[Archived] Blackburn Rovers 1 Arsenal 0

[blue/white]

Hughes for Premiership Mgr of the Year makes me very nervous, FLB !

I don't want to lose our Manager just yet !!!!

[1864roverite]

after the recent arguments about one of our midfielders, today I went to the game and did a "TUGAY watch".

A very brief summary follows:

Tugay = enigma.

No doubting his pass and movement skills, he passed the ball around quite well and put in a few little tackles.

He did quite well in the first half but faded quick.

Downside. He nearly cost us a goal second before the half time whistle. In the second half he gave far too many passes away, committed himself to too many stupid tackles, gave several daft fouls away and generally, left his head in the changing room.

That said.

The Rovers were simply fantastic. A lesson they learned today, you cannot ever dominate a football team like Arsenal with pure football, it takes hard graft and a bit of luck. Thats what we fans saw today.

1-0 against the Arse is a bloody great achievement.

My players of todays game. Todd was solid and kept Henry at bay. Lucas and Nelsen were immense. Reid was solid as was Gray.

Roberto Savaage (as described Stu Hall) was simply superb, ran his little coton socks off.

Bellamy was a joy to behold.

Finally, as I head off for a weeks sun in Lanzarote, I want to thank Graeme Souness for the biggest favour he has ever done our Football Club. That is that he kicked Bellamy out of St James Park and he landed at Blackburn via Celtic.

Thanks Souey, got any regrets ?

[Guest Kamy100]

Great Performance and immense result.

TUGAY was pure classs, he tackled, closed down and passed arsenal to death. He just gets better and better.

I have to mention Todd who was also immense. I almost totally dominated the best striker in the world, great defensive performance.

Very happy that we are in the top 5 and have a fighting chance of European Football.

[krislu]

I almost totally dominated the best striker in the world, great defensive performance.

386499[/snapback]

Don't get cocky Kamy..

[James No. 7]

We've just beat the team that won away at the Bernabeau. Superb result. These are heady times for Rovers. We should fear no team at home...and that includes Chelsea.

This is a fantastic advertisement for the club. We couldn't have won against Arsenal at a better time. This match was in the spotlight and we've shown to everyone that Blackburn Rovers is a brillian team who are looking forward under the guidance of Mark Hughes.

My ratings:

Friedel - 8

Neill - 7

Gray - 7

Todd - 8: His physical presence was imposing and he really kept the pressure up all match. He was the rock and the mortar in our defence.

Nelsen - 7

Reid - 7: You can't fault his work rate, effort, or even his clean game, but he is too conservative and does not see enough of the ball, nor do enough with it, to be in right midfield. He certainly doesn't deserve to lose his place at the moment, though, especially after today, so put him there when Tugay plays and back into the centre when we rest the Maestro.

Pedersen - 7

Savage - 8: Our driving force.

Tugay - 7

Bellamy - 9: We are half a team without him. He is essential to our attack and we would not have looked like scoring anything without him, let alone the ball anywhere near the goal. He is the second-most essential Rover after Sparky.

Sinama-Pongolle - 7

Peter - 6: He lost possession quite easily, but he is learning. This can only do him a world of good. What an opportunity it was for him to experience such a high pressure match. I can't wait for him to develop into a top quality player.

Bentley - 7

Mokoena - 7

[Kei]

after the recent arguments about one of our midfielders, today I went to the game and did a "TUGAY watch".

A very brief summary follows:

Tugay = enigma.

No doubting his pass and movement skills, he passed the ball around quite well and put in a few little tackles.

He did quite well in the first half but faded quick.

Downside. He nearly cost us a goal second before the half time whistle. In the second half he gave far too many passes away, committed himself to too many stupid tackles, gave several daft fouls away and generally, left his head in the changing room.

Was that sarcasm? Unbelievable to be honest, what more can you ask of him? Tugay gave Fabregas a lesson in how to be a Premiership midfielder today. His touch, his vision his spreading of the ball all over the park and his workrate were just world class. A few little tackles? He was constantly at their ankles and first to every single ball in the middle of the park in the first half. He was fantastic.

Yes he gave that one pass away when he probably should have had a shot, but that was his only stray pass of note in that half. Arsenal of old would have probably punished us but Toddy made a brilliant tackle.

Hughes took him off at the right time because he did start to tire, the guy is 35. He was mixing it with supposidly one of the brightest young talents in European football in Fabregas and he completely blew him away from start to finish.

He had everything today. The excuse for him having a blinder against Sunderland was that.......they wern't very good. It was Arsenal today and he was even better.

That said he had two other midfielders with him today in Savage and Reid that really are brilliant athletes. Reid looked absolutly dead with 10 minutes to go but he found another gear and challenged for every single ball.

Todd completely shut Henry out and Bellamy is just a cut above any striker we have seen at Rovers for a very long time.

[cletus]

Well done Rovers!

Excellent result!

[Bobby G]

All I have to say is YA BABY!

A pulsating game and thank God we survived the deadly 15 minutes in the middle of the second half, but we should have put the game beyong doubt before that.

Bellamy was brilliant, but Todd and Nelsen were also superb and also a shout out to Reidy!

