Blackburn 0 Arsenal 2
The acid test in the North West. Had the Liverpool matches exorcised the NW hoodoo? Arsenal passed it with flying colours.
And a tough test it was – cold, lashing rain, a homer in Rob Styles (unfortunately in for Chris Foy), a man down after 12, after Gilberto was willfully manhandled and kicked by Savage, and had a little kick out himself in self defence. He is set to miss the Man U, Spurs and Bolton games.
Savage, who was blatantly playing the man, not the ball, acted from the little tap like he’d been bitten by a cobra.
Derbyshire headed wide from a good early and easy chance. Pedersen had a good shot which Lehmann saved. And Savage had a header wide, from an Ooijer cross near half-time, but apart from that, Arsenal looked fairly comfortable, sitting back with the ten men and trying to hit on the break.
Rosicky looked like he had an extra yard, but Henry in the first half at least, made it looked like it was hard for him to get into the game.
Van Persie was hacked down by Neill when nearly through on goal, but Khizanishvili and Henchoz were alongside, and may have got back. To add insult to injury, Friedel hit the Dutchman with the returned ball.
On 37, from the free kick, Toure took one step in front of Ooijer and between Henchoz, then one behind and ran onto Henry‘s free kick to direct his header in off the post.
Blackburn were full of dirty little fouls, like Benny McCarthy’s sly push on Toure when he was ushering out the ball for a foul, which could have damaged his fellow professional, as he crashed into the hoardings. Certainly some Hail Mary’s from the self confessed Christian due, no doubt.
Shame about Blackburn’s attitude – they got a lot of respect when they played football at Emirates.
Tugay replaced Mokoena at half-time. Tugay has settled games against Arsenal in the past.
The Blackburn tactic was to get it out to Pedersen, long and short at every opportunity. No doubt Hughes fancied him against Hoyte.
An Emerton shot was saved by Lehmann. Hleb gave away two sloppy balls in succession – but he improved later in the half. Clichy though made two high quality tackles, soon after.
McCarthy was set free in the area – with two Blackburn players offside – but his finishing was wayward.
Nonda came on for Ooijer on 61.
Van Persie tried little flicks and fast passes but they weren’t coming off. He does that too many times in games. He went off for Flamini on 67.
Pedersen sent in Nonda on 64, but he headed the chance over.
Derbyshire fluffed a great chance from a left wing cross which cut out the whole Arsenal defence, completely mis-hitting it.
From an Arsenal corner, Arsenal won the ball and Rosicky passed to Henry who faced five Blackburn players. He held it up, running half the length of the field, as Fabregas ran intelligently into space [three times], took the pass, and returned it, so the Frenchman could let fly – straight past Friedel and into the top corner.
Soon after, Rosicky sent in a cross from the right. Henry brought it down and half volleyed over with just Friedel to beat – an easer chance.
And then Tugay raked the shins of Fabregas and stamped hard down on his foot in the process. Right in front of Styles. This REFEREE SHOULD BE DEMOTED ON THIS PERFORMANCE. He brings the game into disrepute. And certainly the laws. Look below at what ANR has written on Styles over the years, and come to your own conclusions.[ Six professional pundits including Brian Marwood, Linvoy Primus, Nigel Worthington have already said he was wrong to send Gilberto off – and not Tugay, yet he continues with these decisions year in, year out.]
At the death, Senderos lost concentration on another left wing cross, but as if to sum up the spirit in this side, cooly dispossessed Nonda, who only had Lehmann to beat and passed to a nearby team-mate.
Thierry Henry said: “It is very special. For a long time this team has been committed, playing together. This was always a difficult game. We had to dig in and try to score when we can.
“It was not a red card (Gilberto). We had to play hard 10 minutes after the sending off. Gilberto will miss three games. A guy reacts slightly and gets punished. The sending off gave us a lift.
“I had great pleasure on second goal. I should have played the ball before. Cesc gave me the ball at right time. It is nice when you have a guy who can read what’s in your mind.”
Cesc Fabregas, sporting a massive bandage on his foot, said: “It was a tough night. Gilberto is experienced. He talks to us a lot. It is big loss. But we have to accept it, wake up and play like we did.
“Everyone realised after Sheffield United we had to play a different way away from home. It is working well. We stick together. And do the same. “
Looking at his foot, with Henry sniggering, he said: “I’m sure I’ll be OK for Man U.”
Arsene Wenger said on the sending off: “First I wanted to see how we coped and if we could keep attacking in a 4-3-2. We wanted to win the game. We controlled the game quite well. When Tugay came on we went 4-4-1 to close him down.
“The quality, talent and solidarity in the team is growing from game to game. I feel for a while we have grown in maturity at the back. We are improving – as a young team at the back.
“We had continuity again, quality, spirit, great spirt under difficult circumstances.
“The red card looked harsh. He [Gilberto shouldn’t have retaliated – when provoked. Usually when the refs see it – appeals don’t work. Gilberto has a lot of experience. We have to cope with it. We have a lot of spirit. We stick together in difficult moments.”
Mark Hughes said: “The sending off helped them rather than us. They could sit back and hit us on the break. We didn’t have enough guile to draw them out and create clear cut chances.”
Blackburn Rovers:Friedel, Neill, Henchoz, Ooijer, (Nonda, 58) Khizanishvili,Mokoena, (Tugay, 45) Emerton, Savage, Pedersen,Derbyshire, McCarthy. Subs not used:Jason Brown. James McEveley, Sergio Peter.
Arsenal: Lehmann, Senderos, Clichy, Toure, Hoyte Gilberto, Fabregas (Djourou 89), Hleb, Rosicky, Henry, (Adebayor, 79) Van Persie, (Flamini, 67) Subs not used: Almunia, Baptista
POST SCRIPT: VERDICT ON STYLES
These are extracts from ANR reports* over the years on Rob Styles:
“Nothing wrong with Robbie Keane’s equaliser, smashed in from close range off Shay Given’s face. But ref Rob Styles disallowed it.”
“Rob Styles, the Cup Final referee produced six yellow cards in the Manchester City and Middlesbrough last weekend – not considered dirty by many.”
“The first half was exciting with two excellent goals and an Alan Smith-Robbie Savage-Wayne Rooney rumble that knocked ref Rob Styles off his feet. Styles got up and booked all three.”
“Two hours of football, no goals, the 4 stars of the game are Lehmann, Ronaldo, Rooney and referee Rob Styles.”
“Joe Royle was quite right to moan about ref Rob Styles.”
“Styles is a homer who gave everything to Arsenal sabotaged an interesting and finely balanced sporting contest.”
“The first goal was a free-kick over the wall.Jeffers had started, replacing Wiltord, and he was fouled on the edge of the D.Referee Rob Styles saw a tug, which TV replays did not confirm.”
“He came into the press conference and blamed referee Rob Styles as soon as he sat down.”
“I thought eleven v eleven we had no problems.Ten v twelve was hard. I’ll be making my feelings known fully about the referee’s performance in my report.”
“The referee Rob Styles was the only man in the gound who thought it was a penalty.”
*From the following pieces: