PL: Arsenal vs Blackburn | 23/12/06

[RocktheCasbah]

Ah, that explains it. Thought something else had probably happened.

 

[_scorpion_]

Was at the game yesterday, me and Jo made our debut in the lower tier just 5 seats away from the Blackburn fans (f'cking inbred northern ignoramuses) and what a belter of a game it was.

Who said "I can't see where the goals are going to come from?"

Two chances gone begging before the penalty award up the other end- David f'cking Bentley who was thereafter booed at every touch "winning" a penalty off Kolo, 1-0. Nonda takes it, despite Lehmann going the right way, he finds the corner. Blackburn's fans exploded like they'd just won the World Cup. Here we go again, I guess everyone was thinking.

This time however, Arsenal never gave Blackburn a chance to hold onto the lead, Toure down our end winning a corner. van Persie takes from the Arsenal right and his inswinger is expertly headed into the corner by Gilberto. 1-1 and everyone in block 21 makes sure that the Blackburn fans know about it. One of them takes our celebrations so personally he is ejected.

Soon after that, Cesc finds Adebayor, who flicks in Hleb, Hleb waltzes round his defender and passes the ball beyond Friedel and into the corner for 2-1. (Hope you enjoyed that one, marco!)
The 4 guys behind me grab me and turn round hugging them all as the stadium explodes. A mental twenty minutes is rounded off when van Persie is put through on goal but fails to take his chance, allowing himself to be fouled and the ref who pretty much only got this one decision right in the first half points to the spot. Blackburn hold up proceedings for a while with their protests whilst the Arsenal support serenade the man who has picked the ball up and spotted it. Not Gilberto, but Emmanuel Adebayor whose movement, speed and skill is bamboozling the Blackburn defence as it has defences all month (and certain posters on here mm-hmm). Adebayor sends Friedel the wrong way and slides in celebration right in front of us.

Being down near the pitch was quite different from up in the upper tier, much closer to the action, close enough to smell it, but you lose the perspective and perhaps the patterns of the game. I don't know Arsène manages from pitch level!

The rest of the half really passes in a blur of speed, movement and incisive passing. Hleb should have added another but inexplicably passes across the area when clean through and it's all Arsenal. The RedSection boys "serenade" David Bentley with Arsenal reject and "Give it to Bentley" following a Bentley **** up.Though 3-1 seems comfortable, the feeling begins to grow on me that not to score the 4th could be fatal. And so it nearly proved in the seond half.

Rosicky was again desperately unlucky not to score, it was only when I saw the replay on MotD that I realised his goalbound shot had been deflected onto the bar, and Adebayor continued to cause the Blackburn defence trouble- how will Thierry get his place back?

The Blackburn fans sing songs like "Stand up if you hate the french" and Ingerluuund and I'm close enough to shout at them "Yeah you're 3-1 down England!" another Blackburn fan makes eye contact with me beckoning me as I show him 3 fingers and then 1. Before sitting down and singing "1-0 and you f'cked it up".

Then, pretty much out of the blue a great ball comes down the Blackburn right, Clichy is out of the game, the cross comes in, is headed against the bar and Nonda with his back to goal manages to hook it in. 3-2.

Now it is the Blackburn fans' time to go mental as the Arsenal fans, who had been in reasonable form, sit stunned into silence, seems the team are wobbling too as Lehmann has to make an excellent save. All of a sudden the team, who had been flaying Blackburn's defence with their intricate interplay, can't string a pass together andf the game is in the balance. The arrival of Flamini for Rosicky does little to quell the growing unease in the stadium. It is not long after this that a Blackburn fan jumping up and down like a monkey gets my attention. I make a monkey gesture at him and a steward spots it instantly. He points at me and my stomach drops- not literally. He doesn't come over so I decide I should go and talk to him and explain my actions lest I get thrown out. He is pretty reasonable, I guess, and tells me that there's no monkeys there and if I do it again I'll be thrown out. I think I might have been thrown out if there had been any black Blackburn fans in their enclosure. A lucky escape perhaps, I was a bit offended that he thought I was being rascist, but then the steward didn't know me from Adam, and bottom line, if he felt I was being rascist, I would have been out of there instantly.

