These are the types of games that have proven to be problematic for Arsenal, and that’s why these are three great points to pick up. Arsenal weren’t at their best in terms of stringing those passes together, but the defensive steel they displayed is reassuring, and something different from years past. I’d like to think we beat Blackburn at their own game: for every strong Blackburn tackle, there was one from Arsenal and then some. Theo Walcott had another good game at the right wing, he always looked to be a threat and got rewarded with a goal via a precise far-post finish. Bacary Sagna deserves huge credit for the second goal as he was the one that kept the ball in and made the play possible.
Robin Van Persie was taken off after picking up an ankle injury (out for ten days which coincides with the interlull, so that’s good), so Chamakh was introduced. As I said on Twitter, he is simply magnificent at helping out in his own half and tracking back. His goals will come, but it’s good to see a striker who’s not scoring use his height and physical presence to be a factor elsewhere. Final comment is on Arshavin, he gets slagged a lot because of his effort levels, but I think the criticism is too harsh. He is a wonderful player who is always thinking a step ahead, I think it’s just a matter of time before he finds his mid-season form and becomes effective for the full 90 minutes.
We’re getting used to playing a good first half followed by a very mediocre one. Abou Diaby who according to some might be out of his way from Arsenal put us ahead with a left-footed strike. Soon after Eduardo provided a clinical finish on a through ball to put us up 2-0 prompting me to believe that this might be one of those Slavia Prague type games. But then we regressed and our youth got caught up trying to do things that were a little too intricate, in other words we lost focus and Blackburn capitalized albeit on a clearly offside goal. Things got from bad to worse when Santa Cruz latched on to a freekick from outside the area conceded by the too eager Mark Randall and equalized for the Rovers.
And that’s when the match turned into a feisty affair where the play of Alexandre Song, Philippe Senderos and Armand Traore kept the attacking Rovers at bay. Wave after wave of Blackburn raids were turned back by the young Arsenal backs and once we got possession we looked threatening with Eduardo and Bendtner unable to find that last bit of space needed to put this one away. Denilson was given a harsh straight-red on his attempted tackle on 90 minutes which meant that the Gunners would be a man down for extra time. But fear not, we are the Gunners. It was only a matter of time before 10-man Arsenal unlocked the Blackburn back four and it was a forward run by Song that found Eduardo who applied a finish typical of the Croatian striker – precise, clinical and accurate. Game Over.
Any team that thinks they can play a physical game against the Gunners in hopes of intimidating us and throwing us of our rhythm needs to check themselves again. Maybe this was true last year but definitely not anymore. It doesn’t matter who’s playing, 17 year olds or 28 year olds, we simply don’t back down and unrelentingly adhere to what makes us successful: a patient approach when we have possession that is bound to unlock the most miserly of defenses. The young backs have a lot to learn but today they showed that they’re up to the task by turning away McCarthy and Santa Cruz’s runs in the second half and extra time. Job well done.
Embedded Vids:
About Diaby 1-0
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Eduardo 3-2
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Eduardo Winner
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Grab the feed and check out the Arsenal.com match report. Check out the first half highlights, I’ve cut it off at the exact point where you can see the offside on the Blackburn goal.
