Arsenal Squad

MA1 Manuel Almunia, AD2 Abou Diaby, BS3 Bacary Sagna, CF4 Cesc Fabregas, TV5 Thomas Vermaelen, LK6 Laurent Koscienly, TR7 Tomas Rosicky, SN8 Samir Nasri, 9, RvP10 Robin van Persie, CV11 Carlos Vela, 12, 13, TW14 Theo Walcott, D15 Denilson, AR16 Aaron Ramsey, AS17 Alexander Song Bilong, SS18 Sebastien Squillaci JW19 Jack Wilshere JD20 Johan Djourou, LF21 Lukasz Fabianski, GC22 Gael Clichy, AS23 Andrey Arshavin, VM24 Vito Mannone, 25, 26, EE27 Emmanuel Eboue, KG28 Kieran Gibbs, MC29 Marouane Chamakh, AT30 Armand Traore, 31, 32, 33, NB52 Nicklas Bendtner, WS53 Wojciech Szczesny

Our starting 11 on the day

MA1,BS3, LK6, TV5, GC22, CF4 (TR7), AS17, AD2, TW14, Rvp10 (MC29), AA23 (JW19) Subs not used LF21, EE27, CV11, KG28, Injured or suspended (S); Ramsey, Nasri, Bendtner, Frimpong.

Wenger may not have appealed to the Walrus headed Blackburn manager in the pre-match banter but their fans were quite happy for Arsene to provide them with autographs prior to kick-off on a wet day in the Northwest. Rovers only lost 3 at home last season so this was always going to be a tough one.

The usual time-wasting and towelled long throws from Pedersen, long pumped free kicks from their own half, a fair number of long punts and all the usual leave your foot in tackles. But the boys were not intimidated, gave as good as they got and never looked at all shaky in the air. Laurent Koscienly must have found the whole thing rather alien but stuck to his task well for most of the match. Two 80-yard balls down the middle set the tone for them, as did a goal-bound shot from Andrey that hit a defender and could have gone anywhere for us.

After ten minutes Blackburn's only ploy had been long throws or pumped free-kicks, but they had seen Cesc head off the line from Nelson. Another half decent header saw Almunia save. Manuel had a good game throughout with just the one punched ball which wasn't cleared as well as he'd have liked. Cesc to Theo with an almost ball, then Blackburn caught offside on the break. Samba headed over from a corner. Arshavin with a shot blocked. Song to Arshavin to Robin who laid it on for Theo to hit a well paced powerful low drive beyond Robinson at the far post. 0-1 Arsenal, a great goal and one, which as was discovered later, actually broke the netting.

Sevilla have confirmed they have now accepted a £6.5million offer from Arsenal for defender Sebastien Squillaci.

The Frenchman is currently en route to England tonight for a medical on Monday morning with a view to signing for Arsenal ahead of next Tuesday's transfer deadline.

A statement on the Sevilla website read: 'Defender Sebastien Squillaci is tonight travelling to London to have a medical at Arsenal, the club he will be transferred to after an agreement was reached by the two clubs pending the results of the medical.'

Squillaci, 30, will strengthen an Arsenal rearguard weakened by the departures of William Gallas, Mikael Silvestre, Sol Campbell and Philippe Senderos if he does put pen to paper and complete a move to the Emirates Stadium.

The former Lyon centre-half, who joined Sevilla from Les Gones two years ago, asked to be left out of the side for the Champions League play-off against Braga last week so he would not be cup-tied for European competition.