Blackburn boss Steve Kean has admitted that his side struggled as 'Arsenal had more space' following Gael Givet's red card in their 7-1 loss to Arsenal on Saturday afternoon.

Kean also bemoaned the loss of an early goal, with Robin Van Persie opening the scoring after barely two minutes.

"It wasn't a nice afternoon for us. I think the two biggest things that affected the game were the early goal and then, massively, the sending off," Kean told Sky Sports News.

"When you come to play somewhere like this against an Arsenal side that are very good at keeping the ball, it's tough enough 11 against 11.

"When you have to take David Dunn off and put on Grant Hanley, because we lost Gael Givet, then it's really tough.

"Arsenal were finding the spare player, they had more space, and then the service is coming in to Van Persie. That was