Arsenal:
                      Lehmann
              Lauren Toure Cygan Cole
Pennant (Ljungberg) Gilberto Fabregas (Flamini) Pires
             Bergkamp (Reyes) Henry

Pennant had started in place of Ljungberg and he got involved quite a bit. A long Gilberto cross from the left found him coming infield, and in quite a bit of space in the D, but Pennant failed to take the pace off the ball when he tried to trap it, and it bounced away from him. Moments later he went on a good cross-field run but hit a loose pass at the end of it. Just after that, on 14 minutes, things clicked for him when he got to the goal line and hit an excellent cross which was headed clear before it could reach Henry.

But all this attacking and not scoring served to encourage Rovers to come forward, and for the rest of the half they were pretty adventurous. With former gunner and current nomad Paul Dickov being particularly busy. Just before the half hour Lehmann made a good save from a Craig Short volley, diving down to his left, Lauren blocked Dickov's shot from the first rebound, and John Stead fired wide from the second.

Then they had another moment of danger after Lauren's slip on the right wing, it was hit across goal but the Arsenal defence bundled it clear. Within minutes Lehmann was having to come out to make a crucial punch clear, and then save from Dickov.

For 20 minutes or so Arsenal had little of the play, and Henry hardly saw the ball. Partly through lack of ambition on our part, and partly through Rovers' hard work. But things picked up as half time approached. On 37 minutes Henry and Pennant combined well down the right. The latter's cut back cross from the goal line was left by both Bergkamp and Pires, as Fabregas was making a run into more space on the far side of the box. But he snatched at the shot a bit and hit it wide.

Soon after, there was great play on the other wing from Cole and Pires. Bobby ended up passing forward into the box for Ashley, who was tackled. The ball came back to Pires who was a bit surprised and hence rushed his shot, hitting it beyond the far post. A very good chance. And at the end of the half Dennis's free kick was floated from the right, and nodded back by Pires near the 6 yard line to Fabregas near the penalty spot. He hit his shot well and it would surely have been a goal but for hitting Pires on the way.

At the start of the second half Cole came close to scoring with what may even have been a shot from deep on the left. It may have been a far post cross. Either way. it only just failed to creep inside the top right hand corner. And then from the other side of the pitch Pennant cut inside, runnign square across the edge of the box but, when it opened up for him, he hit his shot straight down Friedel's throat.

Then, 5 minutes after the break, Fabregas fed Bergkamp on the right, and he whipped in a perfect cross which curled between Friedel and his back line, allowing Henry to nip in and score from close range.

5 minutes later we won a couple of corners which Henry took from the left. Gilberto jumped high to get his head to the first at the far post, but couldn't keep it down. But soon after, the second corner went further and lower and this time Gilberto stooped to head home. Although it was credited to the Brazilian in the stadium at the time, it looks like it came off Fabregas near the line so it's going to be his goal (another record for the young Spaniard).

Halfway through the half Gilberto possibly should have got on the score sheet permanently, after a great left-to-right cross-field pass by Bergkamp he controlled it well but hit his early shot wide of the right hand post.

Then Fabregas made a run down the centre and was found with a neat pass. He was barged off the ball by Lucas Neil and the ref, who arguably had the best view of anyone, didn't give anything. But the linesman flagged for a foul and Neil can count himself lucky not to be shown his second yellow card of the match not only for the foul but for his subsequent abuse of the linesman. He may have been saved by the fact that the ref was distracted by Craig Short's throwing the ball away (he did get booked). After a lot of sillyness in the wall (a lot of stamping on Gilberto and Cygan's feet, to be specific), Henry hit the free kick into the wall and Coel blasted the rebound high and wide.

Just after that, with 14 minutes to go, Bergkamp and Pennant came off to be replaced by Ljungberg and Reyes. Henry took the captain's armband from Dennis.

Cygan husteld Dickov off the ball after a good ball over thetop looked like setting the little scot free. Then Henry capitalised on defensive dithering in the centre circle, stole the ball and set off towards Friedel's goal. The keeper made a fantastic save, reaching low to his left. But it came back to Henry. He could have tried another shot, he could have tried to find Freddie who had made it to the penalty box with him. But no, he waited for Reyes who was running into the wide open space on the far side of the box, found him with a perfectly rolled pass, and started making his way upfield because he just knew that Jose was going to bury it. And, of course, he did.

Moments later, Dwight Yorke (on from the bench to some very funny but not very nice Arsenal chants) missed a free header. Then Flamini came on for Cesc for the last 5 minutes. We nearly got a couple more ourselves in injury time. Freddie broke clear on the right after a great Lauren tackle. But with Henry and Pires both running into space on the far side, he over-hit his pass for them by miles. Then there was a lovely break involcing Pires, Reyes, and Pires again. Bobby got the ball in front of Friedel on the right, and did the typical Arsenal thing of trying to pass it into the net when perhaps the percentage play would have been to have a whack at goal. And right at the death, Henry's cross from the right evaded Pires' lunge in the 6 yard box, by inches.

So, 43 matches unbeaten, a new record. A record for Cesc as well (youngest Arsenal scorer in the Premiership). See record-breakers page for details.

But perhaps the most significant event tonight was a clean sheet. 3 wins out of 3 is lovely of course, but you can't go all season conceding goals like we did against Boro and expect to retain the title.

Rupe adds...
Thanks to Christian for reminding me to encourage the new Fabregas song. "... He's only seventeen. He's better than Roy Keane".