Great result today against Blackburn away which is always a tough place to go. Particularly pleasing was the second half display when after getting the goal we showed good maturity by keeping the ball and in the end there weren't too many hairy moments...
First half was a very end to end game with both sides creating chances. I thought we looked quite slick up front but conceded a lot of set pieces which led to an aerial bombardment at times. However I think we dealt with the high balls in quite well, winning quite a few headers and Almunia did some good punches / catches under pressure. We were playing quite a high line in defence which allowed Blackburn's wingers (the two Diouf's) to get in behind the fullbacks on a few too many occasions. However soon after a spell of pressure from Blackburn, a swift exchange of passes in midfield led to Van Persie sliding in a through ball for Theo, who took a good first touch and slammed in into the far corner at a tight angle. Great finish and good to see Theo put in good performances two weeks in a row. That was something that was missing last season, and now he has already scored more league goals (4) than the whole of last season!
However, the game was still fairly even at this point and after a few goalmouth scrambles at our end Blackburn came back into it with a goal from Miram Diouf. The other Diouf latched on to a through ball from Samba and beat Koscielny on the left wing, cut inside and pulled it back for the Man-Utd Loanee to tap-in. A bit poor from Kos there, it looked like he tried to nip in front and steal the ball but ended up getting shrugged off - but otherwise he had a fairly good game so perhaps I'm being a bit harsh there.
Onto the second half, we came out brightly and got the second goal after a Fabregas shot rebounded off Theo's backside and fell kindly for Arshavin to complete a smart finish. It would have been easy to hit it over the bar with the keeper in close proximity but Arshavin showed good composure to pick his spot and give the three defenders on the line no chance of getting in a block. After the goal was the most pleasing part of the performance for me, we kept the ball well and didn't allow Blackburn too many chances to get back into the game. Last season we had a tendency to panic after scoring and almost invited pressure towards the end of games where we held a narrow lead, but today was different and we saw out the game quite comfortably.
Overall a very pleasing result and a good performance. The only negative was the injury to Van Persie (although apparently it's not too serious). The international break is coming up next week so lets just hope that all our players come back in good condition. Looks like some of the England players are getting their excuses in early with Terry and Lampard pulling out of the squad, expect Rooney and Gerrard to follow....
The next blog from me will be on Tuesday to round up the transfer window activity, enjoy the bank holiday : )
Mr F
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