Blackburn 0-4 Arsenal: Review

Blackburn 0-4 Arsenal
Van Persie 9,
Adebayor 45, 78 (pen), 89

Saturday's match was one that I and many other analysts predicted we would have a hard time of. I expected a narrow win in which Theo Walcott and Adebayor would score. Well, Theo didn't score but he did get a marvelous assist, and Adebayor not only scored, but got a hat-trick. It was a surprising and yet very satisfying afternoon.

I was, on this occasion, forced to watch this match over the internet on Sopcast due to it not being shown on any of my TV channels, but it was fine as the quality of the stream was excellent.
After kickoff we only took about five minutes to settle in and almost immediately we were ahead. After some excellent footwork from Theo Walcott on the left, the young Englishman delicately placed a spot-on through ball towards Van Persie who duly slotted home. It was a composed finish, but Walcott's run around two or three defenders was excellent. You could tell the man was oozing confidence.

After the goal we had a few more chances, but the rest of the half was mainly spent keeping possession. However there was some good defending throughout including a few excellent saves from Almunia.

Finally, as we moved into stoppage time at the end of the first half, Arsenal decided to keep possession and kill the clock. But after about 20 passes, Denilson sent in a cross from the left-hand flank that Adebayor headed home. It was a wonderful way to enter the dressing room.

The second half began and it was more of the same. Arsenal kept the ball well and dominated possession. With ten minutes to go, Eboue was tripped up inside the penalty area (a fall that was NOT a dive as some have said) and Van Persie allowed Adebayor to get his second of the day.

A few minutes later a delightful through ball from Aaron Ramsey sent Adebayor in one-on-one and he rounded the keeper to complete his hat-trick. A wonderful afternoon for the Togolese hit man and one that may have won back a few fans.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised by the performance and result. I expected things to be a lot harder than they were. Blackburn did indeed try to rough us up, but the Arsenal players fought right back; Denilson was especially aggressive in response to Blackburn's physical approach, but it was all for the best.

The win leaves us in third place in the league behind Chelsea and Liverpool (who of course beat the Mancs earlier in the day 2-1). Surprisingly Hull sit fourth, a situation that won't likely last more than this week. So far, and to my great surprise, we've conceded the least goals of any team in the league, with the goal scored by Fulham our solitary goal conceded. Now, I don't believe this really says too much about our defense seeing as we've hardly had difficult opposition, but I must credit our defensive performance against Blackburn as being quite good.

The only negatives from the match are the fact that we appear to have lost both Eboue and Clichy to injuries. Clichy is of course the big loss, but seeing as Silvestre should be fit by Wednesday, he will likely make his Arsenal debut at left-back. I can't wait to see how he performs, but I'm disappointed he has to fill in for Clichy, as our first-choice fullback has been excellent so far this season.

But returning to the Blackburn match, I thought it was an excellent complete performance. We dominated the game, Ade got a much needed hat-trick, and we've now scored 12 goals in the last four competitive games this season and only conceded one. Surely a great way to start our season, and on an even happier note, except for the Champions League matches, we won't have a seriously difficult fixture until this end of October. It really is a good time to be a gooner. A match preview will appear here tomorrow. Until next time,

Fab 4