Arsenal put the disappointment of the midweek 0-0 behind them with a 7-1 spanking of Blackburn Rovers at the Emirates this afternoon.
Arsene Wenger made just one change from the team that started against Bolton with Tomas Rosicky replacing Aaron Ramsey in midfield. And the Gunners made a great starting, scoring after just 80 seconds. Francis Coquelin played in Theo Walcott, his cross fizzed across goal and Robin van Persie scored his 100th league goal from close range. 1-0.
For the next half an hour Arsenal dominated possession without really creating much and didn’t look in any danger until Laurent Koscielny was penalised, and booked, for a foul just outside the D. Morten Gamst Pedersen’s free kick was first class, giving Wojciech Szczesny no chance. It was Blackburn’s first attempt on goal and a familar feeling for Arsenal. 1-1.
However, there was no feeling sorry for ourselves and we responded quickly and effectively. A great Alex Song pass used Walcott’s pace, he got to it inside the box and provided another assist for van Persie. 2-1.
Then the skipper turned creator, cutting open the Blackburn defence for Oxlaide-Chamberlain who rounded Paul Robinson before slotting home to make it 3-1.
Blackburn were then reduced to 10 men when Gael Givet was given a straight red card for a two footed tackle on van Persie. Only the fact the Dutchman jumped out of the way saved him from injury and Andre Marriner didn’t hesitate in showing the card.
The second half picked up where the first left off. When a 51st minute corner was headed away by Blackburn, it fell to Mikel Arteta who drilled it home to make it 4-1. Two minutes later and we had five. Theo Walcott ran into the Blackburn box, got a bit of luck as he overran it, passed it to Oxlade-Chamberlain who stepped inside the defender and finished at the near post to make it 5-1.
Robin van Persie then bagged his hat-trick when he smashed home a Francis Coquielin cross from the right hand side. 6-1.
It might have been a good time to bring on Ju Young Park but the manager clearly has little faith in the South Korean, instead sending on Henry and Sagna for Oxlade-Chamberlain and Koscielny, then replacing Song with Benayoun.
The game was drifting towards its inevitable conclusion when Arsenal got their seventh. Thierry Henry robbed Scott Dann in midfield. In the old days his pace would have seen him drive straight at goal but he passed to van Persie who gave it back to the old master. The finish might have taken a deflection but it nestled in the Blackburn net, with Paul Robinson looking dolefully on as yet another Arsenal goal went past him. 7-1.
In the end we just about managed to hang on to the lead. It was just what the doctor ordered. A good doctor, not Doctor Harold Shipman who usually fulfills our prescription.
A good win, three points, some feelgood factor returned, just what everybody needed. Fans, players and manager alike.
Now that was sweet ans sexy!!!
Now that was sweet and sexy!!!
Yesssssss that was nice.
Poor Ju Yong Park though, can’t buy a minute of game time. What did he do, eat Wenger’s dog or something??
I was thinking exactly the same. I mean in the few games that TH featured, Park could have played as well.
So either he’s less fit than a 34 year old (although I reckon who we’re talking about here) or he’s just not good enough to play?
I’m happy to be proved wrong, but something just doesn’t seem to be right here.
Also, every time TV shows the bench, he’s always sitting in the last seat, passive body language and not talking to anyone.
Let’s focus on todays score though 🙂 The 7-1 erases the negative 2-8 goal difference…
someone needs to pop you
Didn’t make it to double figures. WENGER OUT!
Binbags work!!
IN BINBAGS WE TRUST . they should threaten to use our next match
COME ON YOU BINBAGGER!!
This is The Arsenal that everyone wants to see,
Except for sp*rs.
Are performance was so good that Tottenham fans were congratulating us
Yep. And this is how I feel we should play all season against teams like (no disrespect ) Blackburn,Wigan,Wolwes, etc…
ARSENAL4LIFE
Jesus watching the match felt great. Watching RVP get yet another hat trick felt even better. But seeing Thierry Henry score in the last minute of stoppage time? *swoon*
“In the end we just about managed to hang on to the lead. It was just what the doctor ordered. A good doctor, not Doctor Harold Shipman who usually fulfills our prescription.”
