Blackburn Rovers Football Club News

• Nickname:Rovers
• Founded:1875
• Manager:Steve Kean

• Ground:Ewood Park
• Capacity:31,367

Savage lambasts Gunners

04 Sep 2007 - 08:01:38

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Blackburn Rovers midfielder Robbie Savage has accused Arsenal of hypocrisy as the bad blood between the two teams continues.

The clubs have been at loggerheads since an ill-tempered FA Cup semi-final in 2005 when the Gunners were unhappy with Rovers' rough tactics.

Last month the animosity heightened when Arsenal manger Arsene Wenger accused Rovers of having "a desire for violence" following the 1-1 draw at Ewood Park.

Robin van Persie then claimed that a Blackburn player had deliberately trodden on the neck of Cesc Fabregas, but Savage insists: "Wenger is a great manager and van Persie is a great player but they give as good as they get.

"Van Persie did a piece in the paper slaughtering us, which is wrong. It's a man's game. It's physical. You're going to get stuck in and make tackles. And they do that, so it's very hypocritical of them.

"It gets on our nerves. We saw van Persie's piece in the paper the other day and we didn't like it. Arsenal give as good as they get.

"Van Persie's tackle on Ryan [Nelsen] when we played them was the worst in the entire game.

"But because they're a London club, people only want to say nice things about them. And because we're little old Blackburn, people like to have a go at us, which isn't fair.

"It's 14 games since we lost to Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final last season. Everybody is on a high and it's about time we got the credit we deserve.

"Everyone has been talking about the likes of Man City, but no-one's been talking about us.

"But this run proves we're up there with the best of them. People like Arsene Wenger should concentrate on his own team, instead of going on about us all the time."