[Archived] Arsenal V Blackburn Rovers

[DarrellH]

Must say I hate the way we 'defended' today - forever backing off and letting the Aresnal players run at us. That just opens you up, as a player your options are pretty much zero when you are running backwards with the opposition streaming forward... Attack the ball FFS.

[Amo]

Must say I hate the way we 'defended' today - forever backing off and letting the Aresnal players run at us. That just opens you up, as a player your options are pretty much zero when you are running backwards with the opposition streaming forward... Attack the ball FFS.

It's the worst thing you can do against Arsenal. Back off and you're just affording them time to spot the next thread in their passing game. Rush them and they're more likely to misplace the ball.

[ABBEY]

It's the worst thing you can do against Arsenal. Back off and you're just affording them time to spot the next thread in their passing game. Rush them and they're more likely to misplace the ball.

the expert thought otherwise.

[Tom]

Abbey just a point Burnley may have beat United but United were at their worst, today we got beat to a great team at their very best. No team apart from maybe United or Chelsea would have oped with them today.

Not an excuse just pointing it out.

[Hughesy]

the expert thought otherwise.

Where did the "expert" say that he told them to do this?!

[ABBEY]

Where did the "expert" say that he told them to do this?!

so they went against their manager then?

[Hughesy]

so they went against their manager then?

Must of done. Cant see Sam sending them out and telling them to back off and let Arsenal play can you?!

[JAL]

If you read it properly JAL it was an explanation of why I thought the performance was ok, not why we lost, also it was one point of several.

The referee had nothing to do with our Ok performance, he wasnt poor, maybe one penalty decision alone he could be at fault with, so what, that wouldnt have stopped Arsenal repeatedly going up the other end queing up to put to put the ball in our net would it.

[Miker]

Must of done. Cant see Sam sending them out and telling them to back off and let Arsenal play can you?!

They seemed to close down Arsenal very quickly at the start of the first half, but stopped doing that later on. I think Sam realised that Arsenal would still be able to keep possession and heavy closing down would get players out of position and just tire them out. Sitting back meant we could try to track their runs and stop them, which we did on a number of occasions in the game. Unfortunately Arsenal were executing everything to perfection. Look at all their goals, there's just nothing you could do about them. They were either long range efforts that were impossible to stop or they beat the offside trap with precision. The idea behind it is that you keep Arsenal at bay and restrict them to long shots, putting faith in Robinson to save them, but last night every single shot was absolutely superb.

What we need to work on is our marking, it was way too loose. We should've been seriously harassing the Arsenal players and stopping them from making those runs, but we didn't and that was our folly.

[joey_big_nose]

I thought I would post before I read anyone elses stuff to make sure i am not influnced. Will do now.

Personally I thought we were okay, apart from two starters and two subsititutes. I slapped my forehead when Olsson was in the team (I literally couldn't believe it - Olsson versus Arshavin!) however he actually did okay. Even one tremendous striker and he supported down the left well and was never really exposed. I was reasonably impressed.

Dunn played well, Diouf was okay, Di Santo struggled (only trapped the ball twice?) but a willing worker, Givet was worse than he usually is but not bad, Jacobsen acceptable, NZonzi got a good goal and was reasonable if a bit static. Emerton was solid, especially defensively. Robinson pulled off some cracking saves.

Broadly speaking we played reasonably well for the first hour, acceptably for the next ten, and completely appallingly for the final twenty.

My main issue were two of our own players who caused us serious serious problems.

Andrews was utterly utterly dire. Not only did he give us no defensive potection because he was a yard behind the pace, but he gave away the ball on at least five seperate occasions. WHY WAS HE PLAYING AGAINST THE SIDE BEST EQUIPPED TO PUNISH HIM?!? This was literally ridiculous. It was astonishing that he was not subsitituted in the stead of Emerton.

Chimbonda, the other major culprit, had one of the mst Jekyll and Hyde performances I have ever seen. Sometimes he was brilliant - mobile, intelligent, agile - but sometimes he was abject. Three of the Arsenal goals can be traced to Chimbonda making frankly crazy decisions. He would come for the ball far too often rather than holding the line with Givet.

