Birmingham City 0 - 0 Arsenal

12 min: Don't be surprised if there aren't many tackles in this game. Everyone's running round very gingerly. Sagna swings one in from the right and Adebayor attempts a header towards goal, but it's weak.

10 min: After an eight-minute stoppage, Eduardo is carried off to warm applause by all four sides of the ground, and replaced by Nicklas Bendtner. Adebayor also looks visibly shaken by the incident.

9 min: The game has been stopped as Eduardo gets treatment from physio Gary Lewin, and may remain so for some time. The suggestion is that this injury is similar to the one suffered by Coventry defender David Busst at Old Trafford in 1996. Taylor went straight down the tunnel looking distraught. The Arsenal players are to a man shaken; Fabregas (who was first on the scene and immediately knew the gravity of the situation) looks close to tears.

2 min 30 sec: RED CARD TO MARTIN TAYLOR. He's dismissed for a foul on Eduardo; it looks as though the Arsenal player has broken his leg. Fabregas is highly distressed at his team-mate's plight. Sky Sports are refusing to show a replay of the challenge on grounds of "taste", which suggests the injury is serious.

And we're off. Players on both teams attempt to pass the ball to team-mates; all fail, several times over. This is a scrappy start.

A minute's applause for Len Boyd, who captained Birmingham in the 1956 FA Cup final and died this week at the age of 84. Meanwhile Arsenal are wearing black armbands today in honour of Bacary Sagna's brother Omar, who died suddenly last week.

Birmingham are in serious relegation bother, so they'll want something here: Maik Taylor, Kelly, Martin Taylor, Ridgewell, Murphy, Larsson, Johnson, Muamba, Kapo, McFadden, Forssell.
Subs: Doyle, Jerome, Nafti, Zarate, Parnaby.

Meanwhile this lot can go eight clear at the top, for a few hours at least: Almunia, Sagna, Gallas, Senderos, Clichy, Walcott, Fabregas, Flamini, Hleb, Eduardo, Adebayor.
Subs: Lehmann, Denilson, Silva, Bendtner, Justin Hoyte.

Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral)

THE GUARDIAN.CO.UK OFFICIAL PATENTED ARSENE WENGER AESTHETE-O-METER®:A is for Aesthete's choiceB is for Beautiful gameO is for O lord help me, blood is seeping from both eyes

According to the Bumper Book of Football Hackery the NUJ issues us with, Arsenal's football is more attractive than that of Brazil '70, Liverpool '88 and Hungary '53 put together, squared, on the end of an elaborately whittled stick. Well, we'll see about that: Birmingham took a point off them at Ashburton Grove just before Christmas, so this isn't a shoo-in. Still, when on song, they do ping it about quite nicely I suppose, so in order to rate their artistic merit this afternoon, a crack Website Formerly Known As Guardian Unlimited team of technical wizards have created ARSENE'S AESTHETE-O-METER.