Blackburn Rovers heaped more misery on Arsenal when they came from behind to beat Arsene Wenger’s side 4-3 in the Premier League yesterday, with the Gunners conceding two second-half own-goals at Ewood Park in Blackburn, England.
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 goal to give Rovers their first league win of the season.
Arsenal, returning to the northwest for the first time since being beaten 8-2 by Manchester United three weeks ago, took the lead when Gervinho scored his first goal for the club after 10 minutes.
Photo: Reuters
Yakubu equalized 15 minutes later with his first goal for Blackburn before his former Everton teammate Mikel Arteta, who scored for Everton at Ewood Park three weeks ago, 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 equalizer.
Nine minutes later, Yakubu beat the offside trap to score from point-blank range to make it 3-2 and 10 minutes after that a stunning break from Blackburn, which involved Junior Hoilett and substitute Martin Olsson, ended with Olsson’s cutback being turned into his own goal by Koscielny to make it 4-2.
Substitute Marouane Chamakh scored with a superb header to give Arsenal hope with five minutes remaining, but Rovers survived a late onslaught to ease the pressure on manager Steve Kean after 250 fans staged a protest march calling for his sacking before the game.
The defeat leaves Arsenal with four points from five games, just two points above the relegation zone.
SEESAW CONTEST: The Pistons remain top of the Eastern Conference after battling to a win over the Hawks in a game that saw the lead change 27 times The Phoenix Suns on Monday shrugged off an injury to Devin Booker to end the Los Angeles Lakers’ seven-game winning streak with an emphatic 125-108 victory on the road. Booker exited in the first quarter, but the loss of the star point guard did little to halt the flow of Phoenix points over the remainder of the game. Dillon Brooks led the Phoenix scoring with 33 points, while Collin Gillespie added 28 — including eight three-pointers — as the Suns romped to victory. The Lakers were left ruing a colossal 22 turnovers — at a cost of 32 Suns points — on a
New Zealand yesterday reached 231-9 at stumps on a first day of the first Test against the West Indies shortened by rain after Justin Greaves triggered a middle-order collapse with the wicket of Kane Williamson. New Zealand tumbled from 94-1 to 148-6 on a bowler-friendly wicket after Williamson was dismissed for 52, his 38th Test half-century. Michael Bracewell and Nathan Smith arrested the slide with a 52-run stand for the seventh wicket. Smith eventually fell for 23 and Bracewell for 47. After Matt Henry went for 8, Zak Foulkes and Jacob Duffy were both on 4 when bad light stopped play after 70
Kylian Mbappe on Wednesday scored twice and had an assist as Real Madrid beat Athletic Bilbao 3-0 to end a three-match winless streak in La Liga. Eduardo Camavinga also found the net for Madrid as they moved back within one point of Barcelona, who beat Atletico Madrid 3-1 on Tuesday. Both 19th-round matches were moved forward because Real Madrid, Barcelona, Athletic Club and Atletico Madrid are to play in the Supercopa de Espana semi-finals in Saudi Arabia next month. Real Madrid were coming off league draws against Girona, Elche and Rayo Vallecano. It was their second win in their past six matches in
IN-HOUSE BUSINESS: LA Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said that the reason for the team’s poor form was not due to Paul, but the player was not a good fit for them Chris Paul’s return stint with the Los Angeles Clippers has come to an abrupt and stunning end, with the franchise parting ways with one of its greatest players in a late-night meeting on Wednesday that adds another layer of drama to the team’s terrible start this season. The news was delivered in a meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, that ended at about 2am, Clippers basketball operations president Lawrence Frank said. Frank said he made the decision to sever ties with Paul on Sunday then told the franchise’s career assist leader that he needed to see him on Tuesday in Atlanta. Frank did not confirm
RSS