In a way it's not fair to blame him - he was just asked to do a job in his unfavoured position. But the fact of the matter is that if Samba was playing there we might have been able to keep a more respectable scoreline.

The other problem I had were our subs. Pedersen - WHY?!?!? He offers nothing against the pace of Arsenal. He is taken out of the game almost instantly becuase 1) he can't beat a man 2) like Andrews he is a yard behind the gunners. Emerton was doing okay, especially defensively (and he created a goal). Pedersen's arrival immediately blunted us.

McCarthy, although he retired injured almost immediately, is a case of the same thing. When we are trying to play on the counter he give almost precisely nothing. Slow, disinterested, overly flamboyant. He destroys moves. Perhaps he could have finished a scrap thrown his way, but we were defending a man short when he was on.

Hoilett was okay when he came on but we had given up the ghost.

Anyhow, in my mind Sam should have started in Emerton in the centre instead of Andrews and Hoilett out wide.

Arsenal are a brilliant team and I don't want to take anything away from them, but the inclusion of Andrews was a major shot in our own foot. The substitutions were rubbish as well.

I still think we will beat Burnley next week, and we are on a decent course generally, but I am gutted about how we captulated in the last twenty.

Spot on Bryan.

Who would have thought that an injury ravaged David Dunn would be seen as our best player/saviour, 5 seasons or so after he couldn't even get a game.....

How the mighty have fallen.

To be fair Dunn is playing the best football of his life. He looks a fantastic player, I wouldn't blame him at all.

[joey_big_nose]

People really think that if Andrews didn't play somehow the scoreline would of been any different?!!?

Yes, I do believe this. And I am someone who has defended Keef in the past. He was utterly utterly awful today. We may still have lost but we would have conceded less if Emerton had played the full game in the centre today.

[beerwins]

Our defence was woefull, our closing down and throwing in a challenge from all areas of the pitch was dogturd, wtf is with the team they were like big girls.

Yes before anyone mentions it all arses goals were top notch and its not often you get the a team banging so many top notch goals in, but we gave then the time and space to get the goals they did (try striking a sweet shot with a defender gnawing at your heals) it isnt easy.

Why do we persist in playing this 4,5,1 turd its an defensive formation with our players, with arsenals its a different story, the only person who comes out smelling of roses is dunny, well he will play well given a free role every week.

Ditch the 4,5,1 and have 2 strikers, im sick to death of seeing di santo or jase run around like headless chickens just so we can hold the ball up for our non existant midfield to catch up and score , use strikers for what they are meant to be used for SCORING GOALS.

I always thought the 4,5,1 was there to allow the squad to adapt to 4,3,3 which doesnt happen, or to be defensively strong which doesnt happen, if sam has to persist with this turd formation at least put junior at 1 of the wings so we can have some pace in our slow ass team.

I really dont want to critize sam as i believe he is one of the best man managers in the game but what a pile of sh1te we have been this season so far. Yeh you can say we have had good perfomances here and there but overall we have lost matches we should have won, played bad when we shouldnt have and our defence which has been a good point to rovers over the years leaks like an iraq submarine. (dont even get me started on the fact that our main goalthreat the STRIKER is being used to hold up the ball for the likes of andrews and grella and nzonzi).

Too many of you guys have allready settled for second best, we are a much better team than this and if you can say your happy with this cr@p at the moment im afraid your only lying to yourself.

[Shabani]

Why are people going overboard after this result?

If some of you had bothered to watch rovers recently then you will see we are creating tons of chances every match. Only against everton that cannot be said.

Theres not point playing with 2 strikers atm when we have dunny playing out of his skin in behind. We just need the one striker who can finish and hold play up, unfortunately all out strikers only fall into one of those 2 categories

If we tighten up at the back and put a couple more chances away, which has definately been a failing we will win more games for sure

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

Settled for second best? This was ARSENAL, yes im a Rovers fan but im not blind enough to expect anything when we visit the Emirates. We are second best to these teams and i dont think its weak to admit it.

This wasnt a game where we could go out for the win. Is that overly negative? possibly, but no team could have managed to contain arsenal when they hit top form.

What was to blame for today's defeat? Arsenal on top form, our makeshift back 4 not coping with Arshavin, Van Persie, Fabregas, Walcott and Rosicky (As if any other defenders could have). Andrews was very poor but thats about all you could take out of the performance. People seem surprised that Fabregas and Arshavin were difficult to defend against. Its all very well to say 'we should have closed them down quicker', but when you're faced with the speed and precision that Arsenal were attacking with, its nearly impossible.

Today will not define our season. In two weeks time things will be far more important.

[grizfoot]

We actually played fairly decent for the first hour or so of the game. Not many teams score two goals at The Emirates (could have been three if ref had have given that obvious penalty). Was a big blow going in behind at half-time after taking the lead twice, but a combinaiton of poor defending and swift Arsenal attacking moves led to them going in 3-2 up. Despite this we started the second-half well, but as soon as Dunn came off (quickly becoming our talisman) we simply fell to pieces.

The dissapointing thing was I can't recall any meaningful tackle from either N'Zonzi or Andrews. Whether it was the fact that the Arsenal midfielders were just too good or what, but both N'Zonzi and Andrews were chasing shadows the entire game and gave little protection to a newly assembled back four.

Just for the record I actually think if Arsenal can improve defensively then they'll win the league this season. They've undoubtley in my opinion got the best array of attacking players in the Premiership. Their three subs in Bendtner, Ramsey and Walcott would for example walk into our starting eleven without question. Then you've got Fabregas and Arshavin who are two of the best players in the Premiership. Which really brings me to the concluding point that there is a massive gulf in class between our players and Arsenal's players. When Arsenal are in full flow they are unstoppable, they dominate games from start to finish and create chance after chance. Sometimes you've just got to hold your hands up and say the oppostion were too good, and I think today was one of the cases.

[Miker]

I thought I would post before I read anyone elses stuff to make sure i am not influnced. Will do now.

Personally I thought we were okay, apart from two starters and two subsititutes. I slapped my forehead when Olsson was in the team (I literally couldn't believe it - Olsson versus Arshavin!) however he actually did okay. Even one tremendous striker and he supported down the left well and was never really exposed. I was reasonably impressed.

Dunn played well, Diouf was okay, Di Santo struggled (only trapped the ball twice?) but a willing worker, Givet was worse than he usually is but not bad, Jacobsen acceptable, NZonzi got a good goal and was reasonable if a bit static. Emerton was solid, especially defensively. Robinson pulled off some cracking saves.

Broadly speaking we played reasonably well for the first hour, acceptably for the next ten, and completely appallingly for the final twenty.

My main issue were two of our own players who caused us serious serious problems.

Andrews was utterly utterly dire. Not only did he give us no defensive potection because he was a yard behind the pace, but he gave away the ball on at least five seperate occasions. WHY WAS HE PLAYING AGAINST THE SIDE BEST EQUIPPED TO PUNISH HIM?!? This was literally ridiculous. It was astonishing that he was not subsitituted in the stead of Emerton.

Chimbonda, the other major culprit, had one of the mst Jekyll and Hyde performances I have ever seen. Sometimes he was brilliant - mobile, intelligent, agile - but sometimes he was abject. Three of the Arsenal goals can be traced to Chimbonda making frankly crazy decisions. He would come for the ball far too often rather than holding the line with Givet.

In a way it's not fair to blame him - he was just asked to do a job in his unfavoured position. But the fact of the matter is that if Samba was playing there we might have been able to keep a more respectable scoreline.

The other problem I had were our subs. Pedersen - WHY?!?!? He offers nothing against the pace of Arsenal. He is taken out of the game almost instantly becuase 1) he can't beat a man 2) like Andrews he is a yard behind the gunners. Emerton was doing okay, especially defensively (and he created a goal). Pedersen's arrival immediately blunted us.

