Arsenal 3 v 0 Rovers - Cup Semi Final

[Exiled in Toronto]

I thought Hughes game plan worked as well as could be expected. It kept us in the game for 86 mins and then we were undone by one of the best goals I've seen all season, and even then only when we'd gone to three at the back. Lehman did well to hold onto our few efforts, but overall we are incapable of the bits of skill needed to unlock good defenses.

The big downside for me was I think we made a mockery of Hughes's claim that we are not a dirty side. Todd will be hard pushed to convince the jury that it was an accident, I think the shot of him just before they kicked off again showed him wishing he hadn't done it. A long-ish suspension at this stage could edge us closer to the drop zone than would otherwise have happened, and I think he knows that.

Been obvious for months now we need a new couple of strikers, right winger and 1 or 2 fullbacks to be a good, upper-half of table team.

But overall, I thought we showed we are on the up.

[DanLad]

Todd will be hard pushed to convince the jury that it was an accident, I think the shot of him just before they kicked off again showed him wishing he hadn't done it. A long-ish suspension at this stage could edge us closer to the drop zone than would otherwise have happened, and I think he knows that.

Complete speculation. Did you read his mind as he was stood there? You don't think he was looking a bit disconsolate because we'd just conceded a third goal, maybe?

There's no way in this world that there's going to be a suspension arising from that as you don't get suspended for accidental collisions!

I suspect that people are thinking that it was deliberate because they listen to the rubbish that commentators spout.

[philipl]

Very disappointing time to post number 6,000. Shame we cannot only play 40 minutes each way against the Arse!

Over all the Rovers were magnificent- some brilliant tackles and distribution. I disagree with anyone knocking Matteo or Neill but MGP did his little boy lost routine again in the second half.

Arsenal were superb- no taking it away from them. This was close to last year's invincibles and the youngsters coming through are beyond belief. Every time I've seen van Persie I've been amazed by what he can do.

The reality is that Rovers, playing very well and headed for a solid mid-table finish are simply not in the same class as Arsenal when they turn it on. If they play as well as that against Chelsea midweek, the result will be very interesting.

We had one chance- Thomo played through right at the start and didn't have a clue where the hell he was. I'd have backed Dickov, Emo, Reid or MGP to have scored in a similar position. With that went our chance of an upset- we were only going to get one and a place in the Final depended on it.

Concluding comments- 52,077 is a lot more than Villa Park can hold so FA vindicated. Glad there were no convenient Malta-Cardiff flights in the end; need to be back and had too many bad experiences to trust over land travel on a BR engineering week-end.

Andy Todd will get banned and you will all agree it is totally deserved when you see the behind goal replay. Nasty vicious short right arm jab. The headlines for Rovers will be about us being brutish thugs because of that stupidity. Still a last hooray for Short or a chance for Amo to show how he has benefitted from proper coaching- if he can concentrate he is a much better footballer than Todd anyway.

Edited April 16, 2005 by philipl

[rover6]

MGP did his little boy lost

Mainly because he's not a striker.

Today was a reality check for the fans. Hughes has got the best of average players that may require weeding out if we are to move on next season.

Everyone seems to go on about how much we need a striker. I agree - but a striker won't revolutionize the team on his own. Imo we lack real passing acumen in midfield. Paul Dickov and MGP weren't impressive strikers today - but a major factor in that is that the support, the passing and the creativity from midfield was sadly lacking.

[Ninjathunder]

Concluding comments- 52,077 is a lot more than Villa Park can hold so FA vindicated.

Disagree. Fewer Arsenal fans would have got tickets but we'd have taken more of our supporters. Old Trafford would have had a higher attendance.

[broadsword]

I disagree with anyone knocking ... Neill

Yep, thought Lucas was excellent for the opening goal.

[Blue and White]

Very disappointing result to what was maybe our biggest game of the season, although we didn't deserve to lose by that much.

Dickov was clearly onside at the beginning and his goal should have stood. I think it would have been a different game if it did. But for most of the game I though we played pretty good and didn't let Arsenal play their game, but lacked the striking power to do anything about it. I can't say I'm disappointed with anyone today. Van Persie's 2 quick goals at the end were class, he's going to be a huge star. What a hit by Todd though ! I thought that almost knocked him out.

And although the final score is 3-0, Man of the match by far for me was Brad Friedel. Superman made some stunning saves again and kept us in the game (almost) untill the end when in reality it should had been decided long ago.

[pick32]

least tod left us on a happy note his elbo on van persie was class

[Rovermatt]

Aye, class.

