Blackburn Rovers (1) 1 - 0 (0) Arsenal
Ewood Park, Saturday 25th February 2006
FA Premiership
Arsenal:
Lehmann
Eboue Toure Senderos Flamini
Cesc Gilberto (Lupoli 82) Diaby (Hleb 65) Reyes (Pires 45)
Henry Adebayor
Rovers leap-frogged Arsenal with this win, and Bolton Wanderers win
takes them above us and with two games in hand. Clearly,
we've got our work cut out, and however well we might end up doing in
the Champs League (not that we should be too confident of
progessing to the next round), ain't going to help in the league.
Arsenal started well, and for the first 15 minutes the spirit of
the Bernebeu seemed to be with us, almost. Plenty of nice possession
and approach play, but Brad Friedel wasn[t tested at all.
Then in the 18th minute Craig Bellamy ran down the right, muscled
his far far too easily past Philippe Senderos, and cut the ball
back from the goalline for Pedersen to shunt it into the net from
point blank range.
Arsenal were rocked by this for the rest of the half, and the home
side could have gone further ahead. A corner fell to Tugay who volleyed goalwards,
and Andy Todd nearly flicked it in at the far post with his head.
Another shot, from Steven Reid, was miskicked but again nearly turned in,
this time by Robbie Savage.
Senderos nearly clawed one back near the end of the half when he
glanced a Henry cross from the left past the near post.
At half-time Robert Pires came on for the suddenly not so
up-for-it Jose Reyes. But still Rovers looked more likely to score.
The Ivorian defensive pairing continued their good form with some
telling tackles and interceptions, and up the other end our
other defender Senderos
came close again, but not as close as he should have done,
when he headed a corner by Cesc over the bar.
The game opened up and Arsenal came into the ascendancy. Cesc
hit a rubbish shot after being set up by Henry and Hleb (on
for Diaby). Then on about 70 minutes Cesc chipped through for
Adebayor who did well to get a shot in, but Friedel made a point
blank save.
Eboue hacked a shot over the bar after Henry and Pires had
proved trigger-shy, then Pires did the same. We had a half-shout
for a penalty when Cesc was brought down in the box, and then
with 8 minutes left Arturo Lupoli came on for his league debut, replacing
Gilberto as we switched to 4-3-3. But it was too late.
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