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September 18, 2011

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Kean relief as Rovers top Arsenal

BLACKBURN Rovers heaped more misery on Arsenal when they came from behind to beat Arsene Wenger's side 4-3 in the English Premier League's early game yesterday with the Gunners conceding two second-half own goals at Ewood Park.

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 2-8 by Manchester United three weeks ago, took the lead when Gervinho scored his first goal for the club after 10 minutes.

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 was 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.

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 cool header to give Arsenal hope with five minutes left 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.

Five games were being played later in the day.

In Germany, Austria international Martin Harnik scored once in each half to give VfB Stuttgart a 2-1 win at SC Freiburg and lift it to third spot in the Bundesliga on Friday.

The win lifted Stuttgart to 10 points from six games.

Second-placed Werder Bremen, on 12 points, can go top with a win over Nuremberg yesterday with leader Bayern Munich, also on 12, travelling to Schalke 04 today.



 

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