[James No. 7]

Over all the Rovers were magnificent- some brilliant tackles and distribution. I disagree with anyone knocking Matteo or Neill but MGP did his little boy lost routine again in the second half.

Andy Todd will get banned and you will all agree it is totally deserved when you see the behind goal replay. Nasty vicious short right arm jab. The headlines for Rovers will be about us being brutish thugs because of that stupidity. Still a last hooray for Short or a chance for Amo to show how he has benefitted from proper coaching- if he can concentrate he is a much better footballer than Todd anyway.

I have to agree with this analysis (apart from the harsh analysis of MGP):

1. Neill and Matteo have become undeserving scapegoats. The lengths that some go to bag them is beyond belief sometimes.

2. Andy Todd was disappointing, and I do believe he intended it to release some frustration. Afterwards he looked very disappointed and I think he knows how much he let the club down.

[broadsword]

Just been doing some drunken kung fu round the house to alleviate some frustration ... what a bad idea.

Sent my elbow backwards at maximum force ... into the door jamb. The pain was incredible. It's taken 15 minutes for me to feel the fingers again. Going to be a massive bruise on my elbow tomorrow ... what a plonker!

[Radagast]

Therte never should have been a three goal margin. Things could have been very different if we had managed to hold them until half time, but in all honesty we could have played all day and not scored.

Disappointed, but not at the performance. We can beat any team in the bottom half of the table if we perform like that every game.

Todd will be in trouble, even though he obviously regreted his swing as soon as he made contact. I thought (hoped) he'd put that part of his game to bed.

Edited April 16, 2005 by Radagast

[benhben]

3-0 was flattering to arsenal. 1 or 2-0 would have been more reasonable. If we can sign a quality striker and and an Attacking midfielder next season, then we will be a top 10 team i reckon! Seriously! Also Emerton made an impact when he came on, mabye its time for him to replace thompson or flitcroft with thommo in the centre.

[Eddie]

MGP did his little boy lost

Mainly because he's not a striker.

Today was a reality check for the fans. Hughes has got the best of average players that may require weeding out if we are to move on next season.

Everyone seems to go on about how much we need a striker. I agree - but a striker won't revolutionize the team on his own. Imo we lack real passing acumen in midfield. Paul Dickov and MGP weren't impressive strikers today - but a major factor in that is that the support, the passing and the creativity from midfield was sadly lacking.

I agree, we can't match the midfield of Arsenal, but then how many can?

What Hughes has turned us into is a team that beats our level of teams and below, as well as making us difficult opposition for the bigger teams. What does this mean? Basically that we will stick pick up a lot of points, as the results since December have shown. We may not tear through teams every game, or even seem to have that much more than them, but the solidity and strength that is there allows us to grind results out when we have to, and even get forward when we can.

Today we didn't have that special something going forward that we would have needed. I'm going to ignore the late Van Persie double as basically it was because of us trying to have a real go and failing, but that happens. We were solid, and probably can say that we had two chances in the match, Reid's header towards the end (granted it was 2-0 then) and Emerton's shot when we were only down by one from the edge of the area when he'd made himself some space after a good attacking move. We played Arsenal, and lost. No shame in it.

Back to the league, and who knows, maybe this time next year we will be talking about happier visits to Cardiff.

[AlanK]

Just back. Really enjoyed the day. Spent an hour and a half in " The Gatekeeper " Wetherspoons.

Met some relatives in the ground.

Bad result.

But we were there.

Oh, to the fans that went, we did ourselves proud today. The standard has been set.

[G Somerset Rover]

I think neil is being harshly critisised. If thatw ere Nelsen or Todd in his position for the first then nobody would have said anything. He dealt with Pires and Reyes very well. The performance wasn't great, we tried hard but nothing materialised-not even a decent effort. The simple fact is that if you play 4-5-1 against a half decent team (arsenal being a bleddy good team), then your going to be hard pushed to get back into it. It's happened at home against them, and it happened today. I agree with others who say that Stead should have been thrown on earlier, why use MGP and Emo to support Dickov when you have Stead on the bench? The day for me was summed up when Dickov was in a good crossing position late on and he hoofed it high over the bar-a tireless striker yes-but a pretty useless one if you take away his workrate. I think we'll beat Palace on weds, but with any Rovers game if we fall behind we're in trouble. Anyway, great performance by the fans, the one's who did turn up did the club proud.

