In Seventh Heaven

Hey guys!

Last night, Arsenal demolished Blackburn 7-1. To be honest, I had my worries as Blackburn are unpredictable away from home, managing a draw at Anfield and a victory at Old Trafford. But all went to plan. Well, almost all. Within two minutes, the Gunners were in front. Francis Coquelin, who was given the nod at right back ahead of Bacary Sagna, put Theo Walcott skipping to the byline, whose cut back was tapped in by Robin van Persie. However, the team from Lancashire would manage to level. Laurent Koscielny hauled down Blackburn's Modeste, and from the resulting free kick Morten Gamst Pedersen managed to squeeze a shot into the top corner despite Wojciech Szczesny getting a hand to it. It was unlucky stuff, but they were ahead once again. Alex Song's wonderful pass found Walcott, and it was the same route as the first goal. Walcott's cut back and van Persie tucked home. Then it got even better for the home team. Tomas Rosicky was fouled but the referee played advantage, allowing van Persie to play in Alex Oxlade Chamberlain who rounded Paul Robinson and tapped into an empty net for his first ever Premier League goal. Minutes later, disaster for Blackburn. Mission improbable became mission impossible as Gael Givet was sent off for an ugly lunge on van Persie.

The second half was more of the same, and before too long, Arsenal had scored. As van Persie's corner was cleared, Koscielny set it up perfectly for Mikel Arteta who drove the ball into the bottom corner. You would get the feeling Blackburn were being torn apart. More goals were inevitable. Rosicky played a superb raking pass to Walcott. The winger stormed into the area and found Chamberlain, who used the first touch to control, the second to find the bottom corner. He was superb in the match, but the Man of The Match award went to van Persie. The ever impressive Coquelin used a bit of trickery to get past the full back, his low cross was met by the Dutchman who bombed the ball high into the net. Hat trick mission completed. Wenger made a double substitution, taking off Chamberlain and Koscielny, and bringing on Thierry Henry and Bacary Sagna. Then Alex Song was withdrawn in place of Yossi Benayoun. A seventh finally came. Henry robbed the ball from Grant Hanley, and teed van Persie for the shot. The Dutchman was about to pull the trigger, then unselfishly squared it back for Henry, whose shot took a lucky deflection before ending up in the net. It was job done for the Gunners. Here was Arsenal's team in full:

13 Wojciech Szczesny
39 Francis Coquelin
4 Per Mertesacker
6 Laurent Koscielny
5 Thomas Vermaelen
8 Mikel Arteta
17 Alex Song
7 Tomas Rosicky
14 Theo Walcott
15 Alex Oxlade Chamberlain
10 Robin van Persie

Substitutes:

21 Lukasz Fabianski
3 Bacary Sagna (came on for Koscielny)
16 Aaron Ramsey
23 Andrey Arshavin
30 Yossi Benayoun (came on for Song)
9 Ju Young Park
12 Thierry Henry (came on for Chamberlain)