[Archived] Rovers 1 Arsenil

[John]

Samba has been excellent so far but for me he is still very much an unknown quantity.

I would go "safe" for this game and go for Zurab and Nelsen.

[spencey7]

Samba has been excellent so far but for me he is still very much an unknown quantity.

I would go "safe" for this game and go for Zurab and Nelsen.

Agreed, if I were choosing it would be Zurab and Nelsen, but Hughes has taken a real shine to Samba so I wouldn't be surprised to see him in the side. Come to think of it - Just noticed the time, is the team available online yet??

[modes98]

The same team apart from el captain returns in the place of henchoz who drops out of the 16

[krislu]

ROVERS: Friedel, Emerton, Samba, Nelsen ©, Warnock, Bentley, Tugay, Mokoena, Pedersen, Nonda, Derbyshire.

Subs: Enckelman (GK), Khizanishvili, McCarthy, Dunn, Roberts.

ARSENAL: Almunia, Eboue, Senderos, Gallas, Traore, Ljungberg, Denilson, Gilberto ©, Hleb, Aliadiere, Baptista.

Subs: Poom (GK), Clichy, Hoyte, Walcott, Randall.

Arsenals team looks very strong, and with us playing 4-4-2 I'm afraid we will be outrun in midfield

[Guest shoppybrfc]

This goes to show just how good Arsenals squad is having 10 first teamers out according to their site...

Mccarthy being dropped doesnt sound good, didnt he have a barney with the Porto boss whenever he was dropped? Cant see Benni being impressed with Hughes.

[blue/white]

According to the Guardian:

2 min In an entirely predictable development, Blackburn have started with aggression and purpose, pinning Arsenal's twentysomethings in their third of the pitch

[Finch]

sounds like Lawro is doing the commentary on five live. I may turn over to Bbc radio London for less biased opinions!

He just compared Friedel to a traffic cone!

[Guest shoppybrfc]

Samba and the Axe are playing very well. Nondas causing troubles.

Why is gally not on the bench, Why has Hughes given him a new contract if hes not even going to give him a chance..

[BuckyRover]

Samba and the Axe are playing very well. Nondas causing troubles.

Why is gally not on the bench, Why has Hughes given him a new contract if hes not even going to give him a chance..

Probably because he thought (like I do) that Benni and Roberts are better strikers to bring on

[T4E]

Did you see Samba just DESTROY Baptista in the shoulder to shoulder? Jeez!!!

[jim mk2]

Friedel and Rovers lucky ; looked a penalty to me .

[blue/white]

Did you see Samba just DESTROY Baptista in the shoulder to shoulder? Jeez!!!

From the Guardian:

20 min Arsenal have another good spell of possession ends with Ljungberg sliding Baptista in on the left of the box, but he is outbeasted by the giant figure of Chris Samba, who muscles him over in vaguely comic circumstances. "I was watching the Blackburn/Leverkusen match on German TV last week and the German commentator made a point of mentioning that Blackburn were nicknamed 'Blackeye' Rovers in England, due to their robust attitude - full credit to all at GU Towers for having such a wide sphere of influence," says Jon Ford. "Does anyone have any examples of GU spreading this or similar facts farther afield."

[jim mk2]

Emerton completely missed a header ; man's a liabilty .

[jim mk2]

Emerton just brought down Ljungberg ; another pen !

[jim mk2]

Free header ; Arsenal could be 3 up !

[pg]

Is it too much to ask for some neutral comments?

[stuwilky]

If anyone has a rifle handy, I'll nip down to the hill behind the Riverside and I reckon I can take Andy Gray out from there.

[jim mk2]

Neutral comment : Rovers just entered the Arsenal half for the first time in 10 mins

[G Somerset Rover]

Aside from the first 15 minutes that was pretty painful viewing. Our strikers have not held onto the ball once but our defence and midfield haven't been helping by lumping it forward to them. Almunia may as well be on flipping holiday!

Comon boys there's a real chance here!

[Exiled in Toronto]

What a pile of sh!te we were in that half. Emerton's liabilities in the full back position on full view tonight.

Tugay and t'Axe haven't been out of our half yet, our two forwards are isolated. Needs a tactical readjustment if we're to go through.

[krislu]

We should stick to 4-5-1, hope we can frustrate them enough and get lucky ourself on a corner or free kick.

But I think we will line up quite attacking, it will give Arsenal the space they need.

Rovers 1

Arse 3

Looks like I'm spot on then. We are playing very undisciplined, our players are running out of their position all the time trying to close them down. This leads to huge gaps for the arsenal players to run into, and to be honest they should have been at least 1-0 up.

We need get less distance between our defence, midfield and strikers. Closing down all over the pich aint going to work, we are just going to make a lot of space for them to run into. Hopefully Hughes will address this before the second half. Hope to see us start closing them down when they are 10 meters into our half, stay compact, and we may get a goal on the break.

On thing is certain, if we continue like this Arsenal will score...

[duggers]

For me, the initial contact was outside the area. But they still would've had a few goals if it wasn't for a couple of really bad first touches. Let's give Benni a go.

[G Somerset Rover]

Zurab for Warnock...must be an injury? If it's tactical I would've got Emo off.

[Driftpeasant]

Zurab for Warnock...must be an injury? If it's tactical I would've got Emo off.

Soccernet's live game tracker says it's for injury.

[Kai]

Zurab for Warnock...must be an injury? If it's tactical I would've got Emo off.

According to the commentry here.. Warnock's not injured? Wierd..