Arsenal’s season of horror continues

Wenger’s team concede two own goals to lose at Blackburn.

BLACKBURN:

Blackburn Rovers heaped more misery on Arsenal when they came from behind to beat Arsene Wenger’s side 4-3 in the Premier League with the Gunners conceding two second-half own goals.

Rovers climbed off the bottom of the table and up to 11th place after Aiyegbeni Yakubu scored two goals on his debut and Alex Song and Laurent Koscielny put through their own goals.

Wenger, whose last trophy was the 2005 FA Cup, came under pressure from fans for the first time last season, and that will intensify after they lost for the third time in five league matches.

“We had so many chances in the game and on top of that we scored two own goals so it’s unbelievable to understand, but we have to take it on the chin,” he said.

“At the moment, defensively we are fragile because our confidence is gone due what happened at Old Trafford.”

Arsenal took the lead when Gervinho scored his first goal for the club after 10 minutes. Yakubu equalised 15 minutes later before Mikel Arteta put Arsenal back in front after 34 minutes with a rising shot from the edge of the box.

Blackburn were level again after 50 minutes when Arsenal failed to clear a free-kick and the ball bounced off Song’s thigh and past goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny for the equaliser.

Nine minutes later Yakubu scored from point-blank range to make it 3-2 and 10 minutes later Koscielny scored another own goal to make it 4-2.

Elsewhere, Swansea City beat West Bromwich Albion 3-0 and QPR won 3-0 at Wolverhampton Wanderers with new captain Joey Barton scoring the opener.

Norwich City won their first game of the season 2-1 at 10-man Bolton, even though Norwich conceded a penalty for the fifth successive league match.

Everton came from behind to beat  Wigan Athletic 3-1 while Aston Villa drew 1-1 with Newcastle United at Villa Park.



Published in The Express Tribune, September 18^th, 2011.