Arshavin's First Goal for Arsenal

Andrei Arshavin - Arshavin's First Goal - Man of the Match

See the video of Arshavin's first goal for Arsenal below and also the video of Pedersen's outrageous dive - the worst I've seen in over 50 years of watching players trying to con referees - he was lucky he wasn't sent off - and so was el-Hadj Diouf.

Andrei Arshavin, sometimes (but in our opinion incorrectly) spelled Andrey Arshavin , has proved to be a valuable addition to the Arsenal team. Each time we have seen him play he has made an excellent contribution to the match, unfortunately his contributions have not led to as many goals as they should have given the profligacy of some of the Arsenal forwards.

On Saturday however Arshavin was man of the match and scored a brilliant solo goal to show the rest of his team mates how it should be done!

He attributes some of his success on Saturday to the arrival of his wife, saying she gave him "power" !

“It’s not so easy." he said "I was alone, but my wife came two days ago “Maybe she gave me power for this match.”

Arshavin was also instrumental in bringing about Arsenal's first goal, as he slid in to where the boots were flying and bounced the ball of Andre Ooijer’s head for an own goal - a very neat trick !

Finally it was his accurate and powerful shot that Paul Robinson could only palm out. Fortunately it fell to Emmanuel Eboue who proved up to the task of poking it in to the open goal. Lucky it didn't fall to that other fellow. Arshavin said after the match “Of course I enjoyed my performance, but I don’t want to talk too much about myself.”

Arshavin's Real First Goal - Against Blackburn as filmed by a fan - not the BBC pics we have been blocked by Youtube

For his solo goal he managed to wriggle his way along the deadball line despite the admirative presence of Danny Simpson, then, as every one including Paul Robinson in goal, was expecting a cross, he smashed the ball into the roof of the net instead. Why take a chance on an Arsenal forward missing ? “Sometimes I can do things like that. I want to do them more often."

“But it doesn’t matter to me whether I score or set up a goal. It’s all about helping the team."

“Everything is new to me and I’m trying to get to know everyone as quickly as possible."

“I always wanted to join Arsenal. The club has done so much for me already, now I want to repay them.” (He also wanted to join Barcelona, Spurs, Real Madrid and one or two others, but who's counting, and I guess Arsenal will forgive him all that now.)

Arshavin has already made his mark on the team and looks set to be a key player in Arsenal's bid to qualify for the Champions League again.

Arshavin is also eligible to play in Arsenal's quarter final FA Cup match against Hull at home tomorrow night, for the privilege of playing Chelsea in the semi-finals.

Did Blackburn come to the Emirates to get physical ? It certainly seemed like that. A challenge by a Blackburn player on Arshavin meant that Arshavin needed stitches in his foot at half-time and a change of boots.

Almunia was also the victim of a vicious challenge by el Dioufo. Almunia by the way was furious at almost having his ankle broken by El Diouf and Wenger told him to calm down at half-time .

Big Sam admitted El-Hadj Diouf could have got a red card "It was a silly challenge and there was no need to make it.”

“The goalkeeper was just going to kick it out for a throw-in to us, so we took away our own advantage as well by giving away the foul."

“They carried it on as they walked off at half-time but that’s because Almunia nutted him. But you never write about that, do you?”

If El-Hadj Diouf had broken his ankle then he wouldn't have been able to nut him, so there's a moral in that story. Get your retaliation in first !

Talking about Arshavin's injury Wenger said : “The wound was well open, at the top and side of his foot, but there was no question he wouldn’t play in the second half.”

“He’s not a soft boy at all, he’s never in the medical room. He’s tough."

“He works hard. He’s quite surprised how hard he works! I think he’s a man of challenges."

“To leave St Petersburg, where he was the star, and to go to England at 27 years of age and to say: ‘OK, I want to start it all again’, you need to have character and to like challenges and he does that in a very focused way, I must say."

“He’s been a winner before and has experience and we are very, very young."

“We lost Alex Hleb and Tomas Rosicky this season, so we were a bit short of players aged between 27 and 30.” Every team should have at least 6 players between 27 and 30.

So if Almunia's foot had been broken and if Arshavin's injury had been bad enough for him to be substituted, and if Pedersen's abysmal and outrageous dive had got the penalty Pedersen was adamant it merited (10 out of 10 for artistic impression Mr Pedersen - your efforts will live for ever on Youtube I'm sure) then Blackburn might have got the draw they didn't deserve. Football's a funny old game ! They woz robbed !

Pedersen's Outrageous Dive Against Arsenal - note the expression on Pedersen's face when he doesn't get his penalty - he was lucky not to get a red card !

On the other hand if Nicklas Bendtner had put away some of the goals he was handed on a plate then Arsenal could have won 7-0, instead of which they had to make do with 4-0.