THE word 'great' has virtually lost all meaning in football terms because it often gets applied to individuals and events which quite frankly don't warrant it.

But in the plush surroundings of Highbury, against one of the most talented sides English football has ever seen, the 2,000 or so visiting supporters who were crammed into a corner of the famous old Clock End bore witness to one of THE great performances by a Blackburn player in the club's 127-year history.

Just like the day man first walked on the moon or the moment when John Lennon was shot, those Rovers fans who were privileged enough to be there will remember exactly what they were doing on the afternoon when Brad Friedel kept the defending champions of England at bay almost single-handedly.

In all my time as a football follower, I can't recall a finer display of goalkeeping than I witnessed here.

And what made the feat even more incredible was the realisation that Friedel actually got through the game with an injury which would have prevented lesser men from even taking to the field.

It was only when Graeme Souness paid a glowing tribute to his United States number one in the post-match Press conference that the full extent of Friedel's injury problems finally surfaced, otherwise 38,064 people would have been none the wiser.

For such was the level of his performance when faced by the most lethal attack in the Premiership that it was virtually impossible to detect he was hampered by a knee injury which is in desperate need of corrective surgery.

Nine days ago, they had talked so confidently of doing the treble at Highbury but no-one in their wildest dreams had considered that to mean three defeats in the space of a week.

Everton became the first team to burst their bubble when Wayne Rooney belted a last-minute winner past David Seaman from distance and Auxerre then piled on further misery with a 2-1 win in the Champions League last Tuesday.

So when Rovers rolled up even the most pessimistic Gunners fan expected Arsene Wenger's foreign legion to get back to winning ways because it was, after all, nine months since anyone had last won a Premiership game at 'The Library'.

But what Wenger and those home supporters hadn't accounted for was a truly inspired performance by a goalkeeper at the very top of his game.

There were those who questioned Graeme Souness's wisdom when he pulled out all the stops to bring Friedel to Ewood two years ago.

At the time, Rovers already had two international goalkeepers and he was attempting to replace them with a guy who couldn't seem to buy a game at Liverpool where he had been left to rot in the reserves.

However, Souness had worked with the big American once before at Galatasaray where he found out first hand exactly what he was capable of and his faith has since been rewarded with a succession of top performances.

Such was the quality of his display in last season's Worthington Cup Final, for instance, that Mark Hughes felt compelled to place him above Peter Schmeichel and Neville Southall as the greatest goalkeeper he had ever played with.

But his performance here was arguably even better than that against an Arsenal side with all guns blazing.

I counted at least nine top saves - three of which were world class - as Thierry Henry and Co peppered Rovers' goal with a total of 27 shots during the course of the 90 minutes.

In the end, it took a wicked free-kick from Edu to finally beat him.

"I think I've got the best goalkeeper in the country," claimed Souness afterwards with justifiable cause. "He currently has a cartilage problem and in the warm-up before the game it actually popped out.

"So maybe our game-plan from now on should be to make sure he jars his knee before every game he plays.

"Eventually, he'll have to have an operation when he feels it's giving him too many problems, but hopefully he can get through to a time when there's a break in fixtures and we can get it treated."

As Friedel was quick to stress himself afterwards, however, one man can't win a football match on his own.

During the first two months of the season, Rovers' jittery back four has come in for criticism but they were magnificent to a man, defending as if their lives depended on it.

On two occasions when Friedel was beaten, Henning Berg and Martin Taylor got back to make heroic goal-line clearances and that never-say-die attitude coursed through the veins of the whole side.

No-one epitomised that more than Egil Ostenstad and Dwight Yorke who did an excellent job of closing down the Arsenal defence.

Ostenstad looked a man re-born and I can't recall him having a finer game in a Blackburn shirt, as underlined by his role in the winning goal.

The only disappointing aspect of the day was the late dismissal of Garry Flitcroft for a second bookable offence.

Neither of his challenges warranted a yellow card so, hopefully, common sense will prevail and referee Graham Barber will have a change of heart once he consults video evidence.

The game could hardly have started better from a Rovers perspective as David Seaman was again left looking embarrassed by a lob from a Brazilian.

Yorke wriggled to the bye-line in the sixth minute but his subsequent cross appeared to be harmless until Edu intervened and his attempted clearance sailed straight over the England goalkeeper into the net.

That stung Arsenal into life and Friedel came into his own.

Sylvain Wiltord was denied twice, then he somehow got a hand to Henry's point-blank volley, before a goal-bound effort from Ashley Cole struck Berg on the line and was smuggled to safety.

Something eventually had to give, however, and it did in the 45th minute when Edu made amends for his earlier error with a rasping free kick from the right which flew in via the far post.

The home fans anticipated a second half onslaught but they were stunned into silence once again in the 51st minute.

Ostenstad did brilliantly to shield the ball from two defenders and then raced on to Tugay's defence-splitting pass before squaring it for Yorke to dink the coolest of finishes over the out-rushing Seaman.

From then on, it was all hands to the pump.

Friedel denied Sol Campbell and Dennis Bergkamp with two blinding stops but saved his best until last, somehow getting a hand to a Wiltord shot before Taylor deflected the follow-up onto a post.

Flitcroft then saw red for a challenge on Freddie Ljungberg but Rovers survived a frantic finale to grab what must go down as their best result under Graeme Souness.

ARSENAL 1

Edu 45

ROVERS 2

Edu 6 (og), Yorke 51

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