Arsenal det nya Blackburn??
Varför öppnas inte portarna av raseri från journalister och så kallade experter nu?
Efter att ha bevittnat finalen mellan Man United och Arsenal så är det skrämmande hur Arsenal hade mage att kritisera Blackburn för hårt spel, Arsenal skrek sig hesa i två veckor över hur Blackburn hanterade matchen i Cardiff. Det är väl ok att göra det om man nu är av den åsikten, men att sen ställa ut en elva som till 99% spelar EXAKT som Blackburn gör att skriken borde fastna i halsen.
Lägger med ett inlägg av James.No7 som nog säger allt en supporter av Blackburn känner idag:
"Arsenal showed the world in the English FA Cup final on the weekend at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff exactly how Blackburn Rovers' tactics are supposed to be played.
Rovers, who took a media barrage after their FA Cup semi-final encounter against the Gunners for their defensive and aggressive pressing style of play, were copied by an unashamed manager and employed by Arsene Wenger's team throughout the whole encounter.
The match, of course, ended in the first FA Cup final ever to be decided in a penalty shoot-out after 120 minutes of shooting mediocrity, with Arsenal defeating a dominant Manchester United.
Arsenal managed just one shot on target throughout the whole 120 minutes, while United kept hammering away, attempting to score on more than 20 attempts, most of the time missing unspectacularly, and when they did get on target, goalkeeper Jens Lehmann was almost always behind the ball in a solid performance.
Perhaps when devising his tactics with the absence of star centre forward Thierry Henry, manager Arsene Wenger was banking on Rovers' latest result at Old Trafford, where the Lancashire team lasted 90 minutes of a United barrage at goal, while playing the defensive 4 - 5 - 1 formation, especially because Arsenal had already lost twice to Manchester United for the season 2004/2005.
Arsenal's version of the 4 - 5 - 1 formation certainly was similar, because the Londoners looked good at the back and in midfield, but were very underdone in the final third where Denis Bergkamp was well-beaten and looked very much like Paul Dickov: unable to hold up the ball and bring the midfielders into attack.
They were certainly very aggressive too, and were much dirtier than any Rovers team, with Jose Antonio Reyes actually being sent off, which was not the case in the semi-final, so all credit must go to Arsenal for founding this new revelation, rather than the much-hated town club in the north of England.
Really, compare the media's reaction to Blackburn's red card-free semi-final performance compared to Arsenal's red card-savvy performance, and you can really see just how biased the media is against town clubs like Blackburn, because the Gunners produced a dirty performance that would have an unbiased Roy Keane standing up in applause.
Replace "Jose Antonio Reyes" with the name "Andy Todd" and see what sort of reaction you would get in the media, and to save you the trouble of imagining such a scenario, I tell you right now that the media would have a carnival of berating reports and righteous moral spillages to feed us, the hungry readers.
But hey, I am not all that bitter (really, I'm not!), and Arsenal did show us just where a Blackburn-style renaissance can lead you to..........an FA Cup victory. "