I think we have given ourself one more shot at 4th place but it all depends on whether we can beat Spurs or not!

[grizfoot]

Does this make us better than Real Madrid??

*Barmy Army* *Barmy Army*

[emglch]

how nice will it be if today is the last day of the season! 5th!

Edited February 25, 2006 by emglch

[RoyRover]

Today's result really puts us in the running for European football next season and maybe the Champions League. I was confident that we could win this game at the start of the week, but after the Real result, I thought Arsenal would be up for this. Apparently they didn't start playing until the 70th minute. It sounds like Nelsen and Todd was excellent at the back again, Tugay, Savage and Reid were excellent in midfield and Bellamy caused problems all afternoon with his pace. Hopefully we won't respond to this result like we did the United one and go on to lose the next couple of games. Well done lads, keep it up and we have every chance of playing in the Champions League next season.

[Rovermatt]

Arsenal really are pathetic. Thanks for the three points. We move up to fifth, European football beckons.

[Paul]

edited

[tsnuf]

Someone tell me about Savage's antics, everyone says he was hilarious today!

[SAS]

i thought peter played rubbish, seemed to always want to keep the ball instead of passing, he usually ended up losing it

fsp is crap i think, bring back dickov and fast

savage, nelsen, todd, neill, bellamy were great i thought

[SAS]

Someone tell me about Savage's antics, everyone says he was hilarious today!

386522[/snapback]

he did a diving header to friedel on aball that was rolling along the floor

then orchestrated easy chants after the final whistle

and he just laughed at lehman when lehman threw water in his face

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Short and sweet..........

This is really superb...better than I could have imagined!!

[grizfoot]

Lehmann as a reputation of being bad-tempered and he proved it today. He pushed reidy over and got booked, but what I want to know why wasn't it a penalty. He had collected the ball from a cross and went to put it down.

Surely it should have been a penalty then if their player was booked, or did a miss something

[stuwilky]

Lehmann as a reputation of being bad-tempered and he proved it today. He pushed reidy over and got booked, but what I want to know why wasn't it a penalty. He had collected the ball from a cross and went to put it down.

Surely it should have been a penalty then if their player was booked, or did a miss something 

386529[/snapback]

Hadnt the referee already blown for a free kick to Arsenal? So the ball was out of play.

[Modi]

It's amazing how flat Livesey Branch Road is after a win, and how pleasant the trip home on the M62 is.

Brilliant performance by the team, only underperformer really was Peter who tried too hard.

Funny moments - Savage's header. Reid almost being decapitated. Toogs backheel 30 seconds after an Arse player had done the same "anything you can do, I can do better". Lehmann being a total ###### throughout. Wenger unsurprising post match comments of them being the better team.

[Rover4ever]

Who was voted MOTM today? I seem to have missed the announcement during the match. IMO it should be Tugay for his passing as well as a number of crucial tackles , or maybe Todd for keeping Henry quiet

[grizfoot]

Who was voted MOTM today? I seem to have missed the announcement during the match. IMO it should be Tugay for his passing as well as a number of crucial tackles , or maybe Todd for keeping Henry quiet

386533[/snapback]

Todd was MOTM.

Although there was a few other contenders, personally I thought Bellamy was brilliant today.

[trueblue]

Wow ! Nose-bleed time !! up to 5th !!

I passed the Fernhurst on my way to the game and there was a stall selling Arsenal shirts with '1-0 at the Bernabau' on the front.. Yahhhh up yours Whinger.... 1-0 at the Ewood Park !!!!!

[Paul]

Lehmann as a reputation of being bad-tempered and he proved it today. He pushed reidy over and got booked, but what I want to know why wasn't it a penalty. He had collected the ball from a cross and went to put it down.

Surely it should have been a penalty then if their player was booked, or did a miss something 

386529[/snapback]

The guy behind me thought the same thing but in fact from the corner, a Rover - Pongolle? - had jumped behind an Arsenal defender and pushed him. Rennie gave a clear free kick for that which Lehmann wanted to take quickly. Reid got in his way and Lehmann pushed flat on his face, other refs might have sent the keeper off.

Had an Arsenal fan sat next to me today, had a Utd fan for that game, I'm going to call the TO and ask them for Liverpool and Chelsea next.

I thought the whole team was absolutely fantastic today, the sort of game when you worry for the last 30 minutes but just know Arsenal could play all night and we would hold firm. There's not much to say, just very, very proud of our team and manager. What a fantastic job Hughes is doing. Thought Bellamy had his best game to date for us and contrary to others Tugay was superb, only saw one misplaced pass from him today.

The next six games are crucial:

Tottenham (A) - 1

Villa (H) - 3

Boro (H) - 3

Sunderland (A) - 3

Wigan (H) - 3

Portsmouth (A) - 1

14 points from the next 18 is possible if the team are as serious about 4th spot as they showed today.

Wonderful result, cracking game of football; get yourself down to Ewood!

[tchocky]

If only we had drawn half of the away games that we have lost ...

Can't complain though. The job now will be to keep our position until the end of the season. Arsenal and Bolton our main contenders IMO.