Arsenal star tries to explain shock Blackburn defeat

Arsenal's Jack Wilshere and Sunderland's Titus Bramble (right) battle for the ball during the Barclays Premier League match at the Stadium of Light. Photo: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire

By Nick Wright
Monday, February 18, 2013
8:20 AM

Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere put his side’s 1-0 FA Cup defeat to Blackburn down to bad luck but admitted it was a crushing blow to exit the competition.

The Gunners had the majority of possession at the Emirates but failed to convert the chances that came their way in a lethargic performance against Championship opposition.

Colin Kazim-Richards struck the winning goal after 72 minutes, sending Arsenal out of the FA Cup at the hands of a lower league club for the first time in Arsene Wenger’s reign.

The Champions League now represents Arsenal’s only hope of ending their eight-year trophy drought this season but they face the daunting task of getting past Bayern Munich in the last 16.

“It’s obviously disappointing to go out of the FA Cup,” said Wilshere.

“We know what this trophy means in England and we wanted to go all the way.

“We created a lot of chances we’re just disappointed we couldn’t put it in the net. “They probably created one chance and they got a lucky goal but that’s the FA Cup.

“Giantkillings going on all the time in this cup and it happened today.”

Last February Arsenal thumped Blackburn 7-1 in the Premier League, but although they came up badly short this time around, Wilshere insisted they had the chances to rack up a similar scoreline.

“With the chances we had it could have been seven or even more. It’s one of those days, we hit the bar they blocked one on the line.

“You have to give them some credit they defended well and they hit us on the counter and it killed us that goal.

“We had a few chances after that but after we were 1-0 down they sat in there and made it difficult for us.”