Three defeats in a row. You have to go back to Nasty November 2000 to find the last time that happened. Another defeat against Dortmund on Wednesday and the tabloids will be calling us a “crisis club”.

In truth we were unlucky against Blackburn. The stats show that Arsenal had 26 shots to Rovers’ 3 – unfortunately Rovers’ keeper Brad Friedel was in inspirational form saving virtually everything thrown at him.

Things started badly when Edu (in the side as a replacement for the suspended Patrick Vieira) sliced his attempted clearance over David Seaman to give Blackburn an early lead. That blooper seemed to spur the team on with Sylvain Wiltord twice forcing Friedel into action.

Berg cleared one off the line from Ashley Cole and Friedel made a couple more saves from Gilberto and Thierry Henry, before Edu made amends for his own goal with an equaliser from a free-kick on the stroke of half time.

That should have provided the platform for victory, but despite pressing for a winner, Arsenal were undone by a rare Blackburn break.

Kanu lost possession in the Blackburn area. The ball found it’s way to Tugay and he sent Ostenstad clear. With Sol Campbell stranded upfield, Cygan, who had done a good job on Dwight Yorke for most of the afternoon, was forced to try and cover Ostenstad’s run into the Arsenal box. He couldn’t stop Ostenstad squaring the ball to Yorke though, and the former Manchester United star dinked it over Seaman to give Rovers their first (and only) shot on target of the afternoon and a 2-1 lead.

From then on it was Arsenal v Brad Friedel. Apparently the American stopper picked up an injury in the warm-up which will require an operation, but he showed no signs of discomfort as he pulled off magnificent stops from Campbell, Bergkamp, Henry and Wiltord.

Rovers were reduced to 10 men when Garry Flitcroft was sent off for a lunge on Freddie Ljungberg (his second bookable offence) but it made no difference as the visitors clung on for a win which the bookies had rated a 9-1 shot before kick-off.

With Liverpool beating Spurs courtesy of a late Michael Owen penalty, Arsenal are now four points behind Gerard Houllier’s side. Another slip against Fulham next weekend could prove very costly to our title ambitions.