Yesterday I said of Blackburn Rovers:
… they can’t be written off as just a bunch of cloggers …
I would just like to apologise to everyone for being so very, very wrong. They are cloggers. And filthy ones at that.
Arsenal’s 4-0 win yesterday came in the face of the most deliberate attempts to stop us playing football I I’ve seen in a long time. While teams have come and set themselves out to stop us scoring, to try and stop us actually playing says so much about Sam Allardyce.
Allardyce’s first tactic is to prevent other teams from playing, he is the master of anti-football. We all like a team that gets stuck in, nobody can complain if a game is physical because football is a physical game, but Blackburn were filthy yesterday.
Maybe it’s just me but there seemed to be a deliberate tactic to go for the ankles/achilles of Arsenal players. Theo Walcott should have had a penalty when Warnock stood on the back of his foot, Jason Roberts took Kolo’s boot off with the same kind of foul and Andrei Arshavin needed four stitches in his ankle at half time. Coincidence? No chance. Scumbags? Yes.
Then there was the cynical blocking, grabbing, shirt pulling to stop our attacks taking place. When Arsenal had the ball they didn’t so much want the ball back as to prevent us doing anything with it.
Morten Gamst Pedersen should be banned retrospectively for the worst dive I’ve seen in years. Truly and utterly pathetic. The ref saw it and did nothing. He bottled it. The FA should be able to hand out some kind of punishment. They have the perfect opportunity to issue a deterrent to other players, but they won’t.
And the ref bottled the big decision of the day when El Hadji Diouf tried to break Manuel Almunia‘s leg – clip here. Each time I see it, it gets worse. He went around Kolo, dived in and caught Manuel above the ankle on his standing foot. It was deliberate, there was no intent to do anything but play the man, the ball had long gone, and we’re lucky we didn’t see another Eduardo yesterday.
The ref should have given him a red card and I will never understand how he got away with just a yellow. It was an utterly disgraceful challenge from an utterly contemptible footballer. Again this should be looked at because it was the kind of tackle that could seriously injure a fellow player. And it was deliberately designed to hurt. That it didn’t cause serious injury is a blessing, that serious injury didn’t occur does not mean he should get away with just a yellow card.
Again there’s a fantastic opportunity to set precedent. To show scumbags like Diouf that a challenge like that is unacceptable, that it will be punished and punished severely. Once again the FA will bottle it and it’s no surprise that there’s been no condemnation from Allardyce. He sends his players out to get ‘stuck in’, always has done when facing Arsenal, so if Diouf was acting under orders I wouldn’t be surprised. Maybe he got a bit carried away, what with being a disgusting excuse for a person, but ultimately it’s a manager’s job to control his players.
The result leaves Blackburn just a point above the relegation zone and for me there would be no greater karma than to see them go down this season. I would relish that. I would laugh my head off because it’s no less than they, their disgraceful manager and their poxy fans deserve.
Now that I’ve got that out of my system let’s look at the positives from an Arsenal point of view. A post Champions League 4-0 win is not to be sniffed at, neither is the fact that the four goals yesterday took the tally that Paul Robinson has conceded against Arsenal to 50 (cheers, Ally). Hahaha. 50 goals. Can we, as they say, play you every week?
The first was an own goal after a Theo Walcott cross. It looked as if the Owl had scored his first Arsenal goal but that would have to wait. There was enough of a delay between the first and the second goals for some measure of impatience to grow amongst the fans.
Not least because Nicklas Bendtner didn’t have his shooting boots on. And that’s a bit of an understatement. He had enough chances to score a hat-trick but in front of goal he was a bit of disaster yesterday. I felt kind of sorry for him, I have to say. Overall I thought he played very well, he was involved in the first goal, but he’s obviously severely lacking in confidence when it comes to his finishing.
Let’s not forget just 10 days ago though he scored two against West Brom so he is capable. You just feel like he needs a goal or two at home to get his head right because he’s obviously aware of the groans of the crowd when another chance goes begging.
And to see what confidence can do to a player look no further than Emmanuel Eboue. He scored two yesterday. The first a tap in after an Arshavin shot was saved (really not sure about the dancing though), and he grabbed the ball for the penalty when Vela was fouled and finished with aplomb. There are those who said he shouldn’t have taken it but once the ball goes in it doesn’t really matter. Three goals in two games for Eboue. Magical-reverso land again. We’re obviously sprinkling something new on his cornflakes.
In the middle of all that though was Andrei Arshavin’s first goal for the club and what a goal it was too. Skinning the defender in the box he finished into the roof of the net from the tightest of angles, leaving Paul Robinson on his big, fat arse. A fantastic finish and he’s showing why we spent that kind of money on him. He was dangerous and creative all day long.
And overall it was a good performance from us, Alex Song had another good game in midfield, we tore Blackburn apart at times and we were solid at the back when needed. Almunia made a couple of good saves but Blackburn didn’t really threaten. It was what you might call a good day at the office.
Arsenalist has the goals and highlights.
So 4-0, which could have easily been 8-0, triumph in the face of filthy Blackburn and their wicked ways, we’re up into fourth place, the pressure’s now on Villa to get a result against Sp*rs and everything in the garden’s looking quite a bit rosier.
I’ve got a Sunday of more digging ahead but the sun is shining, the Arsenal have won, I’m going to have big bacon sandwich, so it’s all good. Enjoy the Sunday, Arsers.