Laughed my ass off at this line 😀 😀
Now let me guess doom-mongers; that had nothing to do with Wenger, it was just down to the players… I’m preempting the bollox that will be spewed and will be saying that you have to congratulate the manager if you are going to blame him for every loss.
Did Walcott get 3 assists today (i wonder if Chamberlain’s first goal will go down as an assist for Walcott…)?
It should do. Lets just hope he hasn’t used his assist quota up!!
Don’t you mean Chamberlain’s 2nd goal?
I certainly do, my mistake
Ox’s first goal was actually a sublime assist from Van Persie. 🙂
Walcott I believe still had three assists. Ox’s second goal, and two of the three RvP goals, if memory serves me correctly. Great game from TW14… He’s been having some real stinkers lately.
That was fucking excelent , my favourite moment was the last goal
“you score”
“NOO you score”
finally the defender got fed up and scored for them.
The commentary drowned out their conversation as they raced through the Blackburn defence, but luckily I can lip read….
“Hey Robin, have you humiliated this defender yet?”
“No Thierry”
“Watch this then”
That’s what Hleb used to say upon reaching an empty goalmouth.
could have bin worse. plus van persie bagged a hatrick. lets hope that chelsea do rubbish now.
No goals between 62 – 90 mins disappointing. Then we score a goal in injury time such desperation.
What are you? Some sort of comedian or somethi-
Never mind.
not much to say.. well done all around..
if we didn’t see Park today we probably never will..
great unselfish play from RVP at the end..
Looks like we wont be seeing frimpong for a while now either – another injury and apparently it looks like a serious knee one!
Feel the positivity! Chamberlain was pure class, Thierry’s goal the icing on the cake! 🙂
When you look at the ox, its obvious to see he has one thing that theo doesn’t – a step over!
When Gerv gets back it seems the best option is him with the ox as they can actually get beyond the defence when they play deep. Once we get ahead, and they push up higher theo can come on and will have the space to get behind and set up rvp.
That seems like the best plan and if theo doesn’t like it we can sell him to liverpool for 45 million
Great win. Finally good football again. Good game for Walcott.
On a side note, Rosicky was unbelievably unlucky to not get a goal. The story of his life, worked very hard , but no one tried to pass to him. Feel sad for the guy.
a whole lotta difference it makes seein rosicky in for rambo. also kinda felt like we were down to 10 men as well when TH14 came on.
Definitely props to Theo – he’s had a lot of stick lately (from me included), but was one of the stand out performers today.. Along with Ox, Coq, Arteta (who looked really up for it 2nd half), Kos, and our Captain. Coquelin just looks better each time he plays. Let’s hope Theo can start carrying some form. As an aside my mate was taking his son for only his 3rd match, and got the kick off wrong – they turned up at 2:45pm and the kid was totally gutted. Bought him an Henry scarf, and he saw that one at… Read more »
Poor lad. It was my lad’s 3rd game today and the first time he’s not left with tears in his eyes.
Great performance from all the players. Everyone was up for it.
And more of that Theo and I’ll kiss and make up. Promise.
Nice, I’m sure it will be remembered for a long time.. It’s not often you get to see us score 7.
I don’t think my mate will be making the same mistake again!
We worship the holy OX.
(shouting) YES!! Arsenal don’t do that often enough!
I thought the Coq was awesome with his hard tackles
Agreed. He was also very good pushing forward. 😀
He really provided excellent penetration even from what is to him, an awkward position.
There is nothing quite like a thrusting Coq!
yeah Coq was really hard today , I liked how he spread his balls too
Coq was very hard indeed.
Yes. I thought Coq had the rub of the green and made some excellent spurts at the end. Very satisfying.
The Coq is very aggressive in and around the box.
Coq has done brilliantly when you consider that his preferred position is in the hole!
well done the Arsenal. Wonderful performance.
well done Arsene.
To the “fans” with season tickets that didn’t bother to turn up: Fuck you.
You don’t deserve to have season tickets.
Great result,hope this gives the boys some much needed confidence for the next run of games.I know Rvp got a trick but at least the other goals were spread around a bit and the Ox gets off his league mark;-)
Hope this is where we kick on from.
Come on you Gooners.
I think at this point in time Rosicky is a class above Rambo and should be starting, he’s got that surprising burst of pass, great passing, and our attacks always seem to be starting alot quicker when he’s on the ball.. Wenger Sign him up!
Pace*
He didn’t try to be too showy, Fab’s hallmark, and he wasn’t shooting into the skies as if footballs were firecrackers. What he lacks in workrate, he compensates with a robust all round play. Lesson 1: workrate ONLY does not make a great player.
rosicky lacks workrate? that’s a first.
Meant compared to Ramsey whom people are so in a hurry to thrust forth ‘workrate’ as a reason why he should be a nail-on starter.
Rosicky played well, but this is good not because it means we now have to play him all of the time, but we might actually be able to mix it up a bit without it ending in disaster.
Hopefully Rambo should really benefit from having some pressure taken off his shoulders in his first proper season.
LANS?
I like the humour in your post, but one part of it has left me wondering if you became an Arsenal fan at Christmas? How can you otherwise have failed to be aware of Ramsey’s class? It is great that Rosicky played well. It shows Arsene that he can trust him to share the duties with Ramsey, which he seemed reluctant to do until recently. It’s wonderful to see Rosicky getting game time and getting back to some good form, and I’m fantastically happy for him. BUT… Ramsey has, by all accounts, been knackered for the last 8 weeks and… Read more »
suddenly walcott wants to be useful
was forced into making the correct cross in i guess
Like one’s revel once upon a time: he wasn’t ready, he is now.
Great confidence booster. The kind of ruthlessness that we saw after their equalizer (that took us to 3-1) is what we expect from an Arsenal team, whether playing well or badly. And my man of the match? Without a doubt Coq, Ox coming in close second.
rosicky or van persie for me
gotta be van persie, 3 goals and 2 assists!
Good to put the slippers on for the 2nd half 3-1 up and blackburn down to ten players. The most comfortable 2nd half I have watched for a long time. Must say Coquelin played another good game versatile player.
For me the key aspect was that BOTH wingers really pulled their weight, which hasn’t happened for us in a while. Theo had his best match in ages and the ox, so far, is just great. Lovely stuff, keep it up please.
Andre marriner second game this season officiating Arsenal match. Both games saw 8 goals and RVP hatrick. Sorry to leak the information.
Well a result that was needed and it seemed like a different team to what played against Bolton. Hopefully the team can play with this kind of urgency and directness on a regular basis and we may start seeing some more wins again.
arsenal fans are too easy to please. one good game, and they almost forgot last 5 games. this is arsenal fans. oh, btw dont try to figure out my name.
We can only go on what happened. I doubt anyone is naive to think we have turned the season around but after so much negativity why cant we just enjoy it today!!
Oh, welcome thumbdowns.
bet you ll be disappointed with the next game. some “wenger out”, “why sub him”, “arshavin lazy”, “walcott poor technique” thingy will spam the comment box.
come on, wake up
So we should just be negative when we play well then?
It must be really enjoyable watching our games when all you can think of is how we will play piss poor in the next one. Why bother supporting us in that case!
What ever happened to ‘Team Support’?
It’s like a marriage i.e. “Through thick and thin”.
We all get pissed off from time to time but after a bad game and the air is allowed to clear, who do you support?
I am an Arsenal supporter. They were amazing today, I’m happy.
When they are shit I get criticle but that is how progress works. There is a difference between negativity and criticism. Some should own dictionaries.
I’ve got a dictionary. Criticle isn’t in it.
Criticle is in my dictionary….
Criticle: “A testicle that complains about people’s spelling”
“Arsenal” fans are too easy to please? “They” almost forgot last 5 games?
Welcome to The Arsenal, stranger.
Hope you have a pleasant visit.
Please close the door on your way out.
Now that was some deliciously served up humiliation. Oh baby.
we’ve now scored the third most goals in the league, unfortunately we’ve also seventh in the list of most goals conceded, if we’re going to get into that top four defense has to be the focus from here onwards, too many needless goals that have carelessly been conceded. Today was very promising though, looking forward to sunderland..
Rosicky deserves to be there ahead of Ramsey 🙂
Rambo has been descent this season – just a lot more jaded than rosicky. Although i do think rosicky has always had that class, its just he was always injured so never got the run of games to get to form over the last few seasons. Touch wood he stays fit and adds more competition into the midfield!
I don’t buy the Ramsey is ‘jaded’ argument at all. It’s February, he’s a professional footballer, in his early 20’s, who trains for a couple of hours a day and plays 2 games a week. He’s not jaded, he’s just going through a poor run of form. It happens to most players at some point in the season.
He is in a poor run of form, for our standard, which i dont just put down to him being jaded because as you point out – every player goes through that bad period at some point – although i think it certainly has some effect.. He has played more games than ever before and he is also having to take on more responsibility so his work rate will also have gone up. It must take some toll on his body. And when you compare that to Rosicky, who is a lot fresher, he will obviously look more active and… Read more »
“Van Persie is in the red zone” = Wengerspeak for: “Make him play full 90min, despite having scored a hat trick and playing against 10 man Blackburn, instead of using Park-the-benchwarmer”. The mind boggles…
Ludicrous Conspiracy Theory #1: Wenger is hoping that Van Persie will add more goals scored to his tally, so that he can get more money from him in the summer, to spend on… … … nobody.
In other news, I notice that blogs scored for Fleetwood Town. Get In!!
Have to admit that I was expecting Wenger to bring RVP out at the 60th minute, especially considering the knock he received from Givet in the 1st half. But as someone said earlier, Park will be in the ROK Army before we ever see him on the pitch.
Arshavin will have limited time as well now, especially when Gervinho comes back.
One game a time, no more knee-jerk reactions…
Three points at Sunderland next week, yes, please, and thank you!
Have a good weekend all!
Sunderland next week will be a true test of whether
we can get back on track for 4th place.
They are the form team in the EPL.
Today we did what we should do against a very poor
team.Repeat that performance against a form team and
we can start to believe again.
Has anybody noticed that we keep having to play against the form team in the EPL.?
Ludicrous Conspiracy Theory #2: All of the other PL teams are conspiring to ensure that they all have their best runs of form when they have to play Arsenal. This is the result of an unholy alliance between Man City and Chelsea to usurp Arsenal’s natural place in the league by handing suitcases full of money to the rest of the PL teams (except Spurs, who have been spending the cash from Harry’s so-far-undeclared RosieWHL account.)
Theo, Jack and The Ox on the plan for the Euros??? @touchlinedrama
I hope not. We all know how our players seem to pick up career threatening injuries during internationals.
Coquelin is a phenom!!!
I can’t see anyone pushing the Ox out of the first team, will be interesting to see what happens when Gervinho returns. Maybe the Ox can be the player who steps up when RVP needs a rest or, god forbid, gets injured.
Coq was great, would almost prefer him to Sagna, at least until Sagna gets his fitness fully back and starts to put in performances. Can see Coq playing DM as well.
I’m amazed!
At last. We played well, just like the Villa game. Why can’t we do this regularly? We have the capability to make this kind of play routine. Ah well…
Anyway, the Ox should be M.O.M in my opinion.
Arsenal have thier class back.
I have not been on Arseblog for a while as I felt I had nothing to say until the team improved. I am now convinced they are improving with a score like this and the OX scoring at last.
🙂
thts cause the midfield changed, defensive & attackin players were more confident cause they had a midfield that was fighting for every ball, not slowing play down, not making silly passes (i.e, back flicks),
I really hate ‘fancy’ stuff when a game is being played. It should be ‘straight-up’ football aimed at winning not ‘showing-off’.
Theo be aware.
We played well, no question, but Blackburn were awful. They’re going down.
LOVE what Ox is doing already… and he’s just 18, fantastic potential!
You make it sound like people have been blaming Wenger here unjustly, mister. He pulled the chestnut out of the fire today and I am very sure that nobody, myself inclusive, will deny him his thumbs up. However it also has to be noted that the team looked different because he made a change that we have all been craving to have for sometimes now – Rosicky for Ramsey. And to consider that this wasnt even the best game Rosicky has played for us this season shows that we all havent been hitting on the wrong spot. But he deserves… Read more »
Also, Song stuck to his defensive duties properly which gave our midfield better shape and shouldn’t be overlooked IMO.
You’re working on the assumption that the only thing Arsene Wenger does is choose the team, and decide who to bring on as subs. Don’t you think he might have spoken to the team since the Bolton game, and said something encouraging to them along the lines of “Please play better and think about what you are doing with the ball against Blackburn… or I’ll have you all Frimponged!!!!” If you think that Wenger has followed the fans demands for Rosicky to play ahead of Ramsey then you have surely misjudged the situation. As Fergie has recently suggested, the fans’… Read more »
Great day at the grove and what a performance by the team. i love how when we conceded the FK after our record of losing leads all you could hear was ‘we love you arsenal’ fantastic to see the fans get behind the team.
So… no clean-sheet… WENGER OUT!!!!
hahhahah just joking. This was a great game with only one negative and that was the amount of fans. No way that was 60,000 but I bet with the snow and all some fans did not bother and will probably switch tickets for another game.
Overall, ARSENAL ARE ALMOST BACK!
Yes, I was sad to see so many gaps in the crowd, but I imagine that it was more to do with the weather than with people trying to make statements about the team.
Apart from which, with the empty seats having largely been paid for in adavnce through season tickets, then had it been a statement from the crowd all it would have been saying in effect was “Look, you have disappointed me so much that I am stabbing my own bollock with a fork”
Great game!! And what would’ve added another cherry to the cake was if Song scored, the lad played incredible as usual
*Sorry, response for Cygan’s Righ foot*
Its best to cash in on Arshavin now because I can’t see him getting back in the starting 11, let’s start cutting down the wage bill and making squad spaces, wenger let’s start some smart planning.
Um, wouldn’t I be right in thinking that buying the Ox was “smart planning” ?
I will never tire of seeing that ex-spud clown Robinson pick the ball out of the net,happy day,shame it wasn’t double figures (might have been if the Ox had stayed on!)
Haven’t we scored something like 63 goals against Robinson now? Haha!
Well, yes, but that’s only counting the last four or five matches we’ve played against him, isn’t it?
And IGWE score……….
I haven’t seen the game (Iwas at work) but it sounded brilliant on the radio.
This is just about the perfect day: we win scoring seven, RvP gets a hat-trick, the Ox gets a couple too, and even the Legend scores one.
If United beat Chelsea then we are right back in with a chance for fourth. Let’s hope we can build on this and put a run together like we did between September and November.
Fantastic way to end a terrible run!
the past, the present and the future all getting goals!
How good is the Ox?! No wonder Wenger is hesitating to spend big money on players like Goetze
haha. i hadn’t seen your post before i submitted mine, but there you have it – similar thoughts on a seriously promising talent.
we would be alot stronger with Ox And Gotze compard to just having the Ox.
counted 9 different players for the RvP goal that we hit on the break, starting with szczezzer from the back. what a glorious team goal.
and HOW GOOD does the ox look, eh? he’s really going to be something special.
RVP’s hat-trick and Henry’s cherry will grab the headlines, and rightfully so. But Song’s play today was immaculate. That new boy has a thirst for goal too. For today, who cares about our place in the table. I’m smiling ear-to-ear after swallowing that 7-goal filled pill.
‘ . . . Theo Walcott ran into the Blackburn box, got a bit of luck as he overran it, . . .’
He really didn’t. What football were you watching? No luck whatsoever, that was entirely created by Theo. You’d think a prominent football blogger would be able to recognize something like that.
Jesus! No pleasing some..
You make your own luck in this game, and Theo has had two strokes of luck in two games this week that led to goals. Long may he keep having “luck” when he runs the ball deep into the opponent’s area leaving them on their arses behind him before either luckily scoring or luckily assisting a goal.