Home   >   MOTDs   >   MOTD- Arsenal 0-1 Blackburn Rovers

MOTD- Arsenal 0-1 Blackburn Rovers

By on February 16, 2013

It’s a shocker here at the Emirates, with Blackburn knocking Arsenal out of the FA Cup in the Fifth Round with Blackburn being the first side in thirty-four matches to beat Arsenal at home in the Cup.  The game started heavily in Arsenal’s favor, and their first big chance coming in the twenty-fourth minute when a Tomas Rosicky corner found the head of Abou Diaby, but the midfielders glancing header was magnificently tipped wide by Blackburn goalkeeper Jake Kean.  Arsenal kept on creating chances, and in the twenty-ninth minute, Tomas Vermaelen latched on to another Rosicky corner, and his header forced Kean to tip it wide.  Arsenal really should have been in front in the forty-third though, when Rosicky slid a perfectly timed through ball to an onside Gervinho, but Gervinho horridly pulled his shot past an oncoming Kean, but wide.  The second half started more open, and both sides tested the opposing goalkeepers, but nothing came out of the chances, and Arsenal settled back in to the game and stared dominating again.  Arsenal could not find the net though, and desperately needed somebody unlock the Blackburn defense and reach the back of Kean’s net.  That chance almost came for Arsenal in the sixty-seventh minute, but Rosicky’s shot from just outside the box hit the underside of the crossbar and bounced out.  Arsenal got paid for not finishing their collection of chances in the seventy-second minute, when for the first time in the game Blackburn left-back Martin Olsson got forward down the left.  His shot from the edge of the Arsenal box was parried by Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, and fell to Blackburn forward Colin Kazim-Richards, who scuffed his half-volley, but it bounce of the ground, off the post, and into the back of the net anyway.  Amazingly Blackburn were winning.  For the rest of the match, Blackburn predictably sat back and defended, and Arsenal’s biggest chance was a Theo Walcott header that was straight at Kean.  But Blackburn held on to the lead, and finally won after four minutes of added time.
Man of the Match: Tomas Rosicky

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.