Sam Allardyce has molded Blackburn in his own image during his time there, just has he did at Bolton. The match against Liverpool saw Blackburn notch up 25 fouls, equaling this season’s record for fouls. This endemic ‘physical’ style play is the direct cause of Aaron Ramsey’s leg hanging off at an awful angle on Saturday.
Tag: blackburn
Arsene, learn the lessons from this season. Trophies anyone?
Arsenal’s 4-0 win against Allardcye’s Blackburn this Saturday was impressive, it was like watching the Arsenal of old, and it was just what the club needed. Arshavin seems to have brought the team out of the mire, and I hope it stays that way!
This season has been tough, the hardest that Arsenal have experienced under Arsene Wenger. We have seen a lot of inconsistent form, and a small squad stretched to the bare bones through injury. Yet now it seems there is light at the end of the tunnel.
The way the midfield of Walcott, Song, Denilson and Nasri/Arshavin performed on Saturday was fantastic. The goals were sublime, and Eboue capped it off for me! I know there will be setbacks ahead, but now the defence has tightened up and the team aren’t taking games for granted I think that we can salvage some pride from this season.
Arsenal are in the FA Cup and Champions League QFs and 4th in the League, with the top three still to play. We should relish that, because we are good enough to beat all three, and that gives us the chance to move higher up the table than we already are. As long as we can maintain form, which has been the struggle this season, then we will finish the season with some self-respect.
Next season we will hopefully start the season injury-free, and Wenger add one or two players to the squad. Our team is very good, but Wenger needs to learn the lesson of the last few years and add some depth. Hopefully younger players like Song and Denilson will have matured further and be playing top football this season, which they have begun to show glimpses of.
In any case I don’t want to get too carried away, it’s just nice to see the team play well and score some goals. The best realistic finish I can see is 4th place and the FA Cup in our trophy cabinet. I would settle for 4th though, and that will be a big enough challenge in itself.
Arsenal are in a position now to save themselves from UEFA Cup anonymity, and allow Wenger to begin to plan for next season. I just hope he learns the lessons from this year.
Here’s to a win against Hull tomorrow night and a Semi at Wembley!
A good weekend for Arsenal, see Blackburn 4-0 highlights here!
Arsenal finished a good week with a fantastic 4-0 victory over Blackburn at Ewood Park this weekend. After Theo’s midweek hattrick for England, we had a goal glut on our hands. Theo – looking so, so, so confident, set the first up – for RVP to score, and then Ade went on to get a hattrick of his own, with assists from the likes of Ramsey and Denilson.
Wenger had thought of leaving Theo out, but decided against it:
“The problem with scoring three times for the national team is that everyone expects you to score again. Football isn’t like that.
“What is most important is that he has a good team attitude, tries to work hard and the rest will come with time.”
We looked fantastic and outplayed Blackburn, I was worried we would stumble here, but the opposite was true. Theo was confident, Ade got goals, RVP got a goal and the team looked good, plus the fact that Man Utd lost 2-1 to L’pool could only make it better!
Ade talked about the team performance, he will be happy that he got his goals in, I hope it can be a confidence booster for him. Ade is the player we rely on most for goals, so it was good to see him get the first few out of the way, lets hope they keep coming:
“People kept asking me when I was going to score my first goal in the league this season.
“But I told them it is more important that the team wins. We showed good character at Blackburn and that will help our confidence.”
Click here to view the match highlights.
Jack Wilshere came on, becoming the youngest player to play for Arsenal ever, and Wenger had this to say about him:
“I bring English players slowly through,” Wenger told Arsenal TV. “He is another one who will soon play for you [England].”
Exciting stuff, and you can’t help but get excited when you see some of the great youngsters we have coming through. I just hope they can match their talent with trophies..
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