[Archived] Rovers 0 - 1 Arsenal

[tsnuf]

I just have this bad feeling that if we beat the Gunners today, they'll beat us in the semi

Although... I guess their revenge attempts haven't been so good lately (Bayern, ManU).

[Sydney Rovers]

My prediction;

Rovers 1 - Arsenal 1

At the Charles Dickens Tavern tonight, Rovers' fans will out number Arsenal fans 5 to 1, and the hangover count the next morning will be about the same.

[waggy]

rovers 0 v 0 wengerswhiners

[yellowsubmarine]

A draw will be good enough for us.

[USABlue]

Nelson had a poorer match at liverpool!!

Clearly you weren't one of the 700 who witnessed Todd,Mokoena and Nelson. Collossus (of Auckland).

Nelsen had a fine match but he did have a couple of slips, letting the ball bounce once or twice when he perhaps should have dealt with it. Nothing became of it so I am admittedly being overly critical, no doubt eyebrows would have been raise and moaning would have ensued had it been Nissa or Amo.

Not knocking Nelsen but the law of averages says he has to drop a clanger sooner or later, I just hope we continue to support him then.

He is one of the best defnders I have seen for sometime, anywhere, and definately in Blue and White halves. the man has it in him to become a bonafide rovers legend.

That ball he took down over his shoulder in the penalty area and cooly spun and cleared at Anfield was sublime and took extreme confidence. Of course if I remember correctly the commentators could only say how stupid it was to try that. Had it been Mr Rio Ferdinand they would still be wetting themselves and gushing ooohs and aaahs. Very very impressed with ryan Nelsen, very.

[Maverick]

I will go for 2-1 to Rovers

Dickov on pen and MGP in overtime

[krislu]

Matteo back in the starting XI, oh dear..

Rovers 0

Arsenal 1

[Maverick]

Today's starting line-up.

ROVERS: Friedel, Neill, Todd, Nelsen, Matteo, Thompson, Reid, Mokoena, Flitcroft, Pedersen, Dickov

Subs: Emerton, Tugay, Stead, Enckelman, Johansson.

ARSENAL: Lehmann, Cole, Vieira, Ljungberg, Reyes, Lauren, Fabregas, Flamini, Senderos, Clichy, Toure.

Subs: Van Persie, Taylor, Cygan, Eboue, Abeyie.

Would have liked to seen Johansson instead of Matteo. Rovers have never lost a game with Nissa and MGP on the left side.

Edited March 19, 2005 by Maverick

[Befectan]

Van Persie in for Ljungberg before start. The Swede is injured.

[ultrablue]

Right then Hughesy, can we attack?? can we score when we need to, or are we going to settle for a 1-0 defeat?

[tcj_jones]

Matteo was actually pretty good in the first half and it came from a miskick from Johansson which resulted in a throw in.

An extremely good first half performance and I'd say we were definately the better team. All undone, however, by a moment of brilliance from Cole and a great take and finish from Van Persie.

[Lathund]

I've got a feeling we're gonna concede one more in the second half with Mokoena in defense. Hasn't impressed me at all, I'm worried every time the ball goes near him .

[krislu]

Do we have the worst left back in Europe, and I'm not talking about Matteo this time...

[Jim J]

or right back for that matter, Neill is @#/?

[youandwhosearmy]

i didnt even know we had an early kick off

then i look at bbc.co.uk and its 1-0 in the 90th min

wierd

[krislu]

or right back for that matter, Neill is @#/?

Johansson is so much worse than Neill that its beyond words!!!

[Tim Southampton Rover]

To be fair, Arsenal deserved to win that game especially after Van Persie's moment of brilliance.

We just don't seem to create enough chances which means we struggle when we go behind. I don't think we've won when we've gone behind this season but to be fair, we attacked better in the second half and Reid was unlucky not to get a goal towards the end but maybe we should have switched to a 4-4-2 a bit earlier.

At the end of the day though, we will have to play better to progress in the FA Cup against a team which will have 5-6 of their best players back into the team.

[DE.]

I know it was Arsenal, I know we didn't expect to win, and I know 1-0 isn't a bad result.... but a full strentgh arsenal team will destroy us. We lost to an arsenal team which comprised of a fair chunk of 2nd choice players. Still an excellent team, mind, but if we had any chance of beating them it was against this kind of team. Neill and Johansson deserve a special mention for being terrible. Mokoena was very dodgy today... I wouldn't be happy with him as a centre-back, please keep him as a DM.

We didn't expect anything out of this game, but we didn't go for it either. 4-5-1, whilst a good system when we don't concede, is useless when we go a goal down. I would have liked to have seen Stead come on over Emo, who was largely useless, and Tugay, who contributed little. We don't score enough anyway and Dickov alone up front will never get us goals. Have to admit we had a few nice moves, but for the most part they came to nothing and our set pieces are diabolical as of late! Until next season at least Blackburn are going to be one of the worst teams to watch in the Premiership, but we can take solice that we will be in the premiership next year, I imagine.

Onto the next game! 0-0 all we can hope for against Utd, I fear.

Edited March 19, 2005 by DE4life

[modes98]

Neill is @#/?

Thought lucas had a very good game today.

Todd and Nelsen to blame for the goal, neither took the marking of van persie and one of them should have!(probally nelsen).

Not a bad game, just very frustrating!

Didn't think poll had a good game to say the least and reyes holding his head when lucas hit in on the chest to get him booked was a joke!

Can't help but think what might have been if we had put stead on at some point.

[Alex Rover]

Flipping heck how much did we miss Andy Todd in the second half.

Strange game really. We deserved a point but I don't think we played well at all.

[Lathund]

Based on today's performance I'd actually prefer Matteo. Johansson didn't do much right at all. Several times he messed up when he had plenty of time and still ended up giving the ball to an Arsenal player or putting it out of touch.

[youandwhosearmy]

why did todd come off?

[Tim Southampton Rover]

Todd and Nelsen to blame for the goal, neither took the marking of van persie and one of them should have!(probally nelsen).

To be fair though, if it was any other Premiership player, they would have held up the ball on the edge of the area and waited for someone to be in a free position, so we've got to give credit to Van Persie for how he went on to score the goal. It was excellent.

[mode_m]

I want Emerton to start starting again, Thompson had some pretty terrible plays when he got the ball, he is consistantly kicking it out of bounds! Reid played well, as did Pedersen. Dickov did alright, but having the one striker up front wont cut it for this offensively struggling side. Savage is desperately needed back to get rid of this formation. Having said all that, Blackburn played very well, and I'm not upset with the outcome today, although Im freakin' tired from waking up at 7am to watch it.

[DE.]

why did todd come off?

According to prem Plus Todd had a virus and was feeling the affects of it at half time, which is why he was replaced.