[MIROVER]

And how biased were the Sky commentators ?. I had to turn off after they said Blackburn were dirty and boring for the 56th time. Yes, we are not too exciting, and we are quite dirty, but we can play as well. Martin Tyler and Andy Gray are probably still in the Arsenal dressing room, deliberately dropping the soap.

You want to try listening to the overseas commentary I had to endure. Gary Bloom was his name I am sure he was sat there in an Arsenal top calling for rovers players to be sent off, continually knocking the way we play and making derisory comments about the fact that we couldn't sell our allocation. At one point he said the cynics amongst us think that should they get to the final blackburn wouldn't sell their allocation. He also said that blackburn have only come to stop arsenal playing their magnificent football. Who is this guy ? I wanted to rip his head off.

Did any other US based rovers fans feel the same way ? or was it just me.

[Rovermatt]

Bloom's a fool. He used to to do Football Italia on Channel 4 with the equally tedious Peter Brackley. He was also the 'commentator' on Dream team for a while.

[Exiled in Toronto]

And how biased were the Sky commentators ?. I had to turn off after they said Blackburn were dirty and boring for the 56th time. Yes, we are not too exciting, and we are quite dirty, but we can play as well. Martin Tyler and Andy Gray are probably still in the Arsenal dressing room, deliberately dropping the soap.

You want to try listening to the overseas commentary I had to endure. Gary Bloom was his name I am sure he was sat there in an Arsenal top calling for rovers players to be sent off, continually knocking the way we play and making derisory comments about the fact that we couldn't sell our allocation. At one point he said the cynics amongst us think that should they get to the final blackburn wouldn't sell their allocation. He also said that blackburn have only come to stop arsenal playing their magnificent football. Who is this guy ? I wanted to rip his head off.

Did any other US based rovers fans feel the same way ? or was it just me.

No, not just you. Extremely annoying, especially when he said that 50 pass going nowhere fast possession by Arsenal would have been one of the best goals ever.

[brfcshabba]

Just got home. Not that bothered about the result. Must praise the fellow Rovers fans for making a huge amount of noise and creating a sea of blue outside the stadium. Didn't really look like scoring. Thought Steve Dunn had a very poor game - failing to spot numerous play acting. The worst being Lehmann after the Emerton challenge

Had to smile at the signing drunk/tramp outside gate 2/3. Anyone else see him?

[LeChuck]

Apparently Van Persie has had stitches in the lip. That'll teach him for scoring good goals against us. Dirty? Us? Never!

[James No. 7]

You want to try listening to the overseas commentary I had to endure. Gary Bloom was his name I am sure he was sat there in an Arsenal top calling for rovers players to be sent off, continually knocking the way we play and making derisory comments about the fact that we couldn't sell our allocation. At one point he said the cynics amongst us think that should they get to the final blackburn wouldn't sell their allocation. He also said that blackburn have only come to stop arsenal playing their magnificent football. Who is this guy ? I wanted to rip his head off.

Did any other US based rovers fans feel the same way ? or was it just me.

I think that was the commentator we got down here.

Needless to say, it really did make the game seem like it went for a long time, because I in no way enjoyed it.

Edited April 16, 2005 by James No. 7

[brfcshabba]

Rodney Marsh is sticking up for us on Talksport. Saying if he was playing today watching Arsenal strolling around, He would have done the same and presumably foul the player

[Rover4ever]

And how biased were the Sky commentators ?. I had to turn off after they said Blackburn were dirty and boring for the 56th time. Yes, we are not too exciting, and we are quite dirty, but we can play as well. Martin Tyler and Andy Gray are probably still in the Arsenal dressing room, deliberately dropping the soap.

You want to try listening to the overseas commentary I had to endure. Gary Bloom was his name I am sure he was sat there in an Arsenal top calling for rovers players to be sent off, continually knocking the way we play and making derisory comments about the fact that we couldn't sell our allocation. At one point he said the cynics amongst us think that should they get to the final blackburn wouldn't sell their allocation. He also said that blackburn have only come to stop arsenal playing their magnificent football. Who is this guy ? I wanted to rip his head off.

Did any other US based rovers fans feel the same way ? or was it just me.

Here in the UAE, the commentator was on about how Todd doesnt deserve to be wear the captain's armband, and how great Arsenal and Manchester United are. I wouldn't have been surprised if he called for Blackburn to be banned for attempting to defend their goal against Arsenal....

Edited April 16, 2005 by Rover4ever

[robbojohnno]

just got back 20 mins ago, great atmosphere, shame about the result but i was never realy hopeful we would win . it will make me feel alot better with a victory against palace