Arsenal extended their lead at the top of the table to 5 points today, which a 2-0 win over Blackburn in London. Senderos set them on their way quite early, heading home an Eduardo corner in the 7th minute, after some awful marking from Blackburn. Arsenal then dominated the next 20 minutes or so, without scoring, and that allowed Blackburn to come back into it. Rovers couldn't really fashion any chances though, and the Arsenal defence was excellent. Then late on, Alexander Hleb (who had been very good) found space on the right and squared the ball to Adebayor (who had been very shit), and the Togo-stick took either a really brilliant or awful first touch with his left, and thumped the ball home with his right. Game set and match.

Hleb excepted, the best players on show were the defensive ones. Adebayor can't be expected to be amazing in every match, but he was really crap today, although much improved in the second half. Flamini had a very strong game and was really influential. Cesc was craft, if subdued, and Gilberto and Eduardo were erratic but OK. Gilberto doesn't seem like he will be here next season.

The defence though was excellent. Lehmann was calm and solid, Sagna was his usual supercharged, all-action self, and Clichy was solid and alert. Senderos continues to grow in confidence with every game, and his goal was the icing on the cake in this performance. Gallas however was exquisite. Every tackle and interception was excellent, he read the play flawlessly, and made a few drives upfield trying to spur on and support the attack. He was especially important when the team kept conceding possession and gave Blackburn the advantage - he popped up time and time again to win back the ball, and allowed the team to keep its head.

For the first time in a long while, the main Arsenal centreback has the ability to play on either side of central defence. Gallas normally plays on the left when Kolo Toure is in the side, but has been equally adept and impressive on the right side, something which has allowed the defence to stay sharp and settled.

There were previously always problems on this front. Tony Adams preferred the left side of central defence as well, and this worked fine with Steve Bould or Martin Keown complementing him. Adams was accomplished enough to not let playing on the other side be an issue, but his preference was well known. Sol Campbell then arrived, and he too preferred Adams' part of the defence. However, they overlapped for only 1 season, most of which Adams was injured for. Campbell was truly god awful when played on the right-side of central defence, but luckily this was not a problem, as Kolo complemented him perfectly. Senderos too, like Campbell and Adams before him, prefers the left-side, and as a result the Campbell-Senderos partnership was one of the worst seen in recent years.

So after the hiccups and injury problems of 2006/07, the Arsenal central defence finally looks like a top notch unit. Toure and Gallas were hailed as a potential "dream patnership" when the latter signed, and although it took a season to realise that dream, it has happened. Gallas is imperious at the back, and the club finally have a range of good options in central defence. Because of his versatility, Kolo-Senderos, Kolo-Gallas, and Gallas-Senderos are all viable options.

And don't forget about Johan Djourou. He played on the left-side in Arsenal's win at Old Trafford last season, but plays on the right for club and country when paired with Swiss teammate Senderos. His return from injury will be much appreciated methinks.

Under Sam Allardyce, Bolton were a dirty, cynical, and dangerous team. In the post-Allardyce era, they are no longer dangerous. And so Arsenal faced a dirty, cynical Bolton on Saturday. With Sammy Lee already sacked (his "more expansive" style of football essentially = crap), coach Archie Knox was appointed caretaker, and he did what so many teams do against Arsenal - clog up the midfield, and get his players to kick and scrap as best they could to keep the scores level.

Shorn of Nicolas Anelka, their only genuine attacking threat, through injury, Bolton never once looked like threating, and although they managed to keep the scores level for an hour, Arsenal were already in their second half ascendancy when they took the lead.

And that moment was all about Kolo Toure. Those who've followed the Arsenal steadily for the last two years or so would have noticed an ever increasing tendency by Toure to take speculative thumps from anywhere between 30-60 yards out. From time-to-time they'd force the 'keeper into a save, often even resulting in rebounds for the strikers. But most of the time it would just leave you wondering why perfectly good free-kick positions were wasted; it was always a familiar pattern, someone standing on the ball, and Toure running in to thump it high, wide, or into the wall. So often the entire sequence was messed up, and there would be missed kicks, or the coordination problems, and he couldn't even get the shot away. Yet Kolo still seemed to be on a mission to thump in a long ranger.

Well, last week against Sunderland he thumped one that came back out off the post, and that was perhaps a sign of things to come.

Yesterday, without the prodiguous left-foot of Robin Van Persie, they needed to improvise for a free-kick outside the box. 3 Arsenal player waited patiently around the ball when the free-kick was given. Then, when the whistle blew, Cesc Fabregas rolled it to Mathieu Flamini, who cushioned it into the path of the onrushing Kolo, who in turn drilled a low hard shot perfectly into the bottom far corner of the goal. It went through the legs of two defenders, and the Bolton 'keeper had no chance.

And that was, as Ian Grant descibred, the "unblocking of the drain". The football flowed after that - Adebayor wasted two chances, one with a poor shot, and the other with an absolutely horrendous messup. Gallas had chances, and Theo zipped past 4 Bolton players before putting in a low cross that no one was alert to.

But the second goal did come, and it was the two substitues who combined for it. Hleb showed great awareness to play the ball to a just-onside Walcott. It was a hard, high pass, and Theo did fantastically well to control it, turn a defender inside out, and then square another low-cross in from the right. Rosicky had made a great run in, and he showed excellent technique to deftly flick the ball across the keeper into the far post with his instep. 2-0 to the Arsenal, and that was the game.

Hleb was oustanding, and the team played well overall. Eboue continues to look uncomfortable on the wing, and Adebayor was extremely, extremely wasteful, but had an immense team contribution over all. 11 straight wins now, but the real tests will come over the next two weekends - with games against Liverpool and Manchester United. 

Well, after months and months of speculation, it looks like Arsenal are about to wrap up a deal for Auxerre and France right-back Bakari Sagna, for about £7-8 million.

It's a big fee for a player that many regards as a relative unknown, and I must confess that I don't know too much about him other than that he's very fast and athletic, and was the best right-back in France last year (and some even say he was the best right-sided player overall).

One thing is for certain - this makes things a bit confusing for the fans, with Eboue and Hoyte already in the side, and the promising Kerrea Gilbert there as well. Will Hleb be sold, and Eboue pushed up to the wing? Will Sagna be the new right-winger? Maybe Freddie is on his way? It will be interesting nonetheless, because this transfer seems certain to finally take place, and it's also the kind of transfer that indicates that one of our current players will be moving on.

It will be a pleasing signing, in some ways moreso than Eduardo da Silva, because Sagna is a really, really highly-rated player, but it won't satisfy the fans, because more than anything else, they are still crying out for a star (preferrably) a striker to come in.