Simply put, they were shameful. They saw that we had no fullback on the bench so they decided they would attack Sagna until he was forced to go off. I remember a studs up challenge right in front of the ref which was considered play on in the first half as well as several other instances where they tried to niggle him. He's not the type of player to go down easily. I've seen him get up with stud marks on his thighs before. But Blackburn set out to injure Sagna, and it was clear from the way they drove everything down that side the instant he was substituted. There wasn't even time for team orders to filter through. Not to mention several dives which were awarded to them. My personal favourite was the free kick given where the replays showed a meter of clean air between the two players. Also, big bad Arshavin bulldozing their player for the second goal. You complain about our defenders but it just simply doesn't make sense. Vermaelen- National captain. Excellent defender and rated by most, if not all. Mertesacker- 75 national caps at 26. Very highly considered on the continent. Sagna- Often considered the world's best right back defensively, if not in attack. Koscielny- performs extremely well against the best teams. He was good against Dortmund and don't forget his performance against Barcelona. Santos- He did well today, but ruined the offside trap once or twice. Szczesny- Just look at how he's performed lately. And yet somehow they all suffer against "physical" teams with big bruising forwards who have a tendency to get into "physical battles". I like strong play. I really do. Take THAT goal from Bergkamp v Newcastle. That for me is what football is about. He showed incredible skill, intelligence, speed and also strength. The way he shrugged off Coloccini was fantastic. What I hate is dirty tactics. Such as the Neville brothers on Reyes. Coincidentally, since that game teams have increasingly used this style of play against Arsenal. Because that's how you stop Arsenal. It's wrong though, and the reason why England sucks internationally. Because in international games you have referees who know that these tactics are illegal in the game. Much like how hacking was a legal practice in England until the 50s. We are behind the times and it leads to ridiculous numbers of injuries. Injuries to players who would actually be useful to England- Walcott, Wilshere and Gibbs being good examples. Talk about shooting ourselves in the foot. I'm not asking us to play like they do in the Spanish leagues, in fact I wouldn't like that. Lets be like the Bundesliga. German players are known for having a lethal blend of speed, strength and skill. We did play well at points. And we also defended badly at others. But what do you expect with our two best defenders, in Vermaelen and Sagna, removed from the game.
Are you honestly saying that Blackburn injured Sagna on purpose and those tactics lead to your capitulation on the pitch? ... Honestly?
Yes. That's what I'm saying. Now we've got your incredulity out of the way we can move on with the discussion.
You are right about being bullied, that performance came from the fact you guys are mentally still shaking from that battering at Old Trafford. You lost because you collapsed, not physically either. As soon as it went 2-2, you lost the plot. They should of went 3-2 up straight away but Szchesney pulled out a great stop, after that it was all Blackburn until 4-3 when you guys had started fighting back. Don't try to attribute the loss to anything other than your failings, not this Blackburn dirty tactics you are trying to use. Poor performance, which isn't a surprise if you take your season performance into account. Fortunate against Swansea, good enough in the CL but you dropping points was on the cards since last week.
I forget, we're meant to have 33 world class players because it's perfectly normal for a team's players to drop like flies to nasty tackles. We weren't exactly Barcelona, but by no means was Blackburn's win anything other than cheating.
You must be delusional. They outplayed you after 2-2. Do you think if Sagna stayed on, you would of won?
Typical response. Why don't you grow up or get lost? We played badly and got lucky against Swansea. We played well defensively against Dortmund but offered little in midfield or attack. We were woeful against United. Today? We played well but Blackburn cheated. Why is it hard for other fans to actually look at the game for once.
1st Goal-New defender ruins offside trap, good goal by Yakubu 2nd Goal-Unlucky own goal 3rd Goal-Offside, but that's life 4th Goal-Djorou is an idiot and unlucky for Kos I think a draw would have been fairer, but we missed about 2/3 glorious chances in the 2nd half (Mertasacker, Walcott, etc...) Robinson made some good saves, but defending was poor today (Probably some fatigue from CL game) Should have played Gibbs instead of Santos (Santos still needs time to adjust) Overall, defending was POOR, but some ****ers on here are over-reacting. Good job Blackburn, hope to beat you at home BTW...I noticed we upped the tempo in the 1st half, also If we can combine the defensive display vs Dortumnud and today's atteck and midfield we will be good
Dirty Blackburn cheated Because perfect Arsenal never cheat or make dirty tackles do they?! Jack Wilshere *cough* Surely a visionary like Arsene should be able to build a squad resolute enough to withstand the loss of one player? You didn't lose because of Blackburn's tactics, you lost because you can't defend. Simples
The OP is just making silly excuses because we lost. Blackburns performance deserved the result our defending was sloppy and it has to improve.
lol what a sore loser, your team just aint good enough these days and sagna the best RB in the world? never heard of ramos or dani alves?
Disagree with that. Blackburn where not that good. We just put a shot gun to our foot and blasted it off.
Their tactics werent shameful, your defending was. Arsenal cant coment on anyone for bad tackles with the amount of reds you've had this season.
