Steve Kean endured a tough afternoon at Emirates Stadium on Saturday, with Blackburn finding themselves on the wrong end of a 7-1 scoreline.
Rovers boss reflects on a forgettable afternoon at the Emirates
Steve Kean endured a tough afternoon at Emirates Stadium on Saturday, with Blackburn finding themselves on the wrong end of a 7-1 scoreline.
Rovers fell behind inside two minutes, with that early opener setting the tone for what was to follow.
Morten Gamst Pedersen briefly levelled matters with a fine free-kick, but Arsenal surged clear late in the first half.
A forgettable opening 45 minutes for the visitors was compounded shortly before the interval when Gael Givet was shown a straight red card for a lunging challenge on Robin van Persie.
Kean admits a slow start and an untimely dismissal cost his side dear, with it virtually impossible for 10 men to contain Arsenal when they are on top of their game.
He told
Sky Sports: "It wasn't a nice afternoon for us. I think the two biggest things that affected the game were the early goal and then, massively, the sending off.
"When you come to play somewhere like this against an Arsenal side that are very good at keeping the ball, it's tough enough 11 against 11. When we have to take David Dunn off and put on Grant (Hanley), because we lost Gael Givet, then it's really tough.
"Arsenal were finding the spare player, they had more space, and then the service is coming in to Van Persie. That was a massive point in the game."
Mistimed
Asked if he had any complaints about the sending off, Kean said: "No. I have seen it again. I think the pass that Gael received was over hit, so then he is a very committed player. He's not malicious, the other French lads in the Arsenal side will know that in his career he's very committed but there isn't a nasty bone in his body.
"I think it was more mistimed, but in the rules of the game and in the letter of the law, when your two feet are off the ground, you are going to go and we have no complaints about that."
Blackburn had arrived in North London buoyed by their recent showings on the road and Kean admits they had been hoping for more of the same at the Emirates.
"We still felt that if we could be narrow in midfield and keep a goal threat with Anthony (Modeste) up the pitch, we felt we could get back in the game," he said.
"It wasn't to be today and that's the first time this season that we've been really turned over. It's a tough place to come.
"We felt over the last three away games, at Goodison, at Old Trafford and at Anfield, we were in the game and our possession was good. To keep possession and get anything into your frontmen is difficult when you have 10 men."
