passed the ball on in a single movement, finding Vieira's unmarked run down the left. But Paddy rushed a left-foot shot when he had plenty of time to take his time, and scuffed it wide. The Bob hit a wonderful curling shot from outside the box which thumped into the right hand post and out. Henry tried to flick the ball round a defender and run the other way round, and claimed a pen when the defrender's hand stopped the ball's progress. But it would have been harsh, ball -to-hand as they say and all cos Henry's skill had the defender unaware of what was going on. Dennis was given offside several times when put clear on the break, and it was a very narrow decision every time. A shot from Freddie ballooned up off a defender and down onto Pires' head, it was a hard chance whch Bob made look even harder.

Rovers came at us a lot more in the second half and we had a few dodgy moments. The worst was when Babbel headed the ball into the net and we thought a goal had been given. But the ref (or possibly the lino) judged that he was climbing on Toure at the far post as the cross came over. I have to say it looked a lucky decision for us, as Toure didn't seem to have gone for the ball at all. Andy D'Urso is one of the least popular refs at Highbury and the Arsenal fans were giving him lots of stick. Maybe on quantity of decisions he was against us, he did fail to give us a good few free kicks going forward. But the big decisions went out way: as well as the disallowed goal there was a free kick he gave our way as they attacked on the edge of our box, when it looked to me more like our defenders had collided with each other.

We had a couple of chances. Henry jumped well for a free-kick on the right wing but headed straight at Friedel. At the death Edu (on as sub) nearly connected with Bob's cross with a diving header, this after Henry and Bob had taken the ball to the corner to waste time but then miraculously emerged from a crowd of defenders to brign the ball goalwards.

But the second half was more a tale of Arsenal defending. All the defenders made some big tackles, including Cygan who had possibly his best game yet. Lehmann had another heartstopping moment when he dropped the ball on the 6 yard line but we scrambled it clear, and another when he made a good point-blank save from a corner only to see it go straight to Yorke, but too quickly and he could only react fast enough for the ball to coem straight back and over the bar.

With Chelsea losing at home to Bolton on the Saturday, this result takes Arsenal back to the top of the table.