Blackburn 2 Alex Song And His Little Mates 3
Dec 19th, 2007 by 'holic
Read it and weep Mark Hughes. For the fourth time in five years the blend of squad players that turns out for Arsenal in the Carling Cup has reached the semi-finals.
For all but the closing stages of the opening half the visitors completely outplayed the best that Blackburn had to offer. A delicious left-footer from Diaby gave the Gunners the lead and Eduardo produced a clinical finish to double the advantage. Had Bendtner tucked his effort under rather than against the bar the contest would have been over almost before it had begun.
Either side of half-time though the hosts muscled their way back into the contest, and credit to Santa Cruz for the two finishes that brought his tally to five in two consecutive games. Did I hear cries of offside in the build-up to the first?
No matter, the supreme test lay in wait. A tense finish was ensured when Denilson, seeing Dunn arriving for his umpteenth sliding challenge, left a foot in. He did the crime and took his punishment, but the reaction of Dunn and Savage almost certainly ensured the little Brazilian was sent-off.
Big boys can take it after they have been dishing it out all night. This lot crumbled against ten tiring lads with a sense of injustice. In injury-time the oft-maligned Song marauded forward with purpose, not for the first time, and set up Eduardo for a clinical finish. It was however character, and not just this goal, that separated the sides at the end of the night.
An extra word of praise for Song. Little more than a year ago he was subjected to such merciless stick at Fulham. He has survived a number of poor performances and this season, switched from midfield to the centre of defence, he has started to show just why Arsene Wenger has persisted with him. Fair play to him and once again we have to hold our hands up and admit, ‘Arsene Knows!’.
11 Responses to “Blackburn 2 Alex Song And His Little Mates 3”
Early in the season I pleaded to the knockers to lay off with the vitriol they were hurling at Alex Song. I argued that he had been superb when on loan to Charlton and looked good for Arsenal in the pre-season matches.
Therefore I was doubly pleased to see him put in a man of the match performance last night against Blackburn. Whether Wenger’s apparent plan to convert Song into a central defender is the right way to go I am still not sure as he seems a bit weak in the air. Also he looked at his best when storming forward and beautifully created the winning goal.
Whatever, I think we have another winner on our hands – well done Alex.
Great performance by the young lad Song. Though his aerial ability needs some coaching from veterans big Willy and king Kolo, his positional sense is far better than Senderos in the centre-back position. He has far more pace and is less error prone too. We witnessed him bail Senderos out of trouble time after time. In my opinion he has the qualities and is really working hard to gain recognition from Le Boss. And what a great through-ball it was for Eduardo’s 3rd from him. Hope he turns into somewhat a rock in defence and able to venture out to the half-line to assist the team in attack. Wonderful prospect. Good job last night.
Here Here!
Gwaan Alex Song.
He played a blinder last night.
Agree with the comments about ‘fans’ abusing Song – it was almost embarassing at Fulham last season.
He was definitely outjumped by Santa Cruz for their second.
In the Newcastle game Martins was winning everything in the air in the first ten minutes against Senderos. Song then picked him up and dominated in the air for the remainder of the game. But then Martins is only 5ft and a bit! I think for his size he is good in the air, I just don’t think he’s big enough for a centre-half especially in the ‘long-ball’ Premiership.
I’m a blackburn fan but must admit that i love watching Arsenal’s football and if there is one team i would love to see win the premiership over us…(i can dream!) it would be the Gooners.
We weren’t at our best but even if we were i think we would still have been put to the test!
I think it may have been a bit harsh for Denilson to go but those are the rules!
I just hope you can keep the run going and beat utd to the title!
I thought we could take some positives from the game, Reidy at times showed glimpses of how good he can be again. Santa Cruz was his normal hard working self, McCarthy was a waste of space! and i thought Samba had an unusually bad game.
I also thought that our team had the better of you for a lot of the second half but to win with 10 men in extra time is a great result for you.
hey guys!
great result yesterday.
i was just wondering whether we have seen great eduardo to miss a sitter in arsenal shirt. i cant remember any. his finishing is quite impressive, especially when compared to ade’s.
Excellent blog ‘holic. The lads can all hold their heads high with pride, for that awesome performance.
Song was my MOM, followed closely by Diarra. What a game !
you bad bad mong. You dominated the first 40 mins and then had your asses handed to you. To actually win the game was a daylight robbery. And stop banging on about your kids , they cost a fortune , Eduardo cost more than blackburn’s team in total. Denilson should be banned for 6 months for that horror tackle.
Dan seems to have some sense.
On the other hand, Chris appears like an idiotis misinformed cunt (may I use the word here too, ‘holic?).
If Denilson should be banned for 6 months (it was a red card, fair, but certainly not a horror one), I think your team would not have many players left as they would all be on a 3-year ban, but hey-ho.
Daylight robbery was that ‘offside’ goal, but hey-ho.
Of course, admitting that a team of youngsters beat a bunch of experienced players fair and square is a bit too hard for some to admit.
But hey, I was just popping up to say hello to ‘holic and congratulate him on that funny title.
“Eduardo cost more than blackburn’s team in total.”
Not quite true that Chris, is it? But I will grant you he is worth more than the entire Blackburn team put together.
Song played well against Steaua. There was a joke earlier in the season about him coming on at the very end of league games that he’d get his 10 appearances that way, but this marks two performances on the trot, and that could mean he’ll see some playing time. He’s just about to displace Big Phil in the Central Defense pecking order.