McCarthy, although he retired injured almost immediately, is a case of the same thing. When we are trying to play on the counter he give almost precisely nothing. Slow, disinterested, overly flamboyant. He destroys moves. Perhaps he could have finished a scrap thrown his way, but we were defending a man short when he was on.

Hoilett was okay when he came on but we had given up the ghost.

Anyhow, in my mind Sam should have started in Emerton in the centre instead of Andrews and Hoilett out wide.

Arsenal are a brilliant team and I don't want to take anything away from them, but the inclusion of Andrews was a major shot in our own foot. The substitutions were rubbish as well.

I still think we will beat Burnley next week, and we are on a decent course generally, but I am gutted about how we captulated in the last twenty.

To be fair Dunn is playing the best football of his life. He looks a fantastic player, I wouldn't blame him at all.

Agree with most of the things you said. Re: subs ... I was a bit surprised by them as well. I would've thought Hoilett would be brought on sooner and maybe even Kalinic for Di Santo, but that didn't happen. In retrospect, looking at our bench I'm not surprised at the decisions. Emerton was starting his first match of the season and I didn't really notice him too much in the second half, but maybe Sam wanted to take it easy with him (same thing with Dunn). Pedersen was brought on because of his set pieces (I know, I know... they're useless), but I'm sure Sam was thinking we could nick a goal from one of them. McCarthy was probably given a chance to impress as well, since he's been out of the team for a while now and could've proved useful if we had a free kick or penalty.

I'm not sure who else could've been brought on? I don't think Sam wants to play Emerton in the middle and unless we were switching to a 4-4-2 there was really no replacement for Andrews. He definitely can't play next week though and I don't expect him too. It has to be:

Robinson

Jacobsen-Samba-Nelsen/Givet-Givet/Chimbonda

N'zonzi-Grella

Emerton-Dunn-Diouf

Di Santo

[beerwins]

Settled for second best? This was ARSENAL, yes im a Rovers fan but im not blind enough to expect anything when we visit the Emirates. We are second best to these teams and i dont think its weak to admit it.

This wasnt a game where we could go out for the win. Is that overly negative? possibly, but no team could have managed to contain arsenal when they hit top form.

What was to blame for today's defeat? Arsenal on top form, our makeshift back 4 not coping with Arshavin, Van Persie, Fabregas, Walcott and Rosicky (As if any other defenders could have). Andrews was very poor but thats about all you could take out of the performance. People seem surprised that Fabregas and Arshavin were difficult to defend against. Its all very well to say 'we should have closed them down quicker', but when you're faced with the speed and precision that Arsenal were attacking with, its nearly impossible.

Today will not define our season. In two weeks time things will be far more important.

I dont mean second best in response to todays result, that was obvious before we kicked a ball, i mean to the likes of a bad pre season city or a sunderland who werent on a role or a substandard everton that were tired , your responding like we were great in these games, please tell me you dont think we were because when you take off those elton john style blue and white specs you are going to be amazed how crap we were in those games,

Arsenal were rampant yes but am i stupid to expect more of my team i have supported all my life? or should I be happy with the way the season has gone for us already, is it going to take a loss against the scum of scum at home to make people see we are underacheiving ? even a win wont see me eating humble pie.

And shabani said "Theres not point playing with 2 strikers atm when we have dunny playing out of his skin in behind. We just need the one striker who can finish and hold play up, unfortunately all out strikers only fall into one of those 2 categories" Are you on something?? seriously how long is dunny going to stay fit for? and as for the 1 striker that is going to hold up play and finish it himself PLEASE show me him in any league, every time di santo got the ball there was no player near him he had to hold it up for so long by the time our midfielders caught up with him the majority of arsenals players had all got back.

This system doesnt work with rovers because our midfield is so slow and totally inept of threat, we dont have wallcott, arshavin, rosicky, fabregas or anyone near that standard to supply the goals from midfield so who is going to score for rovers?

