Blackburn boss Mark Hughes was left reeling as his side lost 6-2 to Arsenal.
Blackburn manager Mark Hughes was left to rues the final five minutes against Arsenal as his side suffered 6-2 defeat at The Emirates Stadium.
Having led 1-0 after three minutes through Shabani Nonda's penalty, Rovers allowed Arsenal to take control of the match through goals by Gilberto Silva, Alexander Hleb and Emmanuel Adebayor.
However Nonda's second of the match gave Blackburn renewed hope at 3-2, but as they pushed forward for an equaliser, Arsenal exploited the space to seal the win with late strikes from Robin van Persie (2) and Mathieu Flamini.
And Hughes feels the scoreline did not do his side justice. He told Sky Sports News: "I think it gives a false impression of the game. Certainly we were very much in it until five minutes before the end.
"At 3-2, we were pushing for an equaliser. Unfortunately they went down the other end, got the fourth goal and then two more in quick succession.
"Obviously the scoreline hurts us but we had a real go and caused them problems. As it was we just didn't have enough in the end."
Despite eventually going down to the trio of late strikes, Hughes was pleased with the fight shown by his players.
He said: "It would have been very easy at 3-1 down to have just accepted our fate and just try to limit the damage.
"But we didn't do that, we had a go at getting back on level terms which we very nearly did."
