Since their Carling Cup defeat, it’s extraordinary how Arsenal have managed to control games and yet consistently contrive to end up on the losing team. It was the same again at Ewood Park this weekend, where a 4-3 reversal highlighted all the frailties that have become synonymous with the club in the last six months.
Curiously though it was in this very fixture last season where the BBC opened their match report with the line:
Andrey Arshavin grabbed the winner for Arsenal as they showed the steel needed to overcome a committed Blackburn.
It suggested a change of mentality for the Gunners, an improvement on the sides that had thrown away titles and cups for five years.
Watching it at the time, it struck me as a significant moment as Wenger looked to defy criticism that Arsenal were a bit ‘soft’. Let’s also remember this was Sam Allardyce’s Blackburn, and not Steve Kean’s less pragmatic and more flimsy version.
Arsenal had the better of the game in most areas last August, without significantly dominating:
And yet on Saturday, it was a case of having even more of the game but failing to make chances count in a far less ‘steely’ performance.
Statistical domination can be a symptom of the opposition sitting back on a lead, but during the match both sides led for an equal period of 30 minutes. In the numbers, it’s difficult to pin down where Arsenal went wrong exactly; they showed they had a ‘plan B’, effective or otherwise, by peppering the box with crosses, and in most departments they were vastly more prolific than the home side, particularly compared to last season.
In the end though, costly errors in defence undid a lot of the good work Arsenal did further up the field. Whatever fight and ability they showed at the start of last season seems to have evaporated, and all they have to show for it is an impressive but ultimately futile set of numbers.
