Well you have to be so incredibly proud of our boys. It was great performance from such an inexperienced side. To hold out, even though a strong Blackburn team came back to level the score it was amazing. After they made it 2-2 I did think the worst, but I’m so proud of how they came through. And with 10 men!

We started with the side I predicted in the preview and Senderos captained the boys. We started really well and Blackburn were shocked. Diaby opened the scoring after 6 minutes, with his left foot!. It was Bendtner who crossed the ball in from the right, which found Diaby’s run. Abou stuck the ball with his right foot but sort of hit it against the ground so it bounced over Friedel. It was a good goal but I don’t think he meant it. That’s not the first time Bendtner has supplied decent cross either, it was good of him to spot Diaby’s run and play the perfect ball.

We were 1-0 up after only 6 minutes but it’s not like we didn’t deserve it. The home team just looked stunned and didn’t know how to deal with these quick, intelligent and fearless young players. Three minutes after the first, Bendtner should’ve had a fine second. He cut inside on the left and send a curling shot towards the opposite top corner, the ‘keeper was beaten but the ball just hit the bar but what a goal it would’ve been.

Blackburn were having chances of their own but you have to say it was all Arsenal, and we got the second goal just before the half hour mark. Denilson picked up the ball in space and saw Eduardo running ahead of him, the young Brazilian played the perfect curved pass to Da Silva which was just ever so slightly too far away from the Blackburn defender. Eduardo took the ball and it was a cool and calm finish from the oldest man in the squad past Friedel. 2-0 up, I couldn’t believe it, it was incredible and I thought there could only be more goals in this for us.

However, just before half time Santa Cruz got one back. A dangerous cross was whipped into a busy box and the Blackburn striker stuck his leg out to divert it in the back of the net. This gave them a lifeline at the break and they took advantage of it. They came out very strong in the second half and were causing the kids problems. They weren’t allowing them the same space in midfield as they did in the first half and they quickly stopped any runs down the wing.

They so nearly equalized two minutes in. Santa Cruz was sent through on goal but Fabianski had adopted a position near the edge of the box and managed to get a hand on the ball. This was just enough to spoil his run and Alex Song got back to clear the danger. Phew.

However the goal did seem likely to come and in the 59th minute Santa Cruz did get his second. They had a free kick from midway into our half and crowded the box. Bentley whipped a ball in and the Blackburn striker rose above everyone else to score above Fabianski.

From going two goals up to being back level again was terrible to watch. I thought the worst now and thought they surely must go on to win. However fair play to the kids as they got stuck in and tried everything to not concede and try and retain the lead. Both set of players looked really up for this and you could just see the passion on the pitch. This all got a bit too much for young Denilson near the end of the game so when he saw the opportunity to break David Dunn’s leg, he went for it. He was shown a straight red but I’m sure he’ll have learnt a lesson from that…if you’re going to do it, finish the job.

So we went into extra time and you could tell that the boys where knackered. Nacer Barazite replaced Randall in the 80th minute but early into the first period of extra time Nacer went down with a bad injury. It appears that he dislocated his shoulder but he was down for some time and was stretchered off with a gas mask. Hope he’s alright.

Not long after that though, we made it 3-2! Song was the provider, the played a good pass forward to Eduardo who went through and showed his maturity and goal scoring ability to give us the lead again. It was brilliant! I was so proud to see how we’d fought back and now we just had to hang on to the lead.

In the second half of extra time we were under constant pressure with Blackburn piling everyone up into the box, including Brad Friedel. Song and Hoyte made heroes of themselves with some of the blocks and tackles they made. The whistle finally went after 120 minutes and we’d done it! You could see how much this win meant to this young side, and now they’ll be facing Spurs in the semis.

You have to be so proud of them, they’ll have no problem against Tottenham and I’m sure I’ll be following them to the final again, probably against Chelsea(’s 1st team).

Fabianski made some great stops and good clearances from crosses. Senderos was good but Song was better, he seems to be improving with games and how wrong we could’ve been about him. Denilson was amazing the middle, but Diarra was even better, he put in a man of the match performance which Wenger will appreciate. He was asked after the game about him leaving but he seemed pretty happy with that game and sounded like he’d had a chat with Wenger. Diaby was awesome too, I’m a big fan of his and he played a big part on Tuesday night. Up front, Bendtner and Eduardo were class. Those goals will have given Da Silva that much needed confidence and hopefully he can now get some goals in the league.

It really was inspiring stuff and I’m really looking forward to the semi finals now. We’ve got the home leg on the 8th/9th Jan and the away leg on the 22nd/23rd Jan. But we can put the Carling Cup to one side now, as we face them in the league on Saturday. Thanks for reading.