Well, here we are again gooners. Picking over the ashes of another heartbreaking result, looking for morsels of positivity.

I would start by saying it’s not often you’ll see an Arsenal team, or any top European club for that matter, go to Ewood Park, score 5 goals and lose 4-3. But even as I type that it somehow seems to have become the norm for us. Why has it come to getting results like these? I appreciate that the general level of talent and pure skill in our best XI has dropped by some amount since last year, but overall our problem does not appear to be one related to tight, technical play or killer final balls. We scored. 3 times. And they were clean goals, no controversial, scrappy ones either.

What does seem to be the problem is our tactics, defensive capabilities and most of all, organisation. It belies belief that we can play all the way through last season, even challenging for the title until our catastrophic collapse at the end, and yet still bear such an obvious and exploitable weakness. The weakness I’m referring to that I’m sure you’re all aware of, is our frailty at set pieces. Our indecision, or unwillingness to attack the ball from dead ball situations was our undoing in something like over half our goals conceded last term! It means that ridiculous excuses for managers like Tony Pulis can tactically get an advantage over Arsene Wenger by indetifying this weakness (probably by watching Sky Sports News) and then instructing players to bum-rush our box from a set piece. It’s outrageously annoying that we still haven’t patched this hole.

In any case, let’s focus on the positives fellow Gooners. I thought Gervinho was the best on the park for large portions of the game, confusing defenders, running at them with outstanding dribbling, and most of all LOOKING FOR TEAM-MATES when crossing *cough Theo *cough! His first goal was the result of a well timed pass as Song beat one midfielder and slid a nicely weighted ball through between the centre half and the full back , and as Gervinho collected it while running towards the right corner flag unleashed a shot that slid the the very opposite corner extremity and into the goal. A well taken shot but definitely nice work by Song to create the goal also, with a great cutting ball like we used to get from name removed.

After the first goal there was a warning sign when a towering Samba header was put wide as it was a few inches too high for even him, and also Dann behind him did not call for the ball when he was clearly in a better position. Still, the uncontested header against such a clear aerial threat was a concern. However we also saw a magnificent save by Paul Robinson from Arshavin. The ball was being worked around the box, two Blackburn players headed it clear and it fell the the diminutive Russian on the full at the edge of the area, and he caught it flush to produce a great save from Robinson.

Gervinho also conspired to miss a great pull back from Sagna after some more great one touch play down the right flank released him into acres of space. Our new Ivorian winger scuffed his shot over though, which allowed another let off for Rovers.

We then promptly allowed Blackburn in the game when they put us under pressure. Junior Hoilett picked up a rebounded ball the we had cleared and waited until he had seen the run of ex-Everton striker Yakubu, slid the ball across him and Yakubu had only to prod it towards the far corner with the outside of his foot to foil Szczesny’s onrushing attempt to cover the shot. A well timed ball and finish not that dissimilar from our own first. Unfortunately our new Brazilian full back Andre Santos could be seen as playing Yakubu onside for the goal as he was not in line with our defence, but we cannot afford to let passes like that through with a new defence as we have, so I can’t blame him fully.

The next goal was our own, and a great one indeed. Wing play had spread Blackburn’s cover and when Sagna played a one touch ball to Song, who did the same down the exposed right flank, Ramsay ran onto it unchallenged and had time to look up, and cut it back to the edge of the box where the onrushing Arteta smashed it into the roof of the net for our 2nd and his 1st as an Arsenal player. A well sprung move executed with nice one touch play and a great finish under pressure from Arteta.

Still on the attack, Gervinho perhaps selfishly decided not to pass to RVP when he was open and his shot was deflected over. He did receive a few words for his decision from Robin, and I’m sure he’ll be looking for him next time.

