A Design For Life.

As I said yesterday Arshavin & Theo were vitally important to us in the game against Blackburn. Neither of them had played on Wednesday and they scared the hell out of Blackburn. What I liked most was their approach to attacking. They looked to get forward all the time and we didn't have the sight of Arsenal players cutting back when faced with an opponent. Theo used his pace to great effect and should have had a penalty when we were 1-0 up and Arshavin did what nobody has done for us since Pires left. He played wide on the left and drifted in towards the back post when we attacked on the right. As the full back gets drawn in he finds a load of space and Vela picked him out perfectly in the build up to the 3rd goal.

We now have a genuine goal threat from midfield and it will change the way teams defend against us. In Theo we have pace to scare any team and with Cesc back soon these 2 guys are going to get some really good service. Cesc will also have some great outlets for his passing and the only problem will be who we play up front. If Adebayor puts the effort in it could be him and to be fair to Bendtner he had a good game yesterday with the exception of his finishing. The crowd got behind him and tried to encourage him for the most part but it may have been different if we weren't ahead when he missed all those chances. As just about everybody else has commented he was in the right position time and again but his finishing really let him down unfortunately. Eduardo is a fantastic option for that strikers role and of course RVP is our leading scorer this season. I still worry that RVP doesn't appear to be a team player at times and sometimes it is difficult to see where he fits in in certain matches. It's a good headache for the manager though.

We played with the tempo that has been missing for a lot of our season yesterday and we got the all important early goal that I wished for. It meant Blackburn couldn't play just to frustrate us. They obviously then decided to up the second part of their plan as devised by Big Fat Sam. I said that they would kick us up and down the pitch and they didn't disappoint me at all. Theo should have had a penalty early on and if so it could well have been a red card. Almunia was very lucky not to suffer an Eduardo type injury when Diouf made a disgusting "challenge" on him. That was an out and out straight red card and the type of challenge our manager has called for to be severely punished by the FA. However due to their ridicilous rules the incident is over as the referee gave him a yellow card. A mark of how inept they is the Ben Thatcher "challenge" on Pedro Mendes a few years ago. The referee acted at the time and the FA still punished him further as they said it was an exceptional case. It would seem you have to half kill a person for the FA to over rule a referee.

We also had the strange case of what was percieved as the most obvious dive ever by Pedersen but at the time I thought he clipped his own heel and fell over and he thought that Sagna caught him. That appears to be the excuse offered today and I know it sounds strange that he didn't feel himself tripping himself but obviously 1 leg doesn't know what the other 1 is doing. That fitted in well with the rest of his team of thugs. As Arseblogger said I hope they get relegated. It appears Arshavin had to get stitches in an ankle wound at half time. Did they purposely go for our ankles like rabid dog. I seem to remember Andrews doing the same thing to 3 of our players at Ewood Park.

I have to mention how well Arshavin took his goal and how their defenders didn't know how to handle a player who is genuinely 2 footed. It's great to see a player who can shoot with either foot instead of trying to get the ball onto his good foot all the time. We had a little help with the own goal obviously but it came from Theo's pace and the fact that he got to the end line and cut it back. The rush for the near post meant anything could happen and it did. We then had the curious case of Eboue scoring 2 goals after Bendtner couldn't manage any. He was in the right place at the right time for the first one after great work by Arshavin & Vela and he really wanted to take the penalty when Vela won it. Vela did very well in his short cameo and he showed how well he can play with Arshavin. Overall it was good to see such a positive performance after our midweek exertions and we certainly didn't suffer a Champions League hangover.

In other news our under 18s beat Fulham 5-1 yesterday morning with a team that looked very different to the team used in the FA Youth Cup. They obviously have an awful lot of young talent available. They are rubbish reports today saying that Kolo won't commit his future to the club and it's only mischief making. We are again linked with both Bjoan Krkic & Edin Dzeko but we all know the window is closed. I presume we are linked with them as they are both young and talented and therfore fit the profile for an Arsenal signing and any lazy journalist can do the work from there. That's the lot for today. As I am typing this Villa are 2-0 down and I am smiling whilst watching The Spuds win. I shall burn in hell.

Here's the highlights from yesterday.

http://www.eplmatches.com/index.php/2009/03/14/arsenal-vs-blackburn-highlights/

And to finish today's title track from The Manic Street Preachers. Yesterday was the perfect design for us to approach the rest of our games this season.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz00_3LbdmM

See You Tomorrow.