Arsenal:
              Almunia
      Lauren Campbell Toure Cole
Ljungberg Vieira Cesc (Flamini 78) Pires
      Reyes (Clichy 68) Henry

It was also the first clean sheet since October 2nd, but it's hard to put that down to the suprising change of keeper. Dropping Lehmann, although he's not been playing badly, is I guess justified given the lack of clean sheets. But Almunia, despite a few very good saves, had hardly given the best advertisement for himself in last week's League Cup loss when he cocked up for the early and only goal.

It was a bit odd that no-one saw fit to give the league debutant an early touch of the ball. His first touch came after about 10 minutes when he was put under presuure by a dodgy backpass and had to rush his clearance.

The best moment of a first half in which we had lots of possession and hence lots of opportunities to give the ball away needlessly, was a Pires cross which hit Robbie Savage in the face at very close range. Nice to see that he saw the funny side too, as he was taken off the pitch with blood streaming from his nose...

Straight after that, on 10 minutes, a Reyes shot was blocked but skewed wide to Pires who had a go first time from a very narrow angle and could only blast it short of the near post. Moments later Henry was put clear down the right and despite, unusually, havign 3 red shirts to aim at in the box, he chipped it far too strong and right over to the far side and safety for the Blues.

A nice backheel from Freddie put Vieira in, and he passed forward for Henry. A defender did well to get his body in the way and force a corner (which Reyes took poorly, one of those ones we seem to do all the time where it's just hit low at a defender on the near post). Then Freddie played another nice ball, this time through the middle for Henry to run onto, but he had to stretch and didn't quite control the ball well enough to hang onto it.

On the half hour Cesc did Almunia no favours again with an unnecessary backpass from the corner flag where he was under pressure. Credit to the keeper though, he came out his goal well to clear with Savage bearing down on him.

Soon after that we were ahead. Pires started it from the left, passing into the box for Freddie who took it with his back to goal and turned into a wall of defenders. But it popped back and Pires, having followed his pass, was there to hit it first-time, low inside the right hand post. Taylor in the City goal dived and got a hand to it but couldn't stop it going in. It was Bobby's 50th league goal for the club.

Just before the break a nice combination between Cesc and Henry ended with Henry's chip towards Cesc in the D. He chested it down and hit it on the volley as he turned, but only scuffed it through to the keeper. Moments later, Henry latched onto Vieira's diagonal ball forward to the right, took it deep, and crossed to the far post where Reyes slid in and was inches away from turning it in.

8 minutes after halftime we had a great break which ended with Freddie being clearly brought down by Clapham in the box, although the ref didn't see it that way. Freddie had been playing well all game, and interestingly mostly in the middle rather than on the right wing (a strategy to deal with our recent problems being over-run in that area?), but was really really up for it after that penalty claim.

12 minutes into the second half the visitors had their first shot on goal when the ball broke luckily for Heskey. But he rushed his shot and hit it wide.

There was a good chance for Henry after Ljungberg's brilliant battling and cross, but he placed the header straight at Taylor.

Clichy came on for Reyes, who'd been having another quiet game, and went to the left of midfield with Pires moving to the right and Freddie going up front where he'd clearly been desperate to be!

At the same time, Clinton Morrison came on for Dunn, and almost scored with his first touch. It came to him in space on the left of the box and he shot low inside the far post. It looked easy enough for the keeper but somehow it squirmed through and although it was almost another howler he did well to recover and pounce on the ball on the line.

Heskey had another shot which went well over, and then with 10 minutes to go Henry scored a classic solo goal. The ball came to him on the left wing just inside City's half and he skipped over a tackle as he turned, and raced towards goal with Melchiot trailing behind, before clipping it past the keeper in typical style from close range.

5 minutes later Freddie made another with another great turn and run into the box on the right. He then hit a perfect high cross to the far post where Henry was loitering between 2 defenders and all he had to do was stoop and let it bounce off his bonce into the net.

Still 5 points behind Chelsea after their 4-0 home win against Newcastle. But, although the scoreline might have flattered us a bit, this was rather more like what we expect.