Next we had Alex Song tip in an own goal unluckily from a spot kick outside the right hand side of our box. Arshavin committed a silly foul on the edge of the area after being beaten. I think we were just unlucky on this one as Szczesny looked uncharacteristically slow to react to the deflection and couldn’t save it. The ball went through the heads of the Blackburn attacker and our defender and just landed on Song’s things and went in bottom corner. As I said he could have been more ready in case the ball came through, but it’s very difficult to cushion a fast moving cross with your things and I think we were unlucky on this one.

With the rain starting to pour down a neat through ball through to Formica well saved by Szczesny, you could sense the tide of this match starting to turn against us and we were well and truly under the kosh. The Rovers faithful were starting to believe and we know what happens when we let the crowd believe.

The next goal by Blackburn was definitely not unlucky. Junior Hoilett again found Chris Samba at the far end of the box unmarked, he took a touch, and smashed it across the ground to the far post, where the ever dangerous Yakubu had only to turn his foot to hit it home for Blackburn’s third. This goal was definitely preventable as Samba with the threat he possesses should not have been unmarked, and none of our players attempted to intercept the cross just by simply hacking it clear. More evidence that we are unwilling to attack the ball under pressure, even if it’s only to put the opposition under pressure.

I found myself having a mental battle at this point. Blackburn are clearly one of the worst teams in the league at the moment, and a hot favourite to be relegated. Steven Kean, is a terrible manager in my opinion, and even at 2-2 I thought we would still nick the win and three points as we were creating more and looking more dangerous. But at 3-2 I realised that we were simply collapsing too fast at the back for our forwards to make up for it by scoring. I realised that this would be another day to forget, one of which we’d had so many recently and I can’t help but think that this one wasn’t due to “special circumstances”, merely just a lack of organisation and coaching.

The next own goal (becuase yes, there were two fucking own goals in this professional football match) was conceded by Koscielny. This is a tough one, because I thought his form had been improving lately. After some neat wing play and an overcommitted Djorou challenge allowed the winger to weave into our area, Koscielny’s tired legs simply ran out of ideas when the ball was crossed on the ground to him and he just side footed it home like Fernando Torres wishes he could do.

At this point we were fully deflated. I though to myself I went from thinking this was the old Arsenal, to hoping we might nick a win, to hoping desparately for a point, to the crushuing realisation we would get nothing from this trip. RVP had a nice header palmed back by Robinson who was having a good game, but still I had that hopeless feeling that the hurting was not over. Even when Chamakh turned in a nice cross by van Persie under pressure (IE what we bought him for!), I still somehow knew were just just huffing and puffing to little too late. Per Mertesacker’s clear header over the bar on the dying minutes just summed up our day.

Failing to convert these chances comes back to haunt us more than any team it seems. And so he were are now. Post game Wenger said

This is not more humiliating (than the 8-2 at Old Trafford). I do not have the measurement of humiliation,It is frustrating more than anything else, because we had the potential to win.

He also went on to say:

Football is like that, when you are 90 percent of the way there, you miss the 10 percent, you don’t win. We have to gain this 10 percent back because the potential in the side is huge

No disagreements on that from me. My issue is whether he and the coaching staff are ready to say “ok, we have a problem here that teams keep exploiting” and decide to actively work on that. Almost to the exclusion of all else I’d say. Our attacking players can still create, and even if we train them slightly less on that front for a week or two and just work on defensive tactics. I want them to train these basics so that it’s burned into the minds of players, that way when legs and minds are tired we will still always automatically attack the ball and mark dangerous players at set pieces, the same as countless hours of repetition always make you play back to defenders when you hear “man on” and your back is to defenders. I want us to have a spew play that we run when we have no energy left, just like the hilarious scene in Semi Pro where Woody Harrelson forces players to re-run a boring defensive strategy until they vomit, so that when they are down to grains of energy they still automatically defend. That’s what Pat Rice needs to instill in our team defensively, some vomit.

Anyway that’s about it for today. Here’s hoping that watching the Scousers fail badly made your morning, and we’ll just ignore that team from Manchester and whatever they’re doing on the field at the moment. It won’t last. Trust me.

Bye for now.