The 5-6 scorline is an important statistic, because it marks a significant change in the approach of the “Rovers” – and in many ways completes an extraordinary transformation for the “club”.
There was a time, 3 years ago, when the only statistic you could measure for Blackburn was kicks. It was so bad that it led to the creation of the phrase (by none other than yours truly) “rotational fouling” and resulted in M Wenger saying of them (after the notorious FA Cup Semi Final in Cardiff), “we just had to hope they got tired of kicking us.”
Now Blackburn have moved on – as witness the “6” in the headline – which relates to shots off target. Of course you don’t score goals with shots off target, but considering where the club has come from we must congratulate the manifestation known as “Hughes” who seems to lead the club. Quite a transformation.
To be fair Arsenal were, for a lot of this game, not at their best – we had a spell at the start, and a re-statement of aims half way through the second half, but for much of the time the swift passing was a case of passing into spaces that no one in particular was likely to occupy or even looked like they wanted to occupy.
But you get games like this – we had games like this in the Unbeaten Season too – and the big news is that for the remainder of the season we will have a bigger choice of players – 3 returning from “distant shores”, plus Thomas and Robin.
Six shots on target was ok, but against a non-kicking Blackburn (I never thought I would say that) we would normally expect about 15.
How the fans can take control of the Premier League
The Stupidity Files: www.emiratesstadium.info
