[Archived] Arsenal V Blackburn Rovers 2 April 2011

[imy9]

That's just simply ignoring the game and the performances of the two sides, in order to make political points USABlue.

Arsenal were poor by their own impeccable standards. The pace was far too slow and they couldn't raise it when needed. Who knows how Rovers under Allardyce would have done in these circumstances? You don't and I don't.

Don't be silly. The point is that you can't say how this game would have gone if Sam had been in charge. This certainly wasn't the Arsenal we've played in the past at the Emirates.

Rovers were good by our recent standards. Arsenal were poor by their recent standards. Undisputable I would think.

That wasnt a typical Rovers team at the Emirates- obvious as we finally got a point!

We played further up the field, played with attacking players who wanted to get forward, this stiffled Arsenal for large periods, down to personnel and tactics but you're right Sam may have gotten the same result (oh yeah 10 games vs top 4 away Sam got ZERO points )

1. Well my view is that we don't know. You're view is that because we didn't do for the last two years, we wouldn't have done yesterday. You form opinions based on that? Balance imy? Tinted glasses? Yeah.

If you are going to copy and paste Den do it properly hey? You stated TWICE that Sam may have got something out of the game yesterday, based on what I dont know, a sixth sense, premonitions maybe? I then replied back and gave the state that Sam has gotten precisely ZERO points from 10 away games against the top 4, this fact over TWO years makes me think he would have gotten zero points yesterday.

So again, where have I said that Kean is doing a better job than Sam? Thats what I meant by your tinted glasses Den

[Gav]

I'm a bit better with cardiac arrests to be honest, but each to their own..

:lol:

[broadsword]

On TV it looked as though Salgado was the one who was more riled up, he really wanted to get to Samba after he had to clear off the line.

My money would have been on Salgado.

[Bred]

My money would have been on Salgado.

Yeah he was pretty worked up. At the final whistle, he went mental and showed the most gratitude towards the fans. I'd love to learn how the emotions he's feeling now in a relegation battle compare to the highs of his time at Real Madrid winning every major club competition.

[yoda]

I predicted us to get badly beaten in this but fortunately the increasingly success-shy Arsenal team that Wenger has spent so much time constructing turned up to prove to everybody that there's not a championship-deserving individual amongst them. We kept it tight for the most part and got stuck in, a rather basic tactic when playing superior opposition yet something which Wenger has consistently failed to deal with since he deconstructed his last great team. A well earned point in an increasingly tight relegation battle. Onwards and upwards.

The team that turned up was Arsenal,

Kean got it right on this occasion, lets hope he keeps it up (and us up)

he earned his corn this time

[Mercer]

Kean will get credit when or if we don't get relegated. Not before.

Kean should only get credit if he has improved our league position from when he took over.

If we are any lower then he has regressed the team.

To hail him as the messiah for merely avoiding relgation would be a joke.

[tony gale's mic]

Kean should only get credit if he has improved our league position from when he took over.

If we are any lower then he has regressed the team.

To hail him as the messiah for merely avoiding relgation would be a joke.

Yeah, unless we go through a great end of season run I still want him replaced in the summer.

Plus there's absolutely no chance that any vaguely high profile player will want to join Rovers even if we just stay up by the skin of our teeth, just like I doubt McCarthy or RSC would have joined us under similar circumstances.

The only way we'd have a chance is to try and get a high profile manager in and make the club seem an attractive proposition that way, though I have my reservations about our chances of doing that.

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

Kean should only get credit if he has improved our league position from when he took over.

If we are any lower then he has regressed the team.

To hail him as the messiah for merely avoiding relgation would be a joke.

Nonesense. To have been thrown into the position without any real experience in the middle of the season must have been unbelievably tough. For him to keep us up would be an achievement. I still reckon that sacking Sam wasnt a daft move in itself, it was that it happened in the middle of december which was ridiculous. Kean is doing a decent job considering the circumstances. He's made mistakes but he's learning on the job. I personally quite like what he's trying to do and the team is stronger for the purchases of both Roque and Jones.

[ben_the_beast]

Kean should only get credit if he has improved our league position from when he took over.

If we are any lower then he has regressed the team.

To hail him as the messiah for merely avoiding relgation would be a joke.

Kean has done badly so far. But the team is showing signs it has turned the corner. If we put a decent run together between now and the end of the season and keep our premiership status credit where credit is due.

I don't like to personally single people out on a messageboard. It's a very easy thing to do and particularly on here just create personal battles which clog up threads. But I think I will speak for a lot of people when I say brighten the hell up.

