Birmingham City 1 - 1 Arsenal

48 min: GOAL!!! Birmingham City 1 - 1 Arsenal. Two brilliant fingertip saves by Taylor in 30 seconds - the first from a Fabregas shot, the second from a Hleb header - are in vain. From an Arsenal corner, Adebayor goes up for a ball with Taylor, who flaps. The ball breaks to Walcott, three yards out, who helps the ball into the net for his first-ever Premier League goal. This is on.

And we're off again: The half-time chat re Eduardo on Sky was a bit risible. Pundit - if you can call him that - David Platt didn't really want to talk about the challenge, changing the subject at every given opportunity. The tackle was shown at full speed, though in no detail, and much was made of how innocuous it initially looked. Which is neither here nor there. So just to reiterate: it really was an awful challenge by Taylor - who at least had the decency to leave the field looking shocked with his head in his hands. "Platt doesn't want to condemn Martin Taylor - so even that utterely disgraceful foul didn't penetrate his Media Training mantra: never say anything controversial," writes Gary Naylor. Preach on, brother.

Half time: Birmingham City 1 - 0 Arsenal. And that's it for the half. Which I have to say, for various reasons, was somewhat lacking in entertainment value. I'm pretty sure that's coming across in this report, by the way, but dear me, that picture of Eduardo was not pleasant. I can't even watch Holby City without feeling queasy, so cut your hapless minute-by-minute correspondent some slack here. A cigarette should fix things.

45 min +8: After enjoying a decent few minutes, Arsenal are currently passing it around in the most pointless manner imaginable. They are creating nothing whatsoever up front. Birmingham meanwhile are defending brilliantly. It's like watching Liverpool play Liverpool.

45 min +5: Out of nothing, McFadden latches onto an aiimless long hoof and scoots clear in the Arsenal half! He really should score, but pauses on the edge of the area before shooting and allows Senderos to toe-poke the ball away.

45 min +3: There are going to be nine minutes of injury time as a result of Eduardo's dreadful injury. Muamba is given a right old talking to after hacking down Flamini. The resulting free kick is 35 yards out, floated into the box by Fabregas towards Senderos, and headed haplessly high and wide into the crowd. Arsenal have slapped on their gamefaces at last.

45 min: Larsson flips Flamini into the air, just outside the area. Fabregas's free kick is poor, pinging off the wall and sailing away right, but Sagna swings it back in first time and Bendtner smashes in a fantastic header which is hacked off the line by Ridgewell. It wouldn't have counted anyway, as the referee blows up for an imaginary foul on Taylor. Great header, great clearance, utterly pathetic refereeing.

42 min: Kelly hacks another Fabregas long ball into touch with Adebayor chasing him down. Arsenal have gone long ball. I would normally suggest GUARDIAN.CO.UK OFFICIAL PATENTED ARSENE WENGER AESTHETE-O-METER®: O, but it sort of feels wrong.

39 min: Adebayor should have scored the equalizer; Fabregas sprays a wonderful long ball straight down the middle of the pitch to spring the Arsenal striker free, but his first-time attempt to lob the advancing Taylor isn't great, and sails high and wide. He had more time than he thought for that.

35 min: It's hard to describe nothing. Which is why I've not bothered for the last five minutes. Then suddenly Ridgewell - Ridgewell! - decides to go on a 50-yard slalom run from the left-back position to right wing, scooting past five men! He eventually falls over but that was wonderfully entertaining.

30 min: Has the goal kick-started an understandably subdued game? No.

27 min: GENIUS! Birmingham City 1 - 0 Arsenal. Jinking Genius James McFadden faffs around skilfully with the ball and is eventually upended by Flamini in the D outside the Arsenal box. The Jinking Genius takes it himself, whipping it above the Arsenal wall and back down into the top right corner of the net. A wonderful cameo. Almunia might have got across to the ball more quickly, perhaps, but that'd be a pernickity reading of the situation.

21 min: Apologies for not watching the football for a couple of minutes - it's basically a training session anyway - but I've just seen a picture of Taylor's challenge, and it is completely and utterly disgraceful. Flying through the air studs up, he lunges in halfway up the shin of Eduardo's standing leg. The striker's leg clean snaps at a right angle; no wonder Fabregas was holding his head in his hands the minute he saw it. It's going to be an ethical dilemma for sports editors across the country, is this picture.

17 min: Fabregas has an effort from 30 yards; not great, not bad, it sails a couple of feet over the bar. Taylor had it covered.

16 min: Adebayor tries to side foot past Taylor into the bottom right corner, but the effort is saved and he's offside anyway. The camera cuts to Gary Lewin on the Arsenal bench; he's hanging his head low.

15 min: Eduardo is already in the ambulance and off to the hospital. Sky's man on the touchline reports "several of the medical staff looking ashen faced".

14 min: Forssell is the man sacrificed as Birmingham reorganize; Parnaby is on.

13 min: Brilliance from jinking genius James McFadden, who diddles two Arsenal players with a John Barnesesque shimmy, shifting the ball quickly from left foot to right and back again. He's eventually tackled as he roams towards the Arsenal box, but what skill.

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 honor 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.