Arsenal:
               Lehmann
       Hoyte Toure Senderos Clichy
  Hleb Gilberto Cesc (Djourou 89) Rosicky
Henry (Adebayor 79) van Persie (Flamini 67)

Not much had happened in the first 12 minutes. Jens Lehmann had to come out too cut out a long ball forward, and had had to backpedal when a cross deflected over him off of Justin Hoyte but ended up drifting safely beyond the far post. The corner found Derbyshire in too much space level with the far post but he headed wide.

Then, Robbie Savage happened. Perhaps he was particularly up for it after he had the piss taken out of him in the 6-2 win at Ashburton Grove a few weeks ago. Perhaps he was upset by the way the relentless rain was playing havoc with his hair. He made a bad foul on Gilberto which could have been bookable and as Gilberto went down Savage followed up by running into him (after the whistle had gone for the initial foul) a definite bookable offence and potentially the second in the same incident. From the floor, Gilberto poked out a petulant foot at Savage, and the Rovers man went down like he'd been shot. The ref Rob Styles had no hesitation in showing Gilberto the red card, while Savage got a yellow but just the one.

No question in my mind that Gilberto had to go, it was a silly thing to do. But I think in the mind of just about anyone except possibly, at a stretch, Robbie Savage's mum, it's Savage that was the villain here. That's football. And in the end we probably wouldn't have had it any other way. This young Arsenal side has been showing a few different strings to their bow in recent weeks and today we saw another... the ability to cope with 10 men against a rough side, in crap conditions. At the end of the day we won this one with bottle.

Hardly a classic though and there really isn't much to talk about.

The first goal came 10 minutes before the break. Robin van Persie stole the ball off the foot of Lucas Neil, in the centre circle, and as he went to break forward into the acres of space between there and Brad Friedel Neil turned to hack him down. A yellow card for Neil, who got away with it because 2 other defenders, one to either side, had just made up enough space for the ref to adjudge him not the last man.

Thierry Henry stepped up the free kick and took it quickly. One could forgive Rovers for not expecting it... the only man we had forward was :Kolo_Toure on the left side of the box, with 4 or 5 defenders in the area. Even when we've got a lot of men forward you'd expect Arsenal to knock a free kick like this short and start a passing move forward. But Henry chipped the free kick straight into the box, and Toure was the only man in the there that wanted it. He ran towards the spot, jumped higher, and powered a header towards the left post. Friedel just stood and watched as the ball hit that post and bounced along the goal-line behind him, sneaking in just inside the other post.

A few minutes later Savage missed with a header, similar to Derbyshire's earlier effort. Earlier Pedersen had found a lot of space on our right but driven the ball too close to Jens Lehmann (but with enough power and height to call it a decent save).

Mark Hughes tried to change things in the second half, bringing on Tugay and then Nonda. McCarthy got away with being well offside when Neil slipped the ball through into the box, but fortunately the pass took him to a narrow angle and he shot into the side netting. We were just soaking up pressure now, trying to break free with long balls for van Persie or Henry.

Philippe Senderos went walkabout when a Pederson cross found Nonda unmarked 8 yards out but he headed well over. Then on 67 Neil made a good run into the left side of the box and put in a great chip towards the far post, taking Lehmann out of the equation and finding Derbyshire coming in at that post... but the bounce beat him.

Flamini came on for van Persie, to try to shore things up a bit. But moments later we were 2 up. It started with a Rovers free kick on their right wing, which was intercepted as it was played low towards our box. We broke, Henry carrying the ball up the left wing. There wasn't much support as he ran towards 4 or 5 defenders, but then Cesc popped up a few yards infield of him. Henry passed to Cesc, the defenders buzzed around without making a challenge, and as Henry started to move in from the touchline Cesc slipped it into his path for the skipper to fire a classic Henry shot, curling inside the far post. Friedel managed to get a fingertip to it but couldn't keep it out.

It probably should have been 3 a few minutes later when Rosicky's great diagonal ball from the left wing found Henry just inside the box. He chested it down nicely but blasted over the bar from the penalty spot with his second touch.

Soon after, Adebayor came on for Henry and bustled around a bit - nice to see him back from injury.

Cesc got punished for showing his skills when a frustrated Tugay hacked him down with 10 minutes to go and only got shown a yellow card. Cesc had to go off (for Djourou) but it sounds like the injury's not too bad. As the match came to an end, Rovers had clearly run out of ideas (of a footballing nature, at least). Nonda did get free in the box right at the end but only because Senderos had let him, and to be fair the defender recovered well to get back and prevent a certain goal.