Van Persie 9, Adebayor 45, 78 (pen), 89 – Divers: Eboue

Thanks, Manu… you had to go and fuck up my lovely prognostication by scoring a hat trick rather than be satisfied with a brace, didn’t you? I’ll see if I can find it in my heart to forgive you. Oh, and… welcome home, you goal scoring lion. We missed you. And I bet it felt good to hear those Adebayor chants at Ewood today, didn’t it? Well deserved, too.

Despite my man Theo Walcott lining up on the left, with Emmanuel Eboue on the right, we dominated. Emmanuel Adebayor & Robin van Persie were up front, with Cesc Fabregas & Denilson in the middle. Our typical back four rounded things out and it proved far too much for Paul Ince’s squad. At 8′, Robin weaved his magic to get a left-footed flick just round the defense, and if it wasn’t going in, Ade was there to see it through. One nil to the Arsenal.

We continued to dominate most of the first half, with a random sneaky attack by Rovers, none of which paid off. Then, at 45+1′ Adebayor heads in a Denilson cross, and then immediately shows us that Elaine Benes wasn’t such a bad dancer after all. The Adebayor/Henry Swordfight Cockdance was bad, but this new one he’s trying to cultivate looks worse. We’ll see… but, it didn’t stop the visiting fans from getting up and singing the “Adebayor! Give him the ball, and he will score!” chant. Brilliant.

At 47′, Theo Walcott made a lovely little run through the Blackburn defense to have himself a shot on goal, but it did little more than sting Paul Robinson’s mitts. Theo has been tireless all game and working his own brand of magic from the opening whistle. He’s selfless and figures into every serious move forward.

At 56′,  Eboue nearly hammers one through, but Robinson fingernails it over the crossbar. He tries again 20 seconds later and skies it. Eboue haters, you can’t say he’s not trying.

At 66′, Physios are brought on to blow Morten’s nose. Looks like he took a smash to the beak. It’s been a pretty open second half. Blackburn threatens continuously, but Arsenal always manage to rein it in. At 81′,  an Eboue dive (somewhat) sees Adebayor to the spot and my prognostication is complete (for the moment). At this point, I’m a little scared by myself. If we leak a late goal from Santa Cruz, I might pee a little. But it’s not to be. As much as it looked like Eboue took a dive on that play, and he might have, the injury looked real. While the commentators were looking at the replay for contact, they failed to see Eboue’s left foot get hyperextended on the pitch, which can suck… a lot. I can’t imagine even Eboue having himself stretchered off the pitch to sell a dive, particularly after the penatly was given and the PK scored.

At 89′, Gael Clichy, execllent all match – as usual, is down on the pitch. Not good. We really need him to stay healthy. He walks off of his own volition… can’t be too serious. I hope. We held out and then Adebayor goes and, despite being incredulous that the offsides flag hadn’t gone up for the first time all match, he goes and puts his hat trick away at 90+2′.

A comprehensive victory over Rovers away. My dog is avoiding me at all costs, following the wife about. I have yet to check in and see how the other teams have done, but I’m hoping for dismal results from the rest of the big four five. GO ON, YOU ARSENAL! Great match!