The Malaysian Insider :: Sports
The Malaysian Insider :: Sports |
| Wenger still suffering but gloom lifts for Kean Posted: 17 Sep 2011 08:16 AM PDT  Pressure continues to mount on Wenger after an uncharacteristically bad start to the season. — Reuters pic Wenger, who marks 15 years in charge of the club next month, has rarely experienced a run as bad as this in all that time. Since losing to Birmingham City in last season's League Cup final in February, Arsenal have won just three of 16 league matches, and along the way have lost two of their most charismatic and important players, Cesc Fabregas to Barcelona and Samir Nasri to Manchester City. Today's defeat keeps the pressure squarely on his shoulders, but at least lifted it from Rovers' boss Steve Kean after fans called for him to be sacked before the match. An indication of the malaise in the Arsenal side was well illustrated at Ewood Park. Twice they led, 1-0 and 2-1, yet conceded two own goals in the second half and ended up beaten by a Rovers side who had not won in the league and started the day bottom of the table. Wenger, whose last trophy at Arsenal was the 2005 FA Cup, came under pressure from fans for the first time last season, and that will intensify after they lost for the third time in five league matches despite having far more chances and possession than Rovers. He told the BBC afterwards: "We had so many chances in the game and on top of that we scored two own goals so it is unbelievable to understand, but we have to take it on the chin. "At the moment defensively we are fragile because our confidence is gone due what happened at Old Trafford." Arsenal lost 8-2 to Manchester United three weeks ago — the first time they had conceded eight in a match since 1896 — which prompted the Frenchman to uncharacteristically swoop for players on the last day of the transfer window when he brought in Mikel Arteta, Yossi Benayoun and defender Andre Santos. It appeared that Arsenal might be regaining their usual self-belief after a fortunate 1-0 win over Swansea City in the league last week and a 1-1 draw at Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League on Tuesday, but the manner of this defeat suggests plenty is still wrong. They were static at set-pieces conceding two goals through poor defending, and although Arteta created plenty of chances in midfield and they scored three, they wasted many more that an in-form confident side would have taken. In contrast, Blackburn, who had managed just one point from their first four games, showed real team spirit and character. The victory came against a background of disgruntled fans who staged a protest march before the match demanding the board sack Kean but he was in an upbeat move afterwards. "Before today I think we have been on the wrong side of some bad results, but not bad performances," he told Sky Sports. "I thought when we played at Fulham last week we dug in for the last 20 minutes — backs to the wall — and hung on for a point, and against Everton I thought we were excellent and should have won but we missed two penalties. "Today we showed a lot of character which everyone has been questioning, well not everyone, just one per cent of people, about 200 who demonstrated and hopefully we can turn them around because the rest of the people who are behind us got a fantastic performance today and that's exactly what we are all about." Indeed Blackburn climbed above Arsenal on goal difference with Arsenal's minus-eight the worst in the division. The Gunners have not finished outside the top four since a fifth-placed finish in 1995-96 — the season before Wenger arrived. It is unlikely any Arsenal fans will march on the Emirates Stadium demanding he goes, but he faces a huge fight to maintain Arsenal's long-held position in the country's best four teams. — Reuters |
| Blackburn stun Arsenal for first win of season Posted: 17 Sep 2011 07:07 AM PDT  Arsenal's Gervinho (right) shoots to score against Blackburn at Ewood Park, September 17, 2011. — Reuters pic Rovers climbed off the bottom of the table and up to 11th place after Aiyegbeni Yakubu scored two goals on his debut and Alex Song and Laurent Koscielny put through their own goal to give Rovers their first league win of the season. Arsenal, returning to the northwest for the first time since being beaten 8-2 by Manchester United three weeks ago, took the lead when Gervinho scored his first goal for the club after 10 minutes. Yakubu equalised 15 minutes later with his first goal for Blackburn before his former Everton team mate Mikel Arteta, who scored for Everton at Ewood Park three weeks ago, put Arsenal back in front after 34 minutes with a rising shot from the edge of the box. Blackburn were level again after 50 minutes when Arsenal failed to clear a free-kick and the ball bounced off Song's thigh and past goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny for the equaliser. Nine minutes later Yakubu beat the offside trap to score from point-blank range to make it 3-2 and 10 minutes after that a stunning break from Blackburn which involved Junior Hoilett and substitute Martin Olsson ended with Olsson's cutback being turned into his own goal by Koscielny to make it 4-2. Substitute Marouane Chamakh scored with a superb header to give Arsenal hope with five minutes remaining but Rovers survived a late onslaught to ease the pressure on manager Steve Kean after 250 fans staged a protest march calling for his sacking before the game. Five games were being played later today including the match at Molineux between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Queens Park Rangers which was in doubt earlier after a power cut hit the city centre. — Reuters |
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Malaysian Insider :: Sports To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan