[Archived] Arsenal 3 Blackburn 0

[RovertheHill]

Strange you should say that, Theno.

Now some people will laugh at this, but Baz said to me during the second half that Savage is very similar to Sherwood, in the style of play. Plays the ball simple and is very effective in what he does.

I can see the similarity as well. Savage was the main reason why Arsenal never put rovers under any constant pressure and never dominated midfield.

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Actually, now you mention it, they even have similar running styles!

[Shaddy]

Actually, now you mention it, they even have similar running styles!

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Really? I always think Savage has a more of a squat running style. While I recall Tim Sherwood had a Patrick Viera like (I know... ) up-right running style. But I'm not sure to be honest.

[Laurence]

...the ladyboy similar to Tim Sherwood???

funniest thing I've read on the MB for ages

Edited November 27, 2005 by Laurence

[den]

...the ladyboy similar to Tim Sherwood??? 

funniest thing I've read on the MB for ages     

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Very interesting.

[joey_big_nose]

Kuqi is finnish, not kosovan. Can't you keep your racist overtones out of a match report AESF? It is hardly the place to put it.

Anyway I thought Kuqi was okay. You have to rember he came to the club on a free, and he managed to win a decent amount in the air. We desperately need someone who can finish better and can link up with the ball at feet (preferably while also being decent in the air) but at present he was by far our best option for the game. Jansen would not of won anything, big sol would of forced him off the ball all the time.

Dickov similar lack of height was a problem.

We cannot 'get rid of savage' as some people suggest. He was one of our better players yesterday and there is the plain fact that we have nobody to replace him with. Our manager payed far too much for him, but in his defence he does have a galvanising effect on the team and makes some cracking tackles.

Most importantly though Hughes likes him (obviously) and will not drop him. If we hold on to Hughes everybody will just have to get used to the fact he will be pulling on a rovers shirt week in week out for the next eighteen months at least.

Judge the team when we play our equals rather than when we are away at one of the best sides in Europe. My personal opinion is that if we can replicate that performance with some btter finishing Everton should yield 3 points.

[philipl]

Interesting read AESF.

A couple of corrections

- only the North End and Clock End will be demolished and new built, the other two stands will be converted and the pitch will become a communal garden- a bit like it is now but they'll change the grass mono-culture.

- Kuqui's shot actually went out for a throw in several yards upfield from the goal line.

Kuqui is not my idea of an ideal forward. But I wonder if certain posters would give him as much stick if he were called Cook and came from Kirkham?

Incidentally I agree that some French buildings have a lot to teach the English. Especially as much of it is designed by British architects who have to go to France to find clients willing to pay for their brilliant designs.

[Oklahoma]

I olny saw the last 30 minutes and we just lacked finishing.

The commentator kept saying that we deserved at least a goal when we were 2 down and that we played has a team while Arsenal used their superstars well.

He also kept repeating we had a Jemal Thompson on the field

[Blue blood]

From what I've seen and heard 3-0 seems rather harsh, which is a good sign that rovers are heading in the right direction, although that's not much consolation at the moment.

One of my housemates is an Arsenal fan so I expect there will be a few mentions of it during the week. Still I guess I'll be the one laughing when Henry decides to pop off to the continent at the end of the season.

It'd have been interesting to see if we'd have nabbed a point be playing more defensively. Perhaps results like this might enlighten the board that if we are to attack teams we need more up front. Kuqi isn't a bad buy but he's not one half of a great partnership that all successful Rovers teams have had.

Having said that the performances during a difficult period have been fairly positive so hopefully we can transfer this and start hammering some of the lesser teams.

[cletus]

Haven`t had time to read the last 10 pages of posts.

I thought the game was a great advertisement for the premier league.

Rovers battled & almost rattled the mighty Arsenal. We were beaten by 3 good goals.....2 of them were great pieces of individual skill.

I`d rather have Thierry Henry in my side than Rooney. The guy is class.

[BRFC4EVA]

Yes there was. One girl was wearing an Arsenal shirt. However, she was at the match with her brother, who was a Rovers fan.

Spoke to them briefly in the pub before the game.

She had her shirt hidden inside the ground, under her jacket.

I cant see what the problem is. Cant you go to a match with members of your family?

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Was that the family that had a kid each supporting Rovers and Arsenal? I think i saw them also. I think there was 5 or 6 in the row in front, but didnt jump up when arsenal scored so there is no prob in my idea.

We needed to score while the game was 1-0 before half time or in the first 20 min of the 2nd when it was 2-0 in order to get something out of the game. However, i was a very good performance imo, its not often that a team goes to Highbury and creates more chances than the home team, esp outside of the top 3!

I thought that the whole team played pretty well. Emerton could have got at Cygan more, but to be fair he and lucus did have their work cut out with Henry and Reyes operating on that side!! Savage held the mid-field together very well, but Reid was superb. So unlucky not to score, but for once drove forward with real purpose and desire.

On a final note, is anybody else questioning why everyone is going on about Bellamy. Now i think he is a superb player but he should have done better y'sday. Yes his movement was excellent and link up play superb, but he had 2 guilt edged chances, the one where he was through in the right hand channel and the header in the 2nd half.

We now dont have to play one of the 'big boys' until feb so this is an excellent opportunity to point a fair few points on the board. If we play we do today and finish our chances than we have a good chance of getting to europe!

[Shevchenko]

If you're talking about the header that hit the outside of the post, he did really well to get that anywhere near target in the first place. Had to twist his body in the air to get behind it. Thought he was excellent and did his job very well, challenged the slower Arsenal defense when he could and created chances doing it. I'm more disappointed with Pedersen's deliveries from corner kicks, because with Lehmann prone to airial mistakes in the box, if he could have hit Kuqi or Nelsen we could have got something from that.

[Nayef]

1. How many shockingly poor corners did Gamst provide? Was he actually going for goal on all those occasions? (apart from one where he did an outswinger)

2. And from my angle, I wasn't 100% certain that it wasn't a penalty.

But I guess it didn't matter in the end. 3 quality strikes - van Persie loves to score against us.

3. Don't know about the Arsenal fan but there was a rather annoying young girl/brat behind me who kept shouting out some sort of limerick gibberish. I've seen more intelligent monkeys...

4. Are we fighting fire with fire? Savage went down, clearly trying to get reyes booked - wasn't proud of that!

5. Overall, I left Highbury not subdued (as we had created chances of our own and never once did Arsenal look very comfortable and dominating) but not satisfied either (how many away games have we lost this season already?! We've had to endure crap season after crap season - with Bellamy and zura, I really felt optimistic this time round but we've already suffered numerous defeats as well as that embarrasing loss at Ewood to Souness). What are the chances that next saturday we'll be drawing 0-0 to Everton before we get scoused in the last minute?

EDIT: Kuqi is not a premiership player. Forget finishing - that cross of his was awful. I wanted to vomit.

Edited November 28, 2005 by Nayef

[tcj_jones]

I'm sick of people defending players because they consistently play "ok." Surely we should expect more from a premiership player than a few good performances every year? Kuqi played ok, as he usually does. I don't think he can escape criticism though. I also think it is perfectly clear that AESF does not think any less of Kuqi because he is foreign.

I think the first goal was less Todd's fault than the whole team giving Arsenal acres of space and hours on the ball throughout the first 10 minutes.

[speeeeeeedie]

The difference betweeen the two teams yesterday was about £50 million (conservative figure?) worth of striking talent. They could call on Henry, Bergkamp, and Pires then bring on van Persil to rub it in. What do we do? Bring on Dickov.

The early goal didn't help our cause as, no doubt, our game plan was affected, but we gave a very good showing of ourselves. I've skimmed through the last page or so and I disagree with some: Savage played very well yesterday, he is a spolier who does his job with aplomb. He winds people up all the time but is very effective in stopping opposition attacks. The Reyes incident was a bit stupid, but imagine the reaction if it was the other way around, Reyes would have gone down like he'd been shot and the press would have called for a lynch mob.

Our corners were pathetic.

[Exiled_Rover]

Soccernet's The Insider has another horribly one-sided review of the match. 

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/feature?id=350365&cc=4716

Savage is the "Premiership's most theatrical performer "

"No footballer likes to see another cheating in a bid to get a player sent-off, but Blackburn's midfield maestro thinks nothing of it "

yea, I am sure Soccernet's blue-eyed boys: Ruud, Pires, & Ronaldo never dived in their lives. They always

"Savage spent most of the second half lambasting referee Foy about every decision that went against him, but his manager bizarrely rejected the chance to dismiss his first half antics"

Hughes should have knelt down on his knees and asked forgiveness for Savage's playacting 

I wouldnt normally care but the fact is that Soccernet is pretty well read throughout the world and such articles may very well create enemies for us among people who have never seen us play

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I think the guy is in love with Robbie Savage, he'll run up to him and push him down in the playground any minute now

[FourLaneBlue]

Excellent match report from AESF. An interesting read.

Coming away from Highbury pointless is nothing new but raving about our performance there is a first for a few years. We are a team on the up.

[joey_big_nose]

I'm sick of people defending players because they consistently play "ok."  Surely we should expect more from a premiership player than a few good performances every year?  Kuqi played ok, as he usually does.  I don't think he can escape criticism though.  I also think it is perfectly clear that AESF does not think any less of Kuqi because he is foreign.

I think the first goal was less Todd's fault than the whole team giving Arsenal acres of space and hours on the ball throughout the first 10 minutes.

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I think this is broadly aimed at my post.

1. I am not defending Kuqi for playing ok. I am defending him because, in my opinion, he was the best partner for Bellamy we had for that game yesterday and he does put in 100% effort. He is not a good striker and we need another one in but he is currently the best we have if we want to cause problems in the air, as we did yesterday.

2. All I was saying is why in god's name did AESF refer to him as a Kosovan? The only answer I came up with is because he wished to connect Kuqi to asylum seekers. Why? As far as I can see for only three reasons: a) because he has a strong fondness for that subject and brings it up all the time because of that player's dark skin c) he dislikes kosovans and dislikes Kuqi so he connects them. I am happy to listen to any other rational reasons he stuck it in there.

ps. I don't think it would be unfair thing to say that AESF is prejudiced agianst pretty much everything that is foreign, but that was not what I was getting at.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Is it only me that thinks me again Blackburn are being portraid as the villians by the pro-southern press ?

Yes, Savage over reacted to the Reyes attempt at a punch. But he didn't roll-around as has been described in many portions of the press. I have also seen matches where players have raised their arms - and not been defended by the media - with the common comment "you can't raise your hands and hope to get away with it".

What really gets to me - is that over the last few years Arsenal themselves have been well known to feign injury in an attempt to get players sent off. It reminds me of the out cry against Todd last season. Yet again the whiter than white Arsenal fans and their devoted media machine lambasted Todd for an incident that nobody could prove whether was deliberate or not. And yet only a few seasons previous a blatantly deliberate elbow by Begkamp on Nissa gets barely a mention in the press.

[roversmum]

There was an unpleasant incident on MGP when an Arse player (can't remember who ) came up behind him, put an arm round his neck and pushed him down - no card shown but had it been the other way.................

Still, on the whole we did ourselves proud, if only we could finish....

Excellent report in Sunday Times (unfortunately not online), citing Bellamy as man of the match and giving Rovers much credit.

[krislu]

I really hope we can bring in some quality in January. We all see how a quality player like Bellamy effects the team, imagine if we had three players with that kind of ability!

I'm going to renew my subscription at Rovers World in January as I would like to contribute to us signing McCarthy, £39.99 should cover a cheap Ryan Air planeticket from Portugal...

Edited November 28, 2005 by krislu

[dillo_dillo]

Excellent report in Sunday Times (unfortunately not online), citing Bellamy as man of the match and giving Rovers much credit.

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Sunday Times story...

could be this URL

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2093-1893113,00.html

Arsenal 3 Blackburn 0: Van Persie goal flatters the gunners

BRIAN GLANVILLE

[roversmum]

Thanks Dillo. The very one!

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

2. All I was saying is why in god's name did AESF refer to him as a Kosovan? The only answer I came up with is because he wished to connect Kuqi to asylum seekers.

He was born in Kosovo.

I didn't say in my previous post that he was an asylum seeker - although, as it happens, he actually was an asylum seeker who fled Eastern Europe to go to Finland.

(Link to that HERE)

I didn't mention asylum seekers in my previous post. I notice that you didn't take other board members to task on previous topics where they described Zurab as an asylum seeker.

Maybe, with your username in mind Joey, I should also be careful in future about saying that Kuqi has a big nose, in case that's "racist" too....

[waggy]

a worrying point is now we have failed to score in 50% off the league games we have played this season, thats 7 games we have not scored in,last season we were poor but it took us 17 games to reach this figure,a striking partner for bellamy is a must for jan,and lets sign someone on the 1st not the 31st.

[Nuclearsox]

That's a very black & white way of viewing things and ignores the match completely.  Of course i'd rather we were 'lucky' and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah and that's what I got. 

Incidentally I don't think we were unlucky just defended badly at times and they were clinical.  However to suggest blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah another 3 goal bound efforts you know you have created chances. 

Would like to see Thommo given a start on Wednesday blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, very promising.

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That's all very interesting MB but it doesn't answer the question that is on everyone's lips - did Scotty and the rest of the Manchester contigent manage to get the right plane back from London this time?