[Archived] Arsenal V Blackburn Rovers 2 April 2011

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

too many bandwagon/dingle fans on this forum. this place represents one percent of the true blue and whites - a shame

thank you rovers

Hmmm ... what leads you to this conclusion ?

[booth]

too many bandwagon/dingle fans on this forum. this place represents one percent of the true blue and whites - a shame

thank you rovers

He says from Perth!

[Stuart]

So happy that this thread is so buoyant. Hope we can keep up the positivity between now and next week!

[ChrisyG]

this is more like it ...the defending was brilliant - we looked like we wanted it soo bad , and nzonzi looked distraught when he got sent off

whats that people have been saying about jermaine jones ? hes not good enough - well id like you to watch this game ..i said it before and il say it again- if we stay up this guy is a must , must buy

overall proud of the lads

My first post. Rovers were fantastic today. Fight, heart, determination, and even good tactics!

I saw JJ play his first game for Rovers and you could tell he is a belting player, just lacking in game time. I didn't think we would see him fit enough, during this season, to have a major effect on the game. I stand corrected, he was a class act today, and looked in cracking shape. I agree, if he proves his fitness over the next few weeks - a must buy.

[jonv]

Hmmm ... what leads you to this conclusion ?

the amount of negativity on this forum. i religiously read this forum daily but the past few months have been the worst in the time i've been a brfcs.

He says from Perth!

i'm as much a supporter as yourself. unfortunately some of us can't choose how close to ewood we live nowadays...

thank you blue and whites for proving every cockney wankhole wrong

[Gogger]

Our first clean sheet this season away? Still cant agree that its is a red card for nzonzi and dowd were one sided the whole match.

[cn174]

Lost my quid on 2-1

But 0-0 feels just as good

MOTD just come on, I like watching it on days like today!

[Andy]

Oh, I agree. The players worked their socks off today.

But I'm sure we'll hear that the players never listened to Kean etc etc.

Is there really the need to put comments like this when we've gotten a very good and hard-earned point away to Arsenal?

Of course Kean is going to be recognised tonight - the team he set up defended extremely well, weathered the initial storm and looked a danger on the counter attack.

In fact if we had somebody half decent rather than Emerton on the right wing, we may have even nicked all three points.

Most fans aren't using Kean as a scapegoat; it's rather simple.

We've been playing very, very poorly and our recent form has been unacceptable (which is an understatement) - Kean, as manager, must take the largest portion of the blame.

However, when we do play well and it looks like Kean's tactics have paid off - as per tonight - then of course he'll get the credit, and quite rightly too.

Really proud of the boys tonight - the back five (including Robbo) were fantastic. J.Jones is a real player and it's just taken him time to adjust to the English game.

David Hoilett looked dangerous on the counter and only the unsupported Santa Cruz and wasteful Emerton were downers today.

Big point but we must follow it up with 3 against B'ham.

[Ozz]

Two points from Blackpool home and Arsenal away is one point too little,

[Guest roverspogges]

Its better than 1 point and a sound beating. Goal difference could play a big part come the very end, its a massive result.

[Eddie]

That's one way to look at it, but the other is that at 2-0 down to Blackpool we would have been over the moon with 2 points from those two games. On top of that, in those 180 minutes we've had almost every major 50-50 decision go against us and a couple that weren't even 50-50. In two games where you let in goals to a ridiculous penalty and a harsh free-kick and have a man sent off when he could have stayed on the pitch it isn't bad going to get out unbeaten. When you think that Sagna wasn't booked for hauling down JJ in the first half and that Sagna wasn't given a second yellow even after he committed two professional fouls in the space of two minutes...well we did pretty well. The Hoilett penalty shout wasn't a penalty, but I've seen them given. It was more of a penalty than the one that Blackpool were awarded.

The important thing is that the team will have gained a lot of momentum over the past 135 minutes of football. The teams that stay up towards the end are the ones with a bit of confidence and belief and after these last two games we will have that.

