ARSENE Wenger praised his classy Gunners after they blew away Rovers with a first-half goal-blitz to book their place in the FA Cup semi-finals.

Arsenal were awesome in the opening 20 minutes as goals from Sylvain Wiltord and Tony Adams set the Londoners on the road to a comfortable 3-0 win.

And the ease with which the Gunners cruised to victory proved to be the ideal preparation for Wednesday night's Champions' League clash with Bayern Munich in Germany.

"I don't think this was what you would call a real cup-tie but it was an important match for us to win, a superb match to win knowing that you are now in the semi-finals of the FA Cup," said Wenger.

"We made a brilliant start, scoring with our first opportunity.

"That was a great first goal and, after we increased our lead within minutes , we were never in a lot of trouble after that.

"Blackburn were a bit unlucky on several occasions and they didn't get many breaks.

"But we had too much for them in the end."

With one eye on Wednesday night's game, Wenger decided to leave his two best players -- Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira -- on the bench.

But the Gunners boss later revealed he had toyed with the idea of playing Henry, Wiltord and Dennis Bergkamp in a front three on Friday night.

"I have great confidence in my squad but I did consider playing Thierry Henry up front alongside Wiltord and Bergkamp as part of a three," said Wenger.

"But this shows that you need a strong squad. We had a good start and I'm afraid that Blackburn couldn't get back into it after that.

"I thought Wiltord was excellent, though. He worked very hard, he was very mobile and very dangerous throughout."