Kean defiant as Van der Vaart double adds to Blackburn woes

Blackburn manager Steve Kean feels his team were unlucky to come away empty-handed from yesterday’s clash with Tottenham and insists he is not paying attention to the growing numbers of Rovers supporters calling for him to be sacked.

Kean’s struggling side were beaten 2-1 by Spurs at Ewood Park and are bottom of the Barclays Premier League with just five points from nine fixtures.

For the third successive home game, Blackburn supporters staged a protest against the manager, making their unhappiness known both prior to kick-off and after the final whistle, with a group in the Ronnie Clayton End remaining in their seats, unfurling ‘Kean Out’ banners and chanting for the Scot to be dismissed by owners Venky’s.

The pressure is mounting on Kean, but the 44-year-old remains bullish, insisting he is only concerned with the efforts of his players, which he could not fault. “I don’t know if it is a large section of the crowd, and to be fair, I’m not really paying any attention to anybody who is staying behind,” Kean said. “I’m interested in my players and what they give me, and they give me everything.”

Blackburn were undone by two goals from Rafael van der Vaart, who opened the scoring in the 15th minute, slotting the ball past Paul Robinson after Kyle Walker had outpaced Gael Givet to lay on the assist. Rovers levelled through Mauro Formica’s fierce strike just before the half-hour mark, but Van der Vaart produced a brilliant curling effort from outside the box to restore Spurs’ lead eight minutes into the second half, the Dutchman making the most when Benoit Assou-Ekotto’s attempted pass ricocheted off Simon Vukcevic towards him.

Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp, whose side – now unbeaten in their last six league games – are up to fifth in the table, branded the protests “unfair”.

“The [Blackburn] players couldn’t have given more than they did for the manager today,” Redknapp said.

Robin van Persie climbed off the bench to rescue Arsenal with two goals to sink Stoke 3-1 at the Emirates Stadium.

Arsene Wenger’s decision to start his captain on the bench almost backfired as they only had Gervinho’s strike to show for their dominance in the first half.

To add to their problems, former Tottenham striker Peter Crouch marked his return to north London with an equaliser ten minutes before the interval. With the Gunners labouring against their battle-hardened visitors, Van Persie was let loose with 25 minutes remaining. And within a quarter of an hour he had scored twice to bail out his shot-shy team-mates and take his goal tally to a remarkable 29 in his last 34 appearances for the club.

Striker Louis Saha returned to haunt his former club with a late goal which inspired Everton to a dramatic victory over Fulham at Craven Cottage.

The 33-year-old netted from an acute angle before Jack Rodwell scored in stoppage time to ensure David Moyes’ side ended their three-match losing steak.

Saha’s strike came seconds after Bobby Zamora somehow managed to hit the bar despite rounding Tim Howard.

Everton took a third-minute lead after Royston Drenthe hit an audacious shot from long distance that snuck in the far corner. It looked liked Fulham had earned a share of the spoils, though, thanks to sub Bryan Ruiz’s exquisite chip three minutes after coming on.