We're far from safe and it would have been better to have won against Blackpool (which we really should have), but things look far more positive now than they did two weeks ago.

Big, big game coming up.

[vintageadidas]

JJ, PJ ,RN, CS, MO and JH- immense.

Very good to see us going to one of the top 4 and actually having a go. Today was the first time since Kean took over that we had a game plan.

Excellent team performance.

Onwards and upwards.

[sam_rovers]

great result.. lets take this into the birmingham game and win it!! COYB

[Ferrit]

It's not just the vital point, it's also the momentum we should be able to pickup and drive us on from this result.

[JAL]

Encouraging result today, going off the brief highlights on MOTD 1, Paul Robinson (who must surely be our player of the season) looked very assured and seemed to save everything that came his way, lets hope that continues for the rest of the season.

[AggyBlue]

Well that was quite easy to watch wasn't it. That's a measure of how well we played.

[chaddyrovers]

GREAT AWAY POINT!

Great performance from the team and good defending from the team and could have scored with one or two good chances we had!

good tactics from Kean and played the right way against Arsenal!

Hope for the same level of performance from the team for the next 7 games!

COME ON ROVERS!!!!!

Let's win next week

[USABlue]

Great point, well pleased. Dowd try as he might still could not hand it to Arsenal. Proud of the lads today. A brief respite from my pessimism.

[Amo]

Is there really the need to put comments like this when we've gotten a very good and hard-earned point away to Arsenal?

Yes, there is. 'Cos even when we got cheated against Blackpool and fought back everyone said it was the players' doing and nothing to do with Kean. So today he should get credit for another well-earned point.

[chaddyrovers]

Phil Dowd was awful today!

he is the worst ref in the league!

doesn't know what he is doing

[JAL]

Phil Dowd was awful today!

he is the worst ref in the league!

doesn't know what he is doing

Why ?

[braddock]

I know this doesn't mean anything really, but I did chuckle when my Dad mentioned that under Allardyce we got beat playing against ten men Bolton, whereas we've got four points playing with ten men away from home now under Kean.

[tony gale's mic]

Yes, there is. 'Cos even when we got cheated against Blackpool and fought back everyone said it was the players' doing and nothing to do with Kean. So today he should get credit for another well-earned point.

That was more to do with what Chris Samba said in his interview.

Kean and the players did well today, but as it stands he's still dragged us down dangerously close to relegation and so peoples' assessment of him has been pretty fair.

[duffbear]

For anyone not seen Olssons block or just want to watch it again

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZj2zRTYxEI

Someone mentioned earlier about what did Kean say to Nzonzi he was like a diffrent player motivted,going on dribbles which we havent really seen before?

Why not trying to take anything away from Kean but I imagine he was extra motivated as his parents were in the crowd

Kean impressed me today he proved he can set up a team more that one way, he noticed at the start we were sitting too far back and sitting off too much so intructed them to push up and pressure.

Holiett man of the match for me he terroised Arsenal all day and decision making was exceptional and hardly gave the ball away

Olsson best game he has had as a left back and looked like a proper left back today.

J.Jones- great game and has looked good in most games of the season he was driving the team forward.

P.Jones - really, really impressed me was that really his first start in 3 months!!, what an engine still chasing everthing in the dieing minutes.

Samba and Nelson expceptional won everthing looked really solid.

Salgado was really good too used all his experince and vital clear of the line

Robbo - Dare I say if he gets much better he will reach Friedal like levels?

Emerton - only weak link today in my opinon

[Tom]

Why ?

To be fair Chaddy specialises in sensationalising everything but the ref made some bad decisions today.

Sagna got away with a blatant yellow as did Song when already booked.

Countless times players went down and nothing until an Arsenal man goes down with Rovers on the attack and then we don't get the ball back, I have no problem with drop balls as long as they are used all the time.

Also Salgado got booked for far less than Song and Sagna got away with and N'Zonzi got a harsh red with the ref a good 30 yards behind the play.