Arsenal has kicked off the 2011 year a bit disappointing, sitting in the middle of the table just under a month into the season. Meanwhile, the Blackburn Rovers are occupying the very bottom of the table at the 20 spot, trying to mount some sort of momentous charge to earn respect.<\/p>\n
Now the two will square off for the first time this season on Saturday at Ewood Park, with Blackburn still chasing their first win of the season while the Gunners aim to build on their first success of the campaign.<\/p>\n
Arsenal vs. Blackburn Blackburn has lost three of their first four games of the 2011 Premier League season, including a 3-1 loss to Aston Villa and 2-1 heart wrenching loss to the Wolverhampton Wanderers.<\/p>\n The Rovers defense has been pedestrian through the first four games, and their goal keeper Paul Robinson has conceded seven goals.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Arsenal\u2019s defense looked like the escort service in their Aug. 28 matchup against Manchester United, conceding eight goals to the Premier League favorite. However, other than that game, they have only allowed two goals. That match against Manchester United killed the team\u2019s momentum, and the 2-0 loss to Liverpool only added to their frustration.<\/p>\n Goal keeper Wojciech Szczesny, who Arsenal has put all their trust in for the past three years, has shown yet again why people laugh at the fact that the is still a starting between the sticks in the highest level of British football.<\/p>\n If Arsenal is ever to get over the hump, they still need to find an adequate replacement for Szczesny. The Rovers have been beat up by Arsenal since making it into the Premier League, having lost nine times at home to the Gunners, the most times they\u2019ve lost on their own ground than any other Premier League club.<\/p>\n Both side are kicking off their season at the lowest point in their Premier League history, and now will get a chance to redeem themselves against the other. Both also desperately need this win, as they have some tough matches down the road, and this would be a perfect stepping point for either team to get a push in the right direction.<\/p>\n Matt’s Prediction: Arsenal 1, Rovers 0 \u2013 <\/strong>History doesn\u2019t lie, well, most of the time, and the Rovers have been on the bad side of it against Arsenal, especially in their home stadium. I don\u2019t expect this to change as the Rovers have looked like the are destined for the cut since the season kicked off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Arsenal has kicked off the 2011 year a bit disappointing, sitting in the middle of the table just under a month into the season. Meanwhile, the Blackburn Rovers are occupying the very bottom of the table at the 20 spot, trying to mount some sort of momentous charge to earn respect. Now the two will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":24999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43440"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43466,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43440\/revisions\/43466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nVenue\/Stadium: Ewood Park in England
\nTime\/Date: 7:45, Saturday, September 17, 2011
\nOdds From: 5 Dimes
\nMoneyline: Arsenal -108, Blackburn +361, Draw +254
\nSpread (ATS): Arsenal -1\/2, -111<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nIn the meantime, midfielder David Dunn has been a fierce and intimidating presence for Blackburn, but has failed to score a goal all year. He is exactly what the team needs if they are going to avoid the drop come year\u2019s end, but he has to play up to his potential, and he hasn\u2019t done that so far.<\/p>\n