My old man believes that we are doing ok as do many of you and i have the same argument for him look at our points, look at our goals scored, look at our goal scorers, we struggle to hold the ball and put together any kind of flowing pasing movement and when we dont have the ball we cant seem to be physical enough to get the ball back.

All i read are excuses , we played well , damn ref, we had injuries, missed chances, last game i saw us dominate was agaisnt stoke last season when we won 3-0 other than that we have been gifted our wins.

Argue all you want and use all the excuses you can if the system suited we wouldnt be where were are now going into one of the biggest games we have had for a helluva long time on the back of a 6-2 loss with a string of crap results under our belt.

Some of you seem to have the impression that im anti sam or anti 4,5,1 im not anti anything im just a realist who sees that our football is nowhere near the standard it should be and i know we can do better, if you guys want to be optimistic about losing 6-2 one of our highest losses in prem history then so be it , but excuse me for expecting better.

[thenodrog]

Arsenal were awesome today and each of the shots that scored the goals were absolutely unstoppable if we'd had two keepers in. I couldn't really fault Robinson for any of them. BUT I could however have serious misgivings over the fact that he never got even close to any of them. :!:

Truth is (as SA said) the really big issue was the penalty that was denied and the possibility of seeing the Arse reduced to 10 men!

But Arsenal have undeniably a more expensive and talented squad than us. We all know why this is, financially we are running on empty whilst they are benefitting not only from huge gate receipts but also Champ League hand outs. Their squad is chock full of top players whereas everytime we get a good player some other club piggin well buys him! There are many reasons for this of course and basically it all comes back to level of supoport and finances. In a nutshell it can't be helped. A makeshift back 4 left unprotected by a midfield with hardly a tackle in them and with a central core of a promising youngster and a 3rd Div player trying to keep Cec bloody Fabregas quiet cannot succeed! I have a lot of faith in the manager but I have big question marks over the signing of Salgado and the continued use of Keith Andrews.

[kevinyip]

I think it is Sam that make such result:

1. Why there is no one to mark Fabregas and let him played what he want? If there is someone mark him I believe he won't scored that easy.

2. Why if there is any ball just roll inches in front of Blackburn players, they just let the ball gone? I have seen a lot of times that our players should be able to touch the ball but somehow they let the ball pass away.

3. Why putting an injury fear players (Dunn) and yet he is playing that good off, and replace with another injury fear players? Are Sam already think that he won't win this match so he put off the best players so as to "avoid him to be injured"..

[Stoic]

Spot on Bryan.

Who would have thought that an injury ravaged David Dunn would be seen as our best player/saviour, 5 seasons or so after he couldn't even get a game.....

How the mighty have fallen.

Frankly, even a year or so ago in the midst of his injury problems, Dunn was great every time he did get on the pitch for us. It's no surprise that he is our best player now he's fit. Reid has been the reverse unfortunately. Whenever he comes back from injury he looks worse than before.

[Miker]

And shabani said "Theres not point playing with 2 strikers atm when we have dunny playing out of his skin in behind. We just need the one striker who can finish and hold play up, unfortunately all out strikers only fall into one of those 2 categories" Are you on something?? seriously how long is dunny going to stay fit for? and as for the 1 striker that is going to hold up play and finish it himself PLEASE show me him in any league, every time di santo got the ball there was no player near him he had to hold it up for so long by the time our midfielders caught up with him the majority of arsenals players had all got back.

This system doesnt work with rovers because our midfield is so slow and totally inept of threat, we dont have wallcott, arshavin, rosicky, fabregas or anyone near that standard to supply the goals from midfield so who is going to score for rovers?

My old man believes that we are doing ok as do many of you and i have the same argument for him look at our points, look at our goals scored, look at our goal scorers, we struggle to hold the ball and put together any kind of flowing pasing movement and when we dont have the ball we cant seem to be physical enough to get the ball back.

Argue all you want and use all the excuses you can if the system suited we wouldnt be where were are now going into one of the biggest games we have had for a helluva long time on the back of a 6-2 loss with a string of crap results under our belt.

