Arsenal came back from 1-0 down to smash six goals past
Blackburn Rovers and secure all the points with a 6-2 win.
Arsene Wenger's men were stunned on two minutes when former young
Gunner David Bentley was controversially adjudged to have been
hauled down in the box by Kolo Toure. Despite Arsenal's vehement
objections, referee Howard Webb pointed to the spot.
After winning the argument with Bentley as to who was to take the
kick, Shabani Nonda stepped up to face Jens Lehmann. With a
deliberate stutter to his run he fired the ball low into the left
side of the net just beyond the outstretched arm of the Gunners
keeper.
Arsenal were immediately back on the attack to level the scores.
Kolo Toure almost made amends for his penalty concession when on
ten minutes he headed fit again Tomas Rosicky's corner on to the
top of the bar, although the ball must have touched a Rovers player
on the way as the referee awarded a corner.
It was taken on the right side by Robin van Persie who swung in a
left-foot effort which Gilberto met with a towering header that
flew powerfully beyond Brad Friedel for 1-1.
Arsenal took the lead on 23 minutes with a superb move started and
finished by Alex Hleb. The Belarus midfielder found Cesc Fabregas
and continued his run towards goal. The young Spaniard in turn
slipped a ball to Emmanuel Adebayor who laid off an intelligent
ball for Hleb to run on to.
There was still work for the midfield dynamo to do, but he
comfortably beat two Rovers defenders before picking his spot to
slip the ball past the oncoming Friedel.
Arsenal went further ahead just five minutes later when a fine
Gunners move culminated in van Persie being upended by Lucas Neill.
After some deliberation with his linesman, Mr Webb pointed to the
spot and Adebayor coolly despatched the penalty.
The Gunners continued in the ascendancy after the interval and van
Persie should have added a fourth on 67 minutes when the home side
broke through Rosicky.
The Czech midfielder sent van Persie through on the left side of
the area and with just Friedel to beat he shot tamely with his
right foot straight at the Blackburn keeper.
The visitors struck back on 70 minutes with a goal against the run
of play. Brett Emerton got the better of Gael Clichy to deliver a
cross to the far post. The ball was met by substitute Matt
Derbyshire, but his acrobatic effort came back off the underside of
the bar.
Fortunately for the visitors Nonda reacted first to fire the
rebound into the back of the net with an overhead kick from two
yards out.
The goal encouraged Blackburn who seemed to begin to play with more
energy and purpose. They almost grabbed an equaliser in the 81st
minute but another superb save by Lehmann from a fierce Robbie
Savage shot saved the Gunners.
The resultant corner was well defended by the Gunners and Wenger's
side broke forward with Fabregas finding Justin Hoyte on the left
flank. The Gunners right-back then delivered a ball to the feet of
van Persie who again fired wide.
Just as Wenger may have been thinking it was not his striker's day,
the Dutchman netted a wonder goal. He received a pass on the right
side of the penalty area, sent international colleague Andre Ooijer
one way and then another before curling a left-foot shot around
Friedel.
Van Persie made it 5-2 on 87 minutes when he was picked out on the
penalty spot by midfield master Fabregas and the misery for Friedel
didn't end there as substitute Matthieu Flamini was on hand to fire
into the net after the Blackburn goalie had saved a Fabregas
shot.
Wenger said afterwards: "I'm very happy with the result, it was a
spirited performance and you can accuse me of many things, but you
can never accuse my team of being boring.
"I think Blackburn played well and I think they were punished a bit
too much by the result, but I must say we played some amazing
football and I really do believe that this team can achieve
something this season but its all down to consistency.
"I think we have had a good run of results and performances of late
which has helped team spirit and this team just loves to play. I
think it is one of the best teams I have had from a technical point
of view, they move the ball so well and I think some of their play
is breathtaking.
"The win gives us a good start to the Christmas games and Watford
will give us a big challenge. We have to be prepared mentally as
there will be many direct balls and physical challenges, but I
believe my players will be up for the challenge."
Rovers boss Mark Hughes added: "I think the scoreline of 6-2 is a
difficult one to accept, especially as five minutes before the end
of the game we were just 3-2 down and still in the match.
"The records will show that we lost 6-2 and that is difficult to
take, but we have to get on with it. I am just looking at the
positives.
"When we came out in the second half and were 3-1 down we could
have tried to keep the score down to 3-1, but instead we tried to
make a game of it and achieve at least a draw.
"There were a lot of positives for me to take out of the game and I
think if we had been a bit cleverer in the way we had played, we
could have got more out of the game.
"Our main problem was we were engaging Arsenal on the edge of our
penalty area whereas we should have been meeting them on the
halfway line."
