Arsenal 7 - 1 Blackburn Rovers: Revenge

There are a lot of reasons to win any football match and today's more prominents ones were to not only gain some ground of our top four rivals, but also to right that great big wrong that occured earlier in the season when we, somehow, beat ourselves at Ewood Park and lost 4-3 from a winning position.

We got the game off to the perfect start. Coquelin played a clever pass into Theo Walcott who played it across goal for an easy tap-in for van Persie. It's been a while since we've seen that combo come off to good effect.

From here Arsenal should have kicked on and really let Blackburn have it, but typically didn't exert themselves to get more goals which always leaves the door open for the opposition to nick a goal somehow. Not surprisingly, Blackburn won a free-kick in a dangerous position after Koscielny gave away a sloppy free-kick and Morten Gamst Pedersen, ever dangerous from these positions, rattled it in despite Szczesny's best efforts.

We've been here before, haven't we? That lack of killer instinct has cost us points before and has needlessly put us into difficult positions. I was fully expecting us to struggle to score again and maybe not even win the game because, once again, despite scoring early we did not look that dangerous in the opening 30 minutes or so.

So I was pleasantly surprised when we retook the lead not long after Blackburn's goal. Song's ball penetrative ball from deep found Walcott, again in behind the Blackburn defence, and the forward managed to square it to van Persie once again for an easy tap-in. Van Persie's movement really does make it easier for players to pick him out in the box, and credit to Walcott for his movement in behind and for choosing the right pass in a difficult position.

The scoring in the half wasn't over. Van Persie dropped deep to receive the ball and he played in Chamberlain who, vitally, made the run from out-to-in that had been lacking from Arsenal's play recently, and he managed to round Paul Robinson and score his first league goal for the club. I thought he screwed up the chance with his heavy first touch, but he had the pace and desire to recover the situation and score a good goal.

Blackburn's Gael Givet then saw red for a two footed tackle and with a whole 45 minutes to go, the opportunity was there for Arsenal to really kick on and get a big one.

Goal number one came when Blackburn failed to clear a corner and Arteta's shot was deflected in. Arteta's third against Blackburn this year alone and fourth for Arsenal - all from the edge or outside the penalty area.

Oxlade-Chamberlain added a fifith three minutes afterwards. Walcott decided to cut inside onto his left, managed to hold on to the ball in a tight area and picked the right pass to Chamberlain, who produced a clever finish at the near post.

Goal number six and van Perise's third again came from the right hand side. Coquelin beat his man and produced a good ball in for van Persie to, yet again, tap-in.

Henry then rounded off proceedings with a somewhat fortunate goal, but a goal everyone wanted to see. 7-1 the final score.

Six assists down the right hand side
Six of Arsenal's seven goals were set-up with balls coming from the right hand side of the pitch. Walcott really did give the Blackburn left back a torrid time with his movement and he got in behind time and time again. He also combined very well with Coquelin, who had a very dynamic game at right back.

Movement much improved
One of the bigger things that stood out was the improvement in our movement. Walcott got in behind several times, Coquelin bombed forward from right back, Arteta and Rosicky supported from deep and van Persie was everywhere. The players combined to good effect to get the goals.

Things don't look so bad anymore
Up to 5th with that win, albeit having played an extra game. A couple of our rivals should hopefully drop some points tomorrow and suddenly 4th place won't look so far off.

This win also helps boost our confidence ahead of some tough fixtures coming up.

"Revenge" and some positive addition to our GD.

Better than studying for mid-terms.

CONFIDENCE RESTORED.

TIME TO GO ON THE OFFENSIVE AND CONQUER OUR TOP 4 SPOT.

Awesome game guys! Couldn't watch the complete game, but i could catch from 20 min- 65min. I hope you guys get the 4th place. CL without Arsenal would look weird.

We finally did something right

BEST GAME EVER! not really but WHAT A GAME!

This is the Arsenal I remember! AOC/RVP

WHEN'S THE DVD OUT!?

when diaby gets fit :lucas:

It's a good thing I'm not participating in No Fap February

Still in a sack Wenger mood?

RVP Scores when he wants

AOC Beats his men wherever he wants



just when i was thinking how i miss those days that we could trash teams at home then it comes

btw anybody mentioned Alex song played 7 through balls(3 accurate)
Arteta won 3 Aerial duels in opposition half

now only David Silva(12) and Valencia(8-) have more assists in the league than Walcott(7)----OneManTeam

Good win...the real test is next week against sunderland

Actually, Walcott, Nani and Valencia are all tied with 10 assists in all comps

I felt amazing when Henry scored!!!! Amazing game. Rosicky is amazing. much more dynamic than Ramsey imo. Better vision, better tackles.

btw disgraceful from the fans.....if you hate wenger atleast support the team....many left before game ended

imalegend wrote:btw disgraceful from the fans.....if you hate wenger atleast support the team....many left before game ended

Our home fans are disgraceful, they should take our away fans as an example.

great win, exactly what was needed a big win and now we can rest for a week

hopefully this starts a good run as we are notorious for being crap at this stage of the season onwards

still not sure we'll make top 4 but if we can take our chances in games especially when our rivals slip up we will give ourselves the best possible chance

TBH, with the Victoria line on stand still, i can only imagine how packed the roads were (are?) afterwards, so i don't blame some people if they decided to duck out early

imalegend wrote:btw disgraceful from the fans.....if you hate wenger atleast support the team....many left before game ended

that is something I will never understand and fans like that do not deserve to support our club

if we lose they are happy to complain but when we're smashing a team at home they want to leave early

fans like that prefer to see the club struggling just so they have something to moan about

I hate our home fans, if only the Emirates was full of our away fans the Emirates would be a cauldron

Great performance today. Seriously can't pick a man of the match, that's how good we played.

But our next 8 games are very difficult.

Sunderland (a)
AC Milan (a)
Sunderland/Boro (a)
Spurs (h)
Liverpool (a)
AC Milan (h)
Newcastle (h)
Everton (a)

btw disgraceful from the fans.....if you hate wenger atleast support the team....many left before game ended

Fans leaving early is annoying but you have to understand how long it takes to get from the stadium to the Victoria Line when there are obscenely large ques. I've been stuck in them before. Takes about an hour to make the short walk between the stadium and the train station.

Nothing to do with the team or Wenger.

GoonerJay29 wrote:Fans leaving early is annoying but you have to understand how long it takes to get from the stadium to the Victoria Line when there are obscenely large ques. I've been stuck in them before. Takes about an hour to make the short walk between the stadium and the train station.

Nothing to do with the team or Wenger.

The Stadium was half empty before the full time....alot left before Henry's goal