Arsenal:
                  Lehmann
          Lauren Campbell Toure Cole
Ljungberg (Keown 87) Vieira Gilberto Pires (Edu 70)
          Henry Bergkamp (Reyes 83)

Not so at half time. Leicester had scored just after halfway through the first period, against the run of play. Sinclair intercepted a pass meant for Cole on the wing, halfway into the City half. He raced clear of Ashley and put over a hanging cross to the far post. Lehmann came to that post to try to block but Dickov placed his header nicely past the big German keeper. Some were saying after that Lehmann made a mistake coming for it, but I prefer to think that it was simply a perfect cross.

Arsenal had a good half apart from that, but were faced with the common problem of having to deal with a 10-man defence. Dickov did very well up front on his own, and when they did get the rare chance to break they joined him in numbers. But really it was all Arsenal.

Lauren went down on the edge of the box. There may have been a little shirt-pulling but he went down far too easily. Then Freddie burst into the box on the right, from a central position, and put his shot across the face of goal.

Henry did well to win a corner on the left then wasted it. But moments later he was taking a free kick from 30 yards out which was dipping just under the bar until Walker got up to push it over. Then it was Pires turn to take a poor corner. But Henry chased the ball well to win it back and set up Pires again deep on the right. He went the other way to Freddie, shooting into the side-netting.

After City's opener we had an excellent spell. Henry battled to keep the ball on the edge of the D then set up Dennis who made a half-chance out of nothing but hit the shot a yard wide. Then Bobby hit a curler from a yard outside the left hand corner of the box, which just failed to curl inside the far top corner. Henry also had a great effort which was deflected over the bar, and then another which like Pires's curled just beyond the top corner.

Then Pires hit a long-range shot which Walker spilled. It looked to eb up fro grabs but he did well to scramble over and claim the loose ball with Henry and Ljungberg both flying in. A poor clearance from Stewart fell to Cole on the edge of the box but he appeared to be a bit surprised by it and scuffed his shot easily through to Walker.

We'd done little wrong, except perhaps in that things were constricted a bit too much down the middle. That all changed in at the start of the second half, with Cole in particular playing almost as a centre forward for the first few minutes. It paid off almost immediately as he latched onto a typical superb chip into the box from Bergkamp. Ashley chested it down and headed goalwards, and then Sinclair brough him down. Henry started his run up miles away, and dispatched the penalty low to the left.

Sinclair picked up a booking - the first of Paul Durkin's last Premiership match.

Arsenal continued to dominate, and the second goal came halfway through the half after a patient build-up. Again it was Bergkamp's passing that made the difference. This time it was Vieira who made the run into the box, from left to right, picking the ball up centrally and ghosting wide of Walker before passing it into the empty net.

Leciester had few attacks. The only one which springs to mind was when Vieira fouled Dickov and the free kick was floated to the far post - but Bent jumped too far ahead of it and could only back-head it out for a goal-kick.

Henry blasted a pass at Bergkamp who handled it nicely with a first touch back to Freddie. He set it up for Vieira whose cannon of a shot hit a defender in the head, knocking him off his feet.

There was a moment in the second half which summed up half of what Henry's all about. An Arsenal corner fell to the substitute keeper Coyne (not sure why Walker and Feund were brought off - perhaps so we cold give them a warm send-off from Highbury, we might not be seeing them there again). He threw it straight out up their right wing to the other sub Brooker, who was completely clear on that side of the pitch. Henry chased him down from the penalty box and was on him and dispossessing before the poor guy knew what was happening. Pace like that should not be wasted merely on goal-scoring, and in Henry's case it is not.

The singing of Keown's name started after 2 minutes, and started up again at the end when the 1-goal cushion allowed Wenger to bring him on. A couple of minutes on the right wing again, just a cameo but no-one would begrudge him it.