Feeling slightly sheepish, I returned to my seat where the guys behind me greeted me sympathetically and as I went to sit down van Persie, who had missed about 5 chances in the match (Jo was counting) turned his defender inside out, like the monkey, or whatever it was, in The Fly and curled the ball into the opposite corner for a nerve calming 4th goal. We'd barely finished celebrating when the irrepressible Cesc found van Persie from the left, Robin, confidence restored, finished easily and all of a sudden a game we had been sweating on was over.

There was still time for Cesc to make an absolute mug- Danny Mills stylee- of Robbie Savage before cutting in and shooting, Friedel's parry running to "Goal machine" Matty Flamini who smacked the ball home for a 6th goal that in the context of the last 25 minutes was unexpected, but over the course of the match no less than we deserved. Shame one bloke left with 10 minutes left so missed all that fun.

Most of the crowd seemed to stay till the end and clap off a thrilling Arsenal performance. The boys on the pitch seemed even happier than the crowd, Paul Burrell wished us all a merry Christmas and played "Merry Christmas" by Slade as fans stayed clapping and singing determined to eke every moment of festive cheer out of a great day for the Arse. Finally we left, wishing the stewards Merry Christmas on our way and I resolved to keep any future social observations out of our wonderful new ground.

Great read!

 

[Gazza Martinez]

Cracking write-up RTC. Thats the sort of stuff that makes A-M great...

 

[Clrnc]

Lol @ branding Cesc a better shooter from distance than Robin and Thierry. Baptista is probably better as well.

robin is a good freekick taker but i seldom see him really threaten from long range. i missed out thierry. but please look at highlights on hamburg game and a few other games. cesc looked much better than last season shooting from long range

 

[silky]

Lol @ branding Cesc a better shooter from distance than Robin and Thierry. Baptista is probably better as well.

robin is a good freekick taker but i seldom see him really threaten from long range. i missed out thierry. but please look at highlights on hamburg game and a few other games. cesc looked much better than last season shooting from long range

You can see Baptista having a good shot

For me Hleb really needs to work on his shooting... he doesnt seem to confident in front of goal. We know he can shoot after the Porto game but too often he makes the pass, great an unselfish player but often its one too many! Classic example was on Saturday cant remember when but he was clear through and should have shot but passed it away and the move broke down.... he is always slipping should think about some new studs I think this is all part of his progression and he is coming along well it is just a tad obvious for me and annoying at times.

silky

 

[Lukazan]

I've never seen two players slip as much as Hleb and RVP do.

 

[YeahBee]

Great post RTC loved it

 

[Rohit]

I've never seen two players slip as much as Hleb and RVP do.

Lauren

 

[M+D]

Blackburn players upset by cocky Arsenal

Blackburn Rovers boss Mark Hughes admits his players were left furious by Arsenal's antics at the end of their 6-2 defeat.
Blackburn were angered by Arsenal taking the mickey out of them as they headed down the tunnel at full-time.

That followed Cesc Fabregas' nutmegging of Robbie Savage before Mathieu Flamini hit the sixth goal.

Blackburn boss Mark Hughes said: "I was in the dressing room so I'm not sure about what happened.

"But they had just won 6-2 so I suppose they can indulge themselves.

"Our players probably took exception to it because they know that five minutes from the end of that game, they were very much in it."

So, what do you think of that then? On the one side I suppose it was a bit of bad sportsmanship, but on the other, HAHAHAHA!

 

[sabret00the]

I've never seen two players slip as much as Hleb and RVP do.

Lauren

Senderos.

 

[Anonymous]

Posted this in the stadium thread but I suppose it's relevant here as well.

http://arsenal-mania.com/photo-albums/1 ... kburn.html

 

[Ricky_AFC]

Posted this in the stadium thread but I suppose it's relevant here as well.

http://arsenal-mania.com/photo-albums/1 ... kburn.html

Nice pics mate

Its such an amazin stadium.