Arsenal-Mania

Man of the Match: Arsenal v. Blackburn Rovers

By Rachel Rodrigues on Monday, November 28, 2005

Arsenal was back in the premiership after another successful Champions League match on Tuesday against FC Thun. We played host to Blackburn who made their last visit to Highbury and unfortunately for them it did not end as well as they would have hoped. The match ended 3-0 to the gunners, the 13th consecutive victory at THOF. The victory was thanks to three fantastic goals from Cesc Fabregas, Thierry Henry and Robin van Persie. Cesc opened the scoring early on in the match with a superb strike from outside the area; Thierry doubled our advantage when Robért Píres sent a beautiful ball across the pitch to our talismanic striker who drove his shot home. It was another record-breaking goal from our captain, his 100th at Highbury and a new league record. Robin scored an absolutely breathtaking individual goal coming from the right flank to round a good day for the Arsenal.

Here is how the team performed:

Defence Lehmann had a pretty good match between the sticks, he made some important saves in both halves and spared our blushes quite a few times. Touré had another solid match and saved us on many occasions in front of goal, he was made to work out there as was Campbell who looked composed as well. Lauren was decent on the right flank and did well up front. To be honest Cygan is trying very hard but he is just not a left back, he was found out of position on a couple of occasions and lacked pace.

Midfield Gilberto looked much better after his break in mid week. His back heel in the opening stages to my surprise found one of our players and overall he was much more composed. Cesc had another solid match and proved that age means nothing, he was a force in midfield and his goal was very well taken. Píres also had a very good match; he was great going forward and provided Thierry with the ball for our second goal. Reyes was good as well, he at times tries to do too much with the ball but when he plays one touch football he looks a lot better. It is a real shame he has gone such a long time without a goal because I believe it would boost his confidence. Ljungberg and Flamini came on in the second half and did fairly well.

Up Front Thierry had a much better game than he did in mid week, he got a deserved goal just before the break and overall looked threatening in front of goal. Bergkamp went so close to scoring for the first time this season in the league but the ball eluded him, his passes were a bit all over the place but he is still class. Robin came on late and took his goal very well; it was something special from our young Dutch man.

Overall We played very well overall and held off a committed Blackburn side who did not really deserve to be on the reverse of such a big score line. We play some very stylish football and therefore the 3 brilliant goals that we scored were not out of character. Well done to the lads as it is not easy to play away from home in the Champions League and then come back and play the way that we did. Next up is Reading in the Carling Cup where I expect Wenger to ring in the changes.

The Official Arsenal-Mania Man of the Match for this game is Jens Lehmann who had a good match and came back strongly after a midweek rest. Jens won the award with 32% of the votes; he was closely followed by my MOTM, Cesc Fabregas who had 30% and Robért Píres who had 12%.

Quotes from the MOTM voters:

Gurgen I am giving it to Jens, he was absolutely faultless and pulled off some great saves.

RocktheCasbah Lehmann. Our best player on the pitch by a country mile, things could have been very different yesterday afternoon. Well-played Jens!