Your posts have been so unbelievably negative (yes in very testing times) of late whilst picking at any little comment anybody else makes which slightly contradicts your own.

Paul saying Kean will get credit if we avoid relegation is NOT calling him a messiah of any sort yet you write his comment off as a "joke".

The sky isn't quite falling down yet. I would put our odds of survival at 50/50 possibly improving. Yes things are looking bad but have some balance in your arguments.

[jim mk2]

. I still reckon that sacking Sam wasnt a daft move in itself. Kean is doing a decent job

Three points out of the last 18 and an unnecessary relegation fight says you're completely wrong.

[daveoftherovers]

Kean has done badly so far. But the team is showing signs it has turned the corner. If we put a decent run together between now and the end of the season and keep our premiership status credit where credit is due.

I don't like to personally single people out on a messageboard. It's a very easy thing to do and particularly on here just create personal battles which clog up threads. But I think I will speak for a lot of people when I say brighten the hell up.

Your posts have been so unbelievably negative (yes in very testing times) of late whilst picking at any little comment anybody else makes which slightly contradicts your own.

Paul saying Kean will get credit if we avoid relegation is NOT calling him a messiah of any sort yet you write his comment off as a "joke".

The sky isn't quite falling down yet. I would put our odds of survival at 50/50 possibly improving. Yes things are looking bad but have some balance in your arguments.

Good post fella!

I was impressed with us again yesterday, it wasn't just that Arsenal played badly (Because it takes 2 to tango and they could have blown us away in the first 10 mins!)

However, we stuck in there, could have snatched something, a bit hard done by in the sending off, which left us no choice but to hold the line, the very fact that we did, away at their place, sums up the spirit that was shown and that we are going to need, the players "Wanting it" is a big part of the overall deal.

Well done Rovers!

[Tom]

Three points out of the last 18 and an unnecessary relegation fight says you're completely wrong.

Not completely, although sacking him and replacing him with Kean was a terrible decision.

[Parsonblue]

Kean is doing a decent job considering the circumstances.

Last season we finished tenth, this season we are in a desperate relegation struggle and Kean has managed three points out of the last 21. If that's a decent job I'd hate to see a poor one! Whilst I enjoyed being at the Emirates yesterday to see a good performance rewarded with a point, the fact remains that we shouldn't be in this position.

[Mercer]

Your posts have been so unbelievably negative (yes in very testing times) of late whilst picking at any little comment anybody else makes which slightly contradicts your own.

Paul saying Kean will get credit if we avoid relegation is NOT calling him a messiah of any sort yet you write his comment off as a "joke". Sorry, bit I think you've misinterpreted. Firstly, I never have a go at any other posters unless I think they are unfairly and habitually having a go at me You will actually see that I've tried to defend a number of individuals when they have come under what I consider unfair attack. Secondly, My 'joke' remark was not directed at Paul. What I did try to put across was that if we finish fourth from bottom, you could not hail Kean for that achievement as we would be several places lower than where we were when he started and, as a result, several million pounds lighter in place money ! The sky isn't quite falling down yet. I would put our odds of survival at 50/50 possibly improving. Yes things are looking bad but have some balance in your arguments. I've described our performance yesterday as great and said long may it continue, although we have some way to go yet. Is that not balance ?

[Mattyblue]

Last season we finished tenth, this season we are in a desperate relegation struggle and Kean has managed three points out of the last 21. If that's a decent job I'd hate to see a poor one! Whilst I enjoyed being at the Emirates yesterday to see a good performance rewarded with a point, the fact remains that we shouldn't be in this position.

That in a nutshell is exatly where we are.

Not Kean's fault, but that of massively naive owners manipulated by third parties.

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

Last season we finished tenth, this season we are in a desperate relegation struggle and Kean has managed three points out of the last 21. If that's a decent job I'd hate to see a poor one! Whilst I enjoyed being at the Emirates yesterday to see a good performance rewarded with a point, the fact remains that we shouldn't be in this position.

Just to reiterate my initial point which you seem to have missed.

Kean is doing a decent job CONSIDERING THE CIRCUMSTANCES.

Arguably the tightest relegation scrap ever. Thrown into the job midseason. Lack of experience at this level. First time dealt with a transfer window.

Has he done well? Not by the standards of a proven premiership manager, no. But that was never my point. Kean has done ok when you factor in the situation he found himself in. If he keeps us up he'll have done a very good job.

[FourLaneBlue]

Yesterday was good but the only time to praise Kean is if / when we are safe from relegation because he inherited a team in a comfortable mid-table position.

And then Kean has to keep us in this league again next season.

