2008-09-15 : Against Blackburn Rovers

Dear Supporter,

We produced an accomplished away performance on Saturday. Blackburn can be dangerous going forward and I feel that, as well as our good offensive performance, we had a good defensive performance too.

On crosses they can be extremely dangerous but we kept Roque Santa Cruz quiet. I am happy we didn't concede and that we always looked fluid going forward.

There was speculation over whether I would play Theo Walcott from the start after his performances for England and, for the balance of the team, I kept him in. I wanted to rest Nicklas Bendtner and I thought having Theo away from home could give us the penetration we needed.

Theo can play on the left or the right flanks and he is happy on the left because he knows he can score with his right foot; he tried a couple of times on Saturday. Theo has been educated that way, where he can play on either side, but he also prefers to play in the middle.

The problem with scoring three times for the national team is that everyone expects you to score again. Football isn't like that. What is most important is that he has a good team attitude, tries to work hard and the rest will come with time. His attitude was excellent on Saturday.

Overall, we try always to play our way and slowly we are getting there. We started our training late because of the number of players away at the European Championships but we are growing now and scored four goals against FC Twente, three against Newcastle and four again at Blackburn, all without conceding.

At Ewood Park we scored our second goal at a perfect time, just before half-time. At that point we looked like we just wanted to keep the ball, and when you are patient and simple the chance comes along. That is what we did and I think it was about 20 passes from right to left, back to front and it gave us the momentum for the dangerous last pass.

Now we look forward to another difficult away game, this time at Dynamo Kyiv. It is important to start the Champions League well, with a win away from home. That will give us confidence.

It will be the same approach on Wednesday. It is our strength and we can be successful by expressing our strength. It is a difficult group because all the teams are used to playing in the Champions League, and are strong at home as well, and that is why we need to find the same kind of performance.

We might be without a few players for the Kyiv match. Samir Nasri is a big doubt and we might lose Emmanuel Eboue and Gael Clichy to injury too. We will assess them but it doesn't look too good.

Thanks for your support.