Preview: Blackburn vs Arsenal

Time for a match preview of Saturday's match, Blackburn Rovers vs Arsenal. It's a match that we are certainly capable of winning but I'm a little worried about it for some reason. But before I share my thoughts, here are the stats:

Last season's results:

1-1 at Ewood Park

2-0 at the Emirates

Current League positions:

Arsenal: 4th (6pts)

Blackburn: 10th (4pts)

Current Form (Premier League):

Arsenal: W-L-W

Blackburn: W-D-L

Blackburn have registered one league win in five seasons against us, and lost eight of the 10 fixtures. Morten Gamst Pedersen scored in the only victory; 1-0 on 25 February 2006 at Ewood Park.

Blackburn:

Have not suffered consecutive losses in 23 Premier League outings, since before Christmas when West Ham (h), Wigan (a) and Chelsea (h) defeated them in successive matches.

Have not lost a home league game in 2008.

Have conceded one goal in each of their last seven home league matches, and not let in more than a single goal in 13 since the 0-4 loss to Aston Villa on 28 November.

Arsenal:

Have won all but one of the last nine in all competitions; the exception being the 1-0 away loss to Fulham on 23 August.

Have lost only one of their last 16 league games against North-West opposition; 2-1 to Manchester United on 13 April 2008.

Final interesting facts for Arsenal:

Emmanuel Adebayor is a hat-trick shy of 50 goals for Arsenal.
If selected:
New signing Mikael Silvestre will be making his 250th Premier League appearance - all previous 249 were for Manchester United.
Kolo Toure will be making his 200th Premier League appearance - all for the Gunners.
Theo Walcott will be making his 100th club career appearance (Southampton and Arsenal).

This is the 101st league meeting between these clubs.
Blackburn and Arsenal have met seven times in two seasons; the Gunners have won four, drawn two and lost one. We will be hoping for our fourth win in six league visits to Ewood Park.

And now for the preview. Blackburn are not in the greatest of form but they always give us trouble merely because of their aggressive style of play.

Blackburn are called the "bullies" of the Premiership for a good reason. In the past they have always tried to be as physical as possible to beat us. They seem to think in the words of Arsene Wenger that the "only way to beat Arsenal is to kick Arsenal". This of course led to the now infamous incident between Fabregas and manager Mark Hughes a couple of years back. Good for Cesc I said on that occasion.

Hopefully under Paul Ince Blackburn won't be as physical as they usually are, but their games thus far have not convinced me that will be the case.

As for Arsenal, Nasri was injured during the week and may not play Saturday. If he's not fit we may have a selection problem. Certainly Walcott will start (after his exploits for England how could he not?), but our other wide midfielder will be the question. If Nasri stays injured I think we may see Walcott on the left and Eboue slot in on the right. Obviously I'd love to see Theo on the right where he seems to play best but Eboue can only play on the right and we don't really have any other wide players available. My team Prediction:

Almunia

Sanga-Toure-Gallas-Clichy

Eboue-Fabregas-Denilson-Walcott

Adebayor-RVP

I'm predicting a tight and tense affair Saturday afternoon. Blackburn will again be physical with us and some of our younger players may find it hard to cope. But I think that even with the resistance we won't have a problem scoring. I can see Adebayor and maybe even Walcott slotting in a couple between them, but I'm worried that Blackburn will score. Our defense hasn't looked rock solid (to say the least) and Blackburn will probably break through it. The game will likely play out much like the Carling Cup game between us last year.

My prediction:

2-1 to Arsenal, Adebayor and Walcott scoring after Blackburn take a first-half lead.

I think we can get the three points from this match, we'll just have to work for it. Also, with Liverpool and Man Utd playing each other this weekend, the teams may draw (it's a likely prediction) and that would put is in the top two or three. Here's hoping for the best this weekend,

Fab 4