We aren't going to win trophies so that is Kean's task.

It's fine to say that he did well in this game, but has generally been poor up until now. It is the Arsenal thread, not the relegation thread.

I hope it is the sign of an upturn in fortunes.

Let's face it, he ain't going anywhere. We are just going to have to wee with the willy we've got, as an old favourite of yours once succinctly put it.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Three points out of the last 18 and an unnecessary relegation fight says you're completely wrong.

Gotta say that I agree - one point against Arsenal doesn't make up for what has gone before. Since Kean took over - tactically at times we have been all at sea. IF we end the season on a strong note I am prepared to give Kean the benefit of the doubt that it has taken longer to get his ideas through than he would have hoped. To be fair to him - many of the matches we have lost have been down to individual errors or bad refereeing - but there have still been holes that we have all seen.

Time to get behind the boys - as with Ince - I hope that Kean is the next "Special One" - because if he is Rovers will benefit. At the moment there are more minus than plus points - but we will have a better idea come the end of the season. At least for the next few days we will be able to look forward with a little more optimism - lets hope next Saturday does see us going from one extreme to the other.

[Parsonblue]

Just to reiterate my initial point which you seem to have missed.

Kean is doing a decent job CONSIDERING THE CIRCUMSTANCES.

Arguably the tightest relegation scrap ever. Thrown into the job midseason. Lack of experience at this level. First time dealt with a transfer window.

Has he done well? Not by the standards of a proven premiership manager, no. But that was never my point. Kean has done ok when you factor in the situation he found himself in. If he keeps us up he'll have done a very good job.

The only factor that matters is results. At the moment he is struggling to get them. As for circumstances:

1. Yes it's the tightest relegation scrap ever - hence the need for an experienced manager.

2. He was thrown into the job mid-season because Mrs Desai and her brothers are clueless about football.

3. Lack of experience at this level. Would totally agree but then he spouts on about finishing in the top five instead of keeping quiet and getting on with the job.

4. First time dealt in the transfer window and what a shambles he made of that. Jones is just beginning to show something. Roque is very subdued because of lack of service. Rochina may come good next season but Formica, for £3.5 million has been a huge disappointment and seems unlikely to feature this season.

5. If he keeps us up he will have done what we expect. If he improves on Sam's tenth place finish to last season then fair play to him. If we don't then we have gone backwards. Either way, I hope he keeps us up before being replaced with an experienced manager in the summer.

[MeanGreenMachine]

With a squad that should be achieving mid table comfortably?

What you mean like Villa? Or Sunderland? Both teams have spent massive money and are in and around us. This seasons results have been totally unpredictable, to say 'sam would of had us safe' is just plain wrong. because nobody knows what would of panned out.

Anyway, fair play keano and the lads, fantastic performance and a pleasure not to be spanked 6-2 (which 'the great one' usually served up at arsenal).

[LeChuck]

Kean is doing a decent job CONSIDERING THE CIRCUMSTANCES.

How?

We were bottom of the form table until yesterday, I don't know if we still are.

One decent result doesn't alter the fact that his reign has been a disaster so far.

To have been thrown into the position without any real experience in the middle of the season must have been unbelievably tough.

Throw in? With a helping hand from Andersson he jumped in, shoving people out of the way to get there.

If he is operating in difficult circumstances then he is at least partly to blame for those circumstances.

[Balwer]

We were bottom of the form table until yesterday, I don't know if we still are.

I believe Sunderland only have 1 point from their last 21 so we may be up a place.

[rebelmswar]

I believe Sunderland only have 1 point from their last 21 so we may be up a place.

Yay, moving on up.

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

How?

We were bottom of the form table until yesterday, I don't know if we still are.

One decent result doesn't alter the fact that his reign has been a disaster so far.

Throw in? With a helping hand from Andersson he jumped in, shoving people out of the way to get there.

If he is operating in difficult circumstances then he is at least partly to blame for those circumstances.

Dont just make it up as you go along. We can all make up conspiracy theories to prove our point.

It was the wrong time to appoint Kean, no doubt about it. Venky's made a massive mistake in firing Sam when they did. Kean's job was made as difficult as it could be. That was not his fault. Results havent been good enough nut the performances are getting markedly better.

We have enough winnable games to stay up. Im not going to say that he's done a good job until we're safe but im equally not going to say that he's done a terrible job until we're relegated.

[LeChuck]

Dont just make it up as you go along. We can all make up conspiracy theories to prove our point.

I didn't make anything up. Kean said from the very beginning he wanted the job. I can find quotes if you really want me to.