Ten man Rovers - routed by the Arsenal

No trip to Arsenal has ever been easy - but this one saw Rovers biggest defeat of the season, and Gael Givet seeing red for 'serious foul play' on Robin van Persie. Things didn't start well for Blackburn, with the Gunners 1-0 up within the first minute van Percie with his first of three on the afternoon. But Rovers had hope when Morten Gamst Pedsersen claimed an equaliser direst from a long range free kick on the half hour. However Arsenal quickly were ahead again with van Percie's 2nds and then Chamberlain scored the first of his to make it 3-1 at the interval. Just ahead of half time Givet saw red - so Blackburn knew they had a big mountain to climb to get anything out of the game. Five minutes after the restart Mikel Arteta made it 4-1, then three minutes later Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain claimed his second to make it 5-1. Everything was going the home teams way, and on the hour mark Robin van Percie secured his hat trick and that looked like that. Rovers only managed three shots on target in the whole game, and Chamberlain was replaced by on loan icon Thierry Henry who just had to get in on the act. Mind you he left it late - three minutes into injury time reminding Rovers of a trip to Old Trafford last year when Big Sam was still in charge. Obviously not an afternoon with much to celebrate for the Blackburn Manager today - Steve Kean telling reporters:- "It's a difficult day for us because it's a difficult enough venue to play at with 11 men. It's the first time this season when we've been really turned over. We wanted to stay in the game after scoring, and not let the opposition get back in, but we forced it and let Arsenal back into it. We set ourselves high standards and that was not us today. I'm looking at the reaction of the lads with 30 minutes to go. The goal difference affects us as well. We've let ourselves down. Chris Samba wasn't in the squad today and we'll speak to him on Monday."
Perhaps if the captain had played the result might have been different - but as the mager said this may be a game to try and forget and make sure that next Saturday back at Ewood, QPR get the back lash. (4th February 2012)

LINKS: bbc.co.uk (full report and details) ALSO rovers.co.uk (reaction) PLUS goals1112 AND t&t1112

Blackburn submit 23 names over 21 and a group of youngsters

The 'Admiral' moves on after seven years a Rover

Ryan Nelsen joined Rovers from DC United in the USA before joining Blackburn in January 2005.This January he was released from his contract and a few days after the window closed the veteran defender made a move to London to join up with Tottenham for the rest of the season. He's only played only once since last April due to a knee injury , which he now seems to have recovered from. Just a few weeks ago he return to his home in New Zealand to see if specialists there agreed that he would be able to continue with his playing career. Ryan played against Hudderfield at Brockhall this week, and that became his last game in blue and white. Perhaps surprisingly Spurs assistant manager Kevin Bond told reporters that Ryan would be in their squad for Monday's Premier League game at Liverpool. This despite failing to play almost any first team football all season. Nelsen made more than 170 appearances for Rovers and captained New Zealand at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. We wish him good luck for his future career. (2nd February 2012)

LINKS: bbc.co.uk

All the play - no reward

Anthony Modeste made hi home debut for Rovers, with David Goodwillie off with the flu. He may have had problems with his finishing, but the Frenchman made plenty of chances for himself and should have collected his first Blackburn Goal. The stats show how Rovers dominated this encounter and still collected no reward. Scott Dann was the unlucky man as Ryan Taylor took a shot and Dann diverted it into his won net. Only twelve minutes gone and another clean sheet gone! But from that point on it was almost all Rovers. Paul Robinson had a very quiet night, his opposite number kept very busy. A bizarre incident looked likely to see a Blackburn penalty, but instead Ryan Taylor was shown a yellow card, and Morten Gamst Pedersen took the free kick from the edge of the box, but missed the target . Then with moments to half time Anthony Modeste was fouled by Danny Simpson and David Dunn took the spot kick. A save by Tim Krul, then two Rovers players both tried to put away the palmed away ball, but a save again from Krul. With the first half gone, it only seemed like a matter of time before the equaliser and a winner came for Blackburn, but despite creating all the chances there was no reward. As injury time was played out Gabriel Obertan came off the bench to make it 0-2 and rub salt into Rovers wounds. Frustrating probably reviews the match, unlucky for Blackburn - luck fro Newcastle who moved up to 5th place as Blackburn remained 18th. Steve Kean told reporters: "We've had enough chances to win three games. I think if you are trying to take positives out of the defeat then we are certainly making the chances but we just weren't ruthless enough.... Performance wise we have to be happy with the way we played for the first 15 minutes, we controlled the game... it's a tough one to take because we at least deserved a point, in fact I'd probably have been disappointed to have got a point." As a footnote there was no sign of Chris Samba, and neither of the other two new signings were available for the game. On Saturday it's a trip to London to play Arsenal who could only manage a 0-0 draw at Bolton tonight. (1st February 2012)