Some of you seem to have the impression that im anti sam or anti 4,5,1 im not anti anything im just a realist who sees that our football is nowhere near the standard it should be and i know we can do better, if you guys want to be optimistic about losing 6-2 one of our highest losses in prem history then so be it , but excuse me for expecting better.

We've scored 7 goals in the last 3 games (discounting the Everton game) using 4-5-1. At home, since playing 4-5-1... we've scored 5 and conceded 2. That's not too bad now is it? Away we've conceded 9 now and scored 2 though. So make of the stats what you will.

Just imagine the fact that the game ended after 60 minutes. Right now we'd be going on about how brilliant we fought against a quality Arsenal team on their own ground and were cheated by the referee not to get a penalty to draw the game. We played very, very well for the first hour and made Arsenal work for the win. I've watched almost as many Arsenal games as I have Blackburn games in the past few seasons, and I can tell you that this sort of performance from them is none too surprising. They have a team that on their day can crush absolutely any other opposition and we just happened to be the unfortunate victims. They have players like Arshavin who can score 4 goals past an in-form Liverpool ON THEIR OWN, so what do you expect when the entire team is in blistering form.

These aren't excuses, fans like me are just looking at this game realistically for what it is. It was the most nervewracking game I've had to watch because as soon as we scored I could just feel that it was the end. After we scored the 2nd, I told my Arsenal supporting friend that I didn't really care if we went on to lose that game now because I was so proud of the team for going out there and having the heart and the courage to try and win the game TWICE in a game that they were 13/1 odds to lose! Am I going to slam the manager and the players for conceding 6 goals? No that would be the worst thing I could possibly do to a team that had tried their best to overcome a 5-star side. After the brilliant determination they showed against Villa last week, to win the game at the very death with 10-men, you cannot possibly go and complain.

Yes, we were beaten by City and yes we were beaten by Sunderland and that was disappointing, not because we were favourites to win, but because we created a multitude of chances that we didn't put away and were punished by silly goals in matches we were clearly on the upper hand.

Maybe you should take your blue and white goggles off and realise that we are no longer the team that won the Premier League over 10 years ago, we are far away from the spending power and fan base of other clubs who are clearly ahead of us. Does that mean that I should accept the fact that we will never break into Europe or the top 4 or win the league? No. What I accept is the fact that after only escaping relegation last season that Sam can only stabilise the club and reach a mid table and hopefully top 10 position, so then we can look at the next season and try and push on from there. The problem with most of you "realists" on here is that you're acting like you think we should be challenging for the title, which is, quite simply, not happening.

[Paul]

I think the comparison is hardly fair. We'll have our 10 points in two weeks time. And by the end of December we should be 20+. We've had a rough line up, which is lousy in the short term but long term we should lift things up.

This Season:

City 0-2

Sunderland 1-2

West Ham 0-0

Wolves 3-1

Everton 0-3

Villa 2-1

Arsenal 2-6

Last season:

Everton 3-2

Hull 1-1

West Ham 1-4

Arsenal 0-4

Fulham 1-0

Newcastle 2-1

United 0-2

Actually I'd argue the fixture lists for the two seasons are very similar - West Ham, Everton, Arsenal in both sets, Wolves and Hull very similar sides, Newcastle and Villa ditto, susbstitute City for United. We haven't had a rough start fixture wise. If we have 10 points in two weeks time we'll still be behind Ince's start! End of December 2008 we had played 20 with 18 points, so if we have your 20 by this December we'll be 2 points better off - not much of an achievement really.

My view is this. I keep hearing what an expert Allardyce is, how much better he is than Ince but the results and play do not back this up. I can't see anything in this season to suggest Allardyce is performing any better than the manager he replaced yet very few people are worried? Doesn't make any sense to me. He's had longer with the team than Ince, made his own signings and we're still pants plus we are playing a very sterile 4-5-1 at home.

As an aside I'm beginning to think the reason Dunny is pushing on so much is he has no faith in our strikers, can't say I blame him. Nothing yet from the new boys to suggest they have the ability to score goals.

[afx111]

I think it is Sam that make such result:

1. Why there is no one to mark Fabregas and let him played what he want? If there is someone mark him I believe he won't scored that easy.

2. Why if there is any ball just roll inches in front of Blackburn players, they just let the ball gone? I have seen a lot of times that our players should be able to touch the ball but somehow they let the ball pass away.

3. Why putting an injury fear players (Dunn) and yet he is playing that good off, and replace with another injury fear players? Are Sam already think that he won't win this match so he put off the best players so as to "avoid him to be injured"..

Agreed with (1) and (2)...wheres robbie savage when u need him? the arsenal players have to much time to work it around.

on (3) probably saving the bullets for the burnley game which is a must win and the momentum will swing in our favor.

[TimmyJimmy]

We were beaten by a far far better side. When playing a side like that, and in that form, certain things need to go well if you are to have any chance, and they didn't.

Most of what they hit went in, a lot were screamers from range and a couple were either off the post or centimeters inside and unsaveable. Admittedly a couple were rank bad defending. On our side we rebounded off the post and were robbed of a stone wall penalty. We were tubbed and they were magnificent, but the score line was harsh, it could have been different. Hey ho, onward and upward.

We don't have the players to do anything different and we don't have any money to change that, so wailing like old washer women and spouting nonsense about the not competing and formations is ridiculous. It's not the big 4/5 we should be worrying about, the other 15/16 will lose to them as well, what's important is to stay clear of injuries in those games and keep the damage to the goal difference down. We failed on both counts.

Diouf is a case of the emperor's new clothes for me, I hear the glowing comments but he does nothing apart from fall over, he's out the game for long periods and has no redeeming features, can't tackle, can't go past people, can't hold it up, not worth a place in the team right now.

Andrew's is someone who I think has had a rough time with comments on this board but on the evidence of yesterday I must hold my hand up and admit that was worse than poor. He needs a spell in the reserves and is only a squad player at best on this showing.

Nzonzi has real potential but he looked scared stiff and needed a grown up next to him to help him through it, unfortunately there was no-one up to the job.

The back four did what they could, which wasn't much truth be told, we just have to hope we get our CBs fit and back in the side.

Di Santo I like a lot but he's no Sutton, but then who is. As a team we desperately need a hold up player and we just ain't got one. I believe most of our strikers can find the back of the net but like all other strikers they need service, and they have zero service in this side.

Rocket science moment - all our problems come from midfield. I know it, you know it. If we had cash we could change it, but we haven't so we'll need to make the best of a bad job. I think Sam is doing that.

If we could find one player in midfield who could put his foot on the ball, not be scared shitless when pressed and release short accurate passes at the right time then the whole team would click into life. Players aren't running off the ball player and showing for the pass as they are all expecting the ball to be lost and are falling into defensive cover.

We are where we are peeps, not a lot we can do about it. This result was harsh but served the purpose of highlighting the problems in the team (like we didn't know though). There'll be better days and teams out there that we can compete with.

I'm writing this one off to experience and am looking forward to our six fingered friends visit. If it's 2-6 against them I'll top myself.

[philipl]

A reflection.

At HT the stats were actually level in terms of posession, where play had taken place and we were only one behind in shots on target.

At FT the stats were

Posession 64-36 (means the second half must have been 80-20)

Shots on 18-7

Shots off 6-0

Cannot complain about Rovers not being on target with our goal attempts although Olsson's follow-up volley must have been so woeful not even to count as an attempt!

Olsson incidentally beat Walcott for pace in a straight race for the ball towards the end which shows the lad must be extremely quick.

Walton's inane grin when Arsenal went 3-2 up said it all for me. Their third was certainly the least impressive of the six and it just showed he had an agenda yesterday which was pro-Arsenal and anti-Rovers. Walton gave nothing to Rovers in the final third (by my count he missed five free kicks as well as the penalty) until Arsenal had scored their fourth when challenges he had not previously given started being awarded to Rovers.