4:20am Pacific Standard Time. If the game had been any other time I would have gone down to my local. But as it stands nothing is open and even dedicated football fans don’t risk the wrath of the liquor control board when their business is at stake. So, instead I’m at my couch, Coffee is on, dog has been put out, and I settle in for the pre-game.

4:30am. Normally the wizened old commentators are horrible but Steve McManaman and Robbie Mustoe are doing a really good job being complimentary about both Arsenal and Blackburn. For example, I didn’t once here the cliche that dominates all conversation before and after these games in England about how Sam Allardyce has a “hoodoo” over Arsene Wenger.

4:45am. Holy crap, I thought kickoff would be closer to 5am. I’m surprised and haven’t had a chance to set things up on the blog. Now, we are off and already it’s nothing but set plays. Arsenal are doing well with the constant barrage from Blackburn.

5:00am — ok, 10 minutes in and Arsenal should be ahead 2-0, Diouf should have been sent off for headbutting Almunia, Almunia is doing very well dealing with the Blackburn set pieces, Gamst has discovered his true talent as a ball wiper, and Paul Robinson has discovered his lone talent as a long kicker.

17′ — Samba uses Diaby’s shoulders to gain an advantage and misses an open header. Arshavin and Cesc starting a bit slow.

19′ — Throw… ball wiping… THEO!!! Arsenal were threatening the whole game, opening Blackburn at nearly every opportunity. And van Persie plays in Theo who score a brilliant goal in the fart post, unstoppable, but hey, he’s got no brain right? Score more now Arsenal! TO THE TOP OF THE TABLE

25′ — Theo lets the ball drift across his body and destroys his marker who is reduced to pulling Walcott’s shirt. No call but Theo wins a corner. He’s having a hell of a match already.

26′ — El Hadji Douche rolls Koscielny and slides the ball past a quiescent Clichy and Vermaelen who somehow lost all of their markers. Pathetic, weak defending, and I’m not sure who should shoulder the blame there — Clichy for losing Diouf? Koscielny for getting shrugged off by a midget? Vermaelen for not organizing them? All of the above?

34′ — FUCK. Robin van Persie is down and I’m really, really, really and tired of saying that. But here’s the other thing, why did Chris Foy stop Arsenal’s attack 1 minute ago when that diver Gamst was down in the other end of the field, and yet he allowed Blackburn to play on with van Persie down RIGHT AROUND THE PLAY.

37′ — ball wiping. Song is having a poor game, giving the ball away cheaply.

39′ — Gamst knocks Diaby over as he’s having a shot. No call of course because Chris Foy either doesn’t understand what a foul is, is blind, or…

43′ — you know what Gamst wants for Christmas? Another couple of balls and an extra set of hands. I’m saying he fidgets with his balls a lot.

46′ — So what position is it that Clichy plays? Because he’s never marking his wide attacker.

Half time and all the old ghosts, save one, are evident. Almunia is having a really good game and is exercising some demons here so, straight away I have to give him credit. Meanwhile, Clichy is having another poor performance and Song is turning the ball over too much. We need to stop giving the ball away cheaply and start marking people. Clichy, in particular is to blame for their goal: he looked back, saw Blackburn’s leading goal scorer and LET HIM RUN UNMARKED. Koscielny deserves some credit for the Blackburn goal and if he’s getting pushed over by Diouf he will be crumpled up and thrown away by a beast like Drogba. I have to think that Squillaci will seriously challenge Koscielny for a starting spot if he’s going to be brushed aside that easily.

Cesc looks tired and I don’t know why it’s not like he played a ton of minutes in the World Cup. Arshavin is trying to be tricky but it was basic passing football that got the goal. Theo is tearing Blackburn to shreds and my only hope for him is that he retires from international football, because we’ll need him healthy as Robin van Persie is probably going to be out for several months now.

As for Blackburn, well, it’s the same old shit: long balls, ball wipers, Diouf is a Douche, Chris Foy is giving them every advantage, and Christopher Samba is a large man.

Meh. We can still win this, their defense is pathetic — I should say slightly more pathetic than ours today — and our offense is custom made to score goals. Chamakh with the winner?

47′ — Arsenal start the second half and continue to look off the boil a bit. Come on boys.

51′ — Sagna saves Chamakh’s blushes and then strips the paint off El Hadji Douche to put in a great cross, Theo has a shot, and the rebound falls to Arshavin who puts away with aplomb. Now, let’s get 5 more.

53′ — Cesc shows what he can do and plays in a lovely ball to the onrushing Chamakh, who’s shot is blocked. A win at Blackburn would be a huge confidence boost.

60′ — Diaby is having a massive game. He is really putting himself out there and winning duels. Plus he’s been marking Samba. He deserves a goal and I have to say that I really love the combination of Diaby and Song (though Song is having a poor game.

63′ — they just flashed that Arsenal have had 72% of the possession in the second half.  Much better all around from all the players.

66′ — Salgado takes Arshavin out and 99% of the time, that’s a yellow card 100% of the time. Chris Foy elects to make it that 1% and no card is shown. I wonder if Wenger’s words about “Rugby” hasn’t backfired a bit, or is this just an exceptionally clean game? You make the call!

70′ — oh hey look, Cesc is off and Rosicky is on. We will see all an action 20′ from Thomas I predict. Counter attacking goals?

74′ — Givet gets the first yellow for nearly stripping Theo bare after the Englishman turned him inside out like a tube sock.

78′ — Theo has a crack at goal and it looks like Robinson might have got a finger on it. Balls are being wiped.

80′ — replays show that Arsenal are fighting Samba in the box. My feeling is that if he’s allowed to put hands on the defender’s shoulders on a jump, we should be allowed to Greco-Roman wrestle him to the ground. It’s only fair.

83′ — It’s a “battle of wits” as Allardyce plays all his cards and pushes Christopher Samba into the center forward role. Sad, really.

85′ — Chris Foy makes a pigs ear of that as the Blackburn defender clearly handles the ball and thus played Theo on side, or at least we should have had a free kick. Terrible refereeing.

87′ — I’m getting nervous now, but I have to say I loved seeing Wilshere tackle Samba. Brilliant. FUCK… CLICHY. Come on.

90′ — Rosicky had a shot well wide on a counter as Christopher Samba shows that like Gamst, he is also a diving cheater. Ball wiping.

91′ — Wilshere just slips on a wide open shot. Come on Arsenal, this is ours.

AWESOME WIN. I couldn’t possible be happier. Arsenal’s second half performance was massive and we played very physically against a team who tried to out-muscle us. More thoughts tomorrow, though I’d love to hear who you think Man of the Match was.