Irrespective of the result at the Emirates Stadium, Blackburn Rovers approach to their next match will remain the same. It is a similar approach to that which nearby Lancashire neighbours Bolton Wanderers showed during Sam Allardyce’s tenure in the Reebok hotseat. It is an approach that won as many enemies as friends. But is an approach to which Allardyce himself will remain faithful.

“Football would be boring if every team was the same“ reckons Big Sam. The occasionally outspoken former Newcastle boss has clashed with several of his peers, including Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger but his knack of building no-nonsense, professional sides able to produce results against the best and most attractive footballing sides in the land has often made him unpopular with other managers and fans but has won him as many plaudits. Allardyce said “It would be boring if Blackburn Rovers could never beat Arsenal, everyone would stop watching it, stop subscribing and stop going to the games. Everyone has to be able to beat anyone else on any given day.”

Whatever the rights and wrongs of putting result before performance, there have not been too many people in football lining up to volunteer to play on of Allardyce’s teams when they need a result. And that, above everything, is the biggest testament to Big Sam’s ability as a manager.