Well you did Fat Sam, get used to it and when you come to The Emirates later this season it will be by a greater scoreline…..

So what of the game then? Within about five minutes Sky Sports announced that we had been drawn to play Tottingham Hotscum in the Carling Cup and at their ground too. Deep joy I thought, time for our kids to get revenge in that one…

Soon after that the rain fell and the towels were outwell, for all the Blackburn players who were winding up their long throw-ins, in fact I don’t recall seeing any of our players using towels to dry the ball. See we are not soft, we don’t mind getting our shirts dirty……

We were the team with the first real chance, Walcott blasted a shot from ten yards out, only for it to be blocked but straight into the path of Diaby who smashes it at one of the Blackburn players, the ball bouncing up into the arms of Paul Robinson…

Blackburn then had a bit of possession, not too much but enough to make me start worrying, especially Ryan Nelson headed a ball towards goal, but for Cesc, it would have been 1-0!! Then Samba had a little hoof towards goal which Almunia cleared away, phew, still 0-0!

Then it was our turn, an almost inch perfect pass through the middle from Cesc nearly found Theo Walcott but Samba got his toe in first..

It was all quite until 19 minutes were on the clock….

The Little Russian who was having a very busy day so far, played the ball to Robin van Persie who then played a perfect ball to the onfire Theo Walcott. In his current mood there was only going to be one outcome. I thought he had gone to wide, I was wrong! 1-0 to Arsenal, an inch perfect power shot that broke the netting of the goal.

Another chance for Blackburn but Samba heads over the bar!

Blackburn go in search of an equaliser but the offside flag goes up and it wasn’t long before Old Slim Jim was opening yet another packet of chewing gum, shouting a load of old dross from the technical area. He was riled and I was happy….

Little bit of a blip on 26 minutes, sloppy defensive work by Diaby as he lets Samba breeze past him then play a perfect ball to El-Hadji Diouf who in turn srugs off Laurent Koscielny and sets one of the most simple chances up for Mame Diouf who makes it 1-1.

Two Diouf’s in one team, one has always been bad enough….!!

Shortly after that, our worst fears, Robin tries a bit of fancy footie but it all went horribly wrong, he catches his ankle and not long after he has to go off. Right now it’s believe to be ten days out, just pray the scans don’t tell us anything different!

On comes Chamakh (Loved it when he decided to not allow Samba to jump in the penalty area)

Can’t believe that yesterday was only Robin’s 200th game for us, he’s been at Arsenal for twenty years πŸ˜‰

The rest of the first half saw Blackburn have a few half chances, Almunia made a couple of decent saves, we broke after a free-kick at lightning pace and look like we could be on to regain the lead, only for that numpty half wit of a ref to pull play back as Pedersen is on the floor with a broken toenail;)

Into half-time and honours even. Which team would come out for Arsenal after the break…..?

Well, we soon found out, we came out stronger and more determined in the second half and I don’t think Blackburn really got a sniff – even Slim Jim said in the second half we were the better side. Robinson continued to hoof every ball he had the chance to, in hope of finding a goal but it was us that looked the more likely to score.

On 51 minutes, what turned out to be our winner, finally came…

Cesc, who had been totally off the boil all game, played the ball to Sagna out on the right, his cross went back to our captain who fired in towards goal, his shot was blocked but then fell into the path of Audrey Arshavin, from just twelve yards he wasn’t going to miss was he, he didn’t and 2-1 to Arsenal. Arshavin deserved that goal, he had been hard working, tracking back, lively in and around the box with his neat swift passing. A few times he lined himself up to shoot only to have the ball taken off his feet – good goal and game over, not that my heart and head believed it then…….

67 minutes and the Captain goes off, good move as he isn’t fit yet….

We have a few more half chances, as did Blackburn, but nothing to get too excited about, Arshavin had another chance but his shot went flying over the net… Walcott burst away down the wing only to be tugged back by Givet who receives a yellow card…

Again a few half chances for both sides but we ‘hang on’ with ease really. Then Arshavin goes off and Little Jack comes on, shortly after walcott slots the ball home only to see the offside flag raised… With only minutes to go, again we catch Blackburn on the back foot, Chamakh finds Walcott who squares it to Wilshere. He slipped as he unleashes his shot and Robinson makes the save. Shortly after, Rosicky has another chance, the ball played out to him by Theo, he fires wide, dreadfully wide.

Not perfect but we held on. We won and for a short time we wereΒ top of the league…….

I don’t do player marks, if I did I would just give the whole team and the boss a 10 πŸ™‚

Have a great day all, I know I will…..