Arsenal Blackburn: Arsene Wenger has last warning

ARSENAL 0 -- BLACKBURN 0

Arsene Wenger laid the blame of the draw on his players Arsene Wenger laid the blame of the draw on his players

ARSENAL’S flattened players not only have eight matches to rescue their  faltering title bid; some of them only have that time to save their futures.

Manager Arsene Wenger is far too canny to be drawn into which players might pay the price if they finish the season trophy-less again, even after a third straight draw put the title very much into Manchester United’s hands.

But he left questioners in little doubt that time is running out for some of his squad members, whom he has been quick to put a protective arm around when things have gone wrong in the past.

This time Arsenal’s failure to win had nothing to do with the pitch, the referee or bad tackling. Wenger laid the blame on his players, plain and simple. He flirted with questioning the scheduling of games that sees his side play after rivals United three times over the closing weeks of the season, but eventually he conceded that was no excuse.

We are still really good footballers

Robin van Persie

Injuries have forced Wenger to put his faith in Manuel Almunia, Sebastien Squillaci, Abou Diaby, Denilson, Nicklas Bendtner and Tomas Rosicky over the past five weeks and they have all let him down.

More established starters such as Gael Clichy, who only has a year left on his contract, and Andrey Arshavin, who was one of the better performers here, have also attracted criticism.

Wenger may have already made his mind up about certain players, but there are others who need to prove their worth very quickly indeed.

Asked whether this set of players have now gone as far as they can together, Wenger said: “I don’t know. I want to finish the season and then we’ll see. At the moment, we are more concerned by the short term.

“I don’t think it’s time to talk about the decisions I will have to make about players. It’s not the moment. It’s difficult to explain this. The players did want it, but we were one-paced and that is not our game. Our performance was not good enough to win.

“We were flat. That’s the main information of the day and we have to look to be better in the next game. We have known for a long time that these games were coming and that we had to win them. Unfortunately, the title is not in our hands now.” Asked about scheduling, Wenger added: “I don’t decide the schedule. You should ask people who make the schedule.

“If you look, when do we play? We play every match at the weekend from now until the end of the season on a Sunday. But I don’t want to speak about anything else that makes it look like we are looking for an excuse for our performance.”

Jack Wilshere and Laurent Koscielny missed good chances to make the vital breakthrough before the visitors were reduced to 10 men with 14 minutes left, when Steven N’Zonzi was shown a straight red for a late challenge on Koscielny.

But even with an extra man, Arsenal went close only twice, when substitute Marouane Chamakh had a shot blocked and then saw a header saved.

“We created the chances, but didn’t take them,” said Robin van Persie. “We still believe. We are still really good footballers. We have eight games to play and next week is Blackpool away. That is a massive chance to get three points. We cannot give up. It wasn’t nice for us to see Manchester United coming back to win before we played. I would rather see them losing. We still play them in a couple of weeks and we have a chance to get three points there. We have to win but for now we are not doing that.”

The draw means Blackburn are two points clear of the relegation zone, with Michel Salgado saying this will boost belief. “It restores confidence,” he said.

“Two months ago we were in seventh place and talking about Europe. So it’s all about being humble.”

ARSENAL (4-2-3-1): Almunia 5; Sagna 5, Squillaci 5, Koscielny 6, Clichy 5; Song 6, Wilshere 6; Walcott 7 (Chamakh 73, 6), Nasri 6 (Bendtner 78, 5), Arshavin 7 (Fabregas 59, 6); Van Persie 5. Booked: Song.

BLACKBURN (4-1-4-1): Robinson 6; Salgado 6, Samba 7, Nelsen 67, Olsson 8; Jones 7; Emerton 6, N’Zonzi 6, Jones 6 (Dunn 90), Hoilett 7; Santa Cruz 6 (Roberts 62). Booked: Hoilett, Salgado. Sent off: N’Zonzi 76.

Referee: P Dowd (Staffordshire).

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