Arshavin and Ebou? Sink Sorry Blackburn
Blackburn Rovers did something extremely foolish at Emirates Stadium. Sam Allardyce, who wrote the instruction manual on how to frustrate Arsenal for goodness sake, must have been steaming as his team surrendered quickly, easily, generously ? and duly got dismantled by a revitalized Arsenal.
A flurry of goals ? and there should have been many much more ? delivered Ars?ne Wenger’s team back into the top four for the first time since the Christmas decorations were up. The pressure they have carried on their shoulders ever since now switches to Aston Villa, who play at White Hart Lane tomorrow.
For the last few games it was increasingly obvious the antidote Arsenal required to cure their nil-nilitis was an early goal. That’s 1 surefire way to eliminate Wenger’s routine groan about defensive opposition tactics.
Inside three minutes, Arsenal were celebrating. Nicklas Bendtner carved the opening, twirling into space and threading a pass which unpicked the Blackburn defence in a manner which must have had steam coming out of Allardyce. Theo Walcott bounded onto the ball and crossed for Andrei Arshavin. The little Russian nudged in and scored using the aid of a heavy deflection off Andr? Ooijer. Without it the ball was heading wide. The ?15m man was thrilled and a little embarrassed to take the acclaim all at when.
Not so Arsenal’s second goal, although, which killed Blackburn off inside the 65th minute and showcased the diamonds in his boots. He gathered Denilson’s excellent pass, sidestepped past Danny Simpson as if he was a training ground cone, and lifted his shot over goalkeeper Paul Robinson from a wafer thin angle.
Although Blackurn demonstrated some of the niggly habits expected of an Alladyce team ? with El Hadji Diouf the chief culprit for a reckless kick at Arsenal goalkeeper Manuel Almunia’s ankle which might have been punished by far more than a booking ? they did have a couple of counter punches that might have hurt their hosts before half time. Morten Gamst Pedersen came close with an arcing header which Almunia turned away, before fluffing his lines with the goal at his mercy in first half stoppage time.
Arsenal would have been kicking themselves, as they created plenty. Samir Nasri belted a free kick against the crossbar and was a general nuisance.
In fact the strategy of having three nimble ball players switching positions around the target-man running of Bendtner was promising. The 21-year-old Dane was a real handful but miscued, increasingly excruciatingly, when he could have scored a hat-trick. But he only will need look at Emmanuel Ebou?, ‘the Arsenal goal machine’ as described by the PA announcer, for inspiration. The Ivorian has turned around his reputation, and scored twice ? one a tap in and then a penalty ? to make it three from the last two home games. Come the sharp end of the season, Arsenal at last look like they mean business.
