By Joel Martin
Arsenal – 0 Blackburn – 0. The last thing we needed was another replay. From the opening whistle, it was clear Arsenal would have to be the aggressor today, and we failed to step up to the challenge. Blackburn’s 8 defenders never even tried to score.
Nothing really happened in the first half. Walcott had a tough time beating Warnock and didn’t look very good. Ljunberg had no impact on the game at all.
We only looked like a threat when Rosicky and Adebayor came on in the 68th minute. Rosicky took it to the two lines of Blackburn defence, and was unlucky not to score after a great foot-save from American Brad Friedel stopped him. My heart skipped a beat when Almunia made the most of an average shot by Mark Derbyshire in the 75th, but that was the only serious chance Blackburn had in the whole game. Adebayor slotted the ball across the ball to Henry well in the 88th, who in turn tried to set up Aliadiere on the far post but was stopped again by a great save from Friedel, who also managed to save Hoyte’s follow-up.
In the end Arsenal should not be pleased with their performance, but we should not be unhappy either. We looked strong and composed in the defense and Fabregas controlled the game extremely well. It would have been nice to see us as determined to score in the first 15 minutes as we were in the final 15, but no we must win at Ewood Park to reach the next round—another fixture on a list that is getting more and more dubious.
Best to put the disappointment behind us, though, I’m sure PSV won’t show much sympathy on Tuesday.
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