By Myles Palmer

Can Arsenal score that first goal again, please ?

It was nice to win 2-1 at Watford but I want to see that goal again.

I seem to have waited a decade to see Arsenal score a rehearsed goal and until they do iut again I'll consider it a one-off,

Chelsea have scored plenty like that : Lampard corner, Terry flick-on, Gallas late run to the far post - goal ! It's nice to have that threat, that capability, because one day it will be useful in a semi-final or final.

After 19 minutes at Watford, Fabregas took an inswinger on the left, Toure backheaded down across the goal, and Gilberto nodded in on the bounce at the back post.

As golf fan George Graham always said : the harder you practice, the luckier you get. If Gallas and Gilberto can score from corners, they can score from free-kicks as well.Why can't the G-men score one goal a month like that?

Arsene Wenger had started with the same eleven, and the same subs, who beat Blackburn 6-2.

But four minutes later Bouazza nudged the ball round Toure and left him for dead and crossed from the left, and when Hoyte tried to block he hooked it to Smith, who scored neatly with a sharp half-volley.

It was 1-1 at the break and Senderos came on for Djourou.

On-loan keeper Ben Foster made saves from Adebayor and Hoyte in 64 and 66, and then Walcott replaced the anonymous Hleb in 70, and Baptista, on for Rosicky in 78, almost scored with his first shot.

When Arsenal defended a corner and broke away, Theo Walcott received the ball out wide. Walcott can run very fast down the right wing but instead of running with the ball he hit an early pass forward for Robin van Persie, whose marker Jay Demerit raced back to cover him, and RVP swerved imperiously inside Demerit and scored with his left foot. One touch inside the last defender and... bang !

That shot put Arsenal third on goal difference above Bolton.

As I've always said, RVP is a bang!bang! player.

However ragged his overall play has been, Robin van Persie has usually looked as if he could score. Recently, his overall play has been quite solid.And he did a good interview on Match of the Day

Unfortunately, by 5.15 I'd already watched two games.

Even if you're a football-junkie, it's a stretch to watch three Premiership games back to back on Boxing Day.

I'd called my mate Kevin, a Chelsea fan who doesn't have Sky, to see if he wanted to come round, but he was on voicemail. Then Michael asked if Tobias, a Liverpool fan, could come round to see the Liverpool game, so I said OK, and Tob came early and watched the Chelsea -Reading game as well. Then Kevin called back to say he was in Slough with family.

Chelsea-Reading was quite dull and scrappy for 37 minutes and then Drogba headed in Lampard's left wing corner, and then Lita headed an equaliser, and then sub Shaun Wright-Phillips provided Drogba with another header for 2-1. Shevchenko came on and did OK but they didn't pass to him when he was in good positions. Then Shaun lost the ball in the middle third and Reading broke on the left and Ashley Cole kicked the cross against Essien and the ball deflected past Hilario. Final score : 2-2.

(Much later, when Caroline came home, the Chelsea highlights were on TV and she said, " It's so weird to see Ashley Cole in a Chelsea kit. It's so weird." After four years as a keen Junior Gunner she went travelling, and then went to uni, and lost touch with her team. Occasionally she asks, "Where are we in the league ?" )

The Blackburn Liverpool game kicked off at 3 p.m.

Of Rafa, Tobias said, "I wish I could spend five minutes with Benitez. I'd like him to tell me which team in the history of football has been successful by changing the side for every game. Some things are set in stone."

I was excited when Liverpool signed Craig Bellamy, so I asked Tobias if he was, and he said he had been because Bellamy would give them pace, which they lack.

Liverpool had three at the back, which looked like dumb tinkering by Rafa, and they didn't play with any fluency, really, in the first half, but the nippy Bellamy went really close twice, and by half-time I reckoned they would win 1-0 because Bellamy would, at some point, tuck one past Brad Friedel.

But Crouch's finishing was feeble and Blackburn beat them 1-0 with a simple goal by Benni McCarthy, knocked in from an attack on the flank where Finnan should have been playing as an orthodox right back.

Then Tobias left and I watched Arsenal with Michael and they beat Watford 2-1, much as we had expected. So Chelsea had drawn, Liverpool had lost, and Arsenal had won.

Arsenal now have four wins out of four against the three promoted clubs, and can make it five out of five at Bramall Lane on Saturday if they realise that Sheffield United sometimes score goals, which Watford don't.

But Sheffield United have just lost 1-0 at home to Manchester City, who have a good defence even if they don't win many away games.

Footballer of the Year is between Drogba and Ronaldo, who scored twice in Man United's 3-1 win over Wigan.

Rooney's shooting was slightly off. He missed three chances in the first half, and when he had a promising one-on-one in the second, he hit the bar. He is only 2% off but he has to score more goals if United are to be champions.

Maybe Rooney is saving it for Arsenal on Sunday the 21st.

BOXING DAY? Arsenal dug out a win at Watford and Manchester United went four points clear of Chelsea with 18 games left to play.

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WATFORD (4-4-2): Foster; Mariappa, DeMerit, Shittu (Priskin, 90), Stewart; Smith, Mahon, Bangura, McNamee (Henderson, 77); Bouazza (Francis, 69), Young. Subs not used: Lee (gk), Doyley.

ARSENAL (4-4-1-1): Lehmann; Hoyte, Touré, Djourou (Senderos, h-t), Clichy; Hleb (Walcott, 71), Gilberto, Fabregas, Rosicky (Baptista, 79); Van Persie,; Adebayor. Subs not used: Almunia (gk), Flamini

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CHELSEA (4-1-2-3): Hilario; Geremi (Mikel, 69), Ferreira, Carvalho, Bridge (Cole, 69); Essien; Ballack, Lampard; Kalou, Drogba, Shevchenko (Wright-Phillips, 57). Subs not used: Hedman (gk), Diarra.

READING(4-5-1): Hahnemann; Murty, Sonko, Ingimarsson, Shorey; Little, Sidwell, Harper, Gunnarsson, Doyle; Lita. Subs not used : Federici (gk), Hunt, Oster, Sodje, Seol.

BLACKBURN (4-4-2): Friedel; Emerton, Todd, Ooijer, Neill; Bentley (Mokoena, 87), Savage, Tugay (Henchoz, 90), Pedersen; Nonda (Derbyshire, 78), McCarthy. Subs not used: Brown (gk), Gray.

LIVERPOOL (3-5-2): Reina; Carragher, Hyypia, Agger; Finnan, Alonso, Gerrard, Gonzalez (Aurelio, 64), Riise; Crouch (Kuyt, 57 mins), Bellamy (Garcia, 76).

Subs not used: Dudek (gk), Pennant.

MAN UNITED (4-4-2): Van der Sar; Brown, Vidic, Silvestre, Evra (Heinze, 69); Fletcher (Ronaldo, h-t), Scholes (Richardson, 61), O'Shea, Park; Solskjaer, Rooney. Subs not used: Saha, Kuszczak (gk).

WIGAN (4-1-4-1): Kirkland; Hall, Boyce, Jackson, Baines; Wright; Teale (Cotterill, 52), Johansson, Kilbane, Heskey; Todorov.

Subs not used: Pollitt (gk), Landzaat, Cywka, Skoko.

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