With injuries to Henry, Bergkamp, Edu, Sol and Pires (flu), the Gunners were dealt a further blow, minutes before the kickoff, when Freddie twisted an ankle. Van Persie took his place as once again we had to rely on our youngsters to face another physical team; who this time were fighting to stay clear of the relegation zone.

Rovers began brightly with a good early chance flashing across the six yard box. They fought to breakdown Arsenals free flowing game to prevent the Gunners from settling into the game. Van Persie had a good chance after Fabregas chipped a neat ball through but Friedel came out to get a touch on the ball to snuff out the danger. Though we lacked our usually coordination and our passes were poor, we soon got into our strides, even if, at times, passes did not reach their destination. Blackburn had to reshuffle their defense after they lost Matteo through injury. Pederson tested Lehman on few occasions but Jens refused to buckle.

The first half was generally low key from our usually game until on 43 minutes Van Persie produced a polished finish to put the Gunners ahead. Ashley (who had a good game considering the recent controversies) received a pass from Senderos which he superbly collected, turning sharply before slotting an incisive ball through to Van Persie whose sweet turn at the edge of the area reduced the Blackburn defense to bystanders, before he finished in style, dribbling round Friedel, and walking the ball home. The goal was wonderfully taken and gave us a glimpse of what he can do when he fully matures.

Blackburn's defensive plan, which has worked so well in recent weeks, was further disrupted when skipper Andy Todd failed to appear after half time through illness. The second half saw a very confident and more organized play from Arsenal and the Gunners nearly doubled the lead barely minutes after the interval; when Fabregas’s mazy run saw him dance in to the box from nearly our half. He failed to get a shot in, and the ball fell to Reyes who forced Friedel to make a smart save. Once again Arsenal produced another flowing movement and almost scored again, in the 67^th minute, when Reyes, who was more lively in the second half, passed a good ball to Van Persie who was unlucky to see his curling left foot shot from the right edge of the area glance the crossbar.

Just one goal behind Blackburn felt they could snatch a point from the game and they almost got an underserved equalizer when Emerton lashed a shot wide nine minutes from time and Reid who had a better chance in the last minutes fired wide when clear on goal. As the game neared 97 minutes one wondered when Graham Poll would signal the end of the game but it eventually ended one goal to nil, a deserved victory for the Gunners.

This was another hard fought game with Blackburn looking to take out players with malicious challenges on Reyes, Vieira and Flamini. And at 23 fouls Blackburn had committed more fouls than any team in the Premiership this Saturday.

The game was a thorough test of character for this young Arsenal side, for when their fluency was missing, in the early stages of the game, or when the pressure was on in the closing stages, they refused to panic. In the final analysis it was another deserved victory, plus another clean sheet, to boost the Gunners defense and co