Auxerre had a chance after 3 minutes when Saib thumped the ball from 30 yards. It dipped at the last moment and Seaman did well to touch it on to the crossbar. He saved comfortably from the headed follow up.
After 16 minutes Arsenal had their first shot - and what a shot! Adams sent a long ball up the right channel. Wright's chase seemed in vain but two of Auxerre's defenders made a mistake and the ball fell to Wright. He cut inside and from a seemingly impossible angle curled the ball into the top corner of the goal beyond Cool's outstretched arms.
From that moment it was clear that Arsenal would sit on the one goal lead. Arsenal's defence has been pretty shaky at times this season
Arsenal had chances to extend their lead but they were few and far between. Hartson had a long range effort tipped over, Merson got free but failed to take full advantage and, most notably, Parlour missed an open goal within the last ten minutes.
I'm sure that the French side threatened to score on many occasions but the one that sticks out was a free kick about 20 minutes from time. It was quite central and only a brilliant save from Seaman stopped Auxerre from equalising.
A good solid defensive performance, like I said - typical Arsenal. The defence were outstanding. Seaman was man of the match - amazing as he played with a cracked rib! Houston has shown that he can get the tactics right on the big occasion. Putting Keown on to man mark the dangerous Martins (which, incidently, he did very well) and dropping Wright against Blackburn just to make him that bit more fired up for the game. Dust off George's magic hat, we may be needing it again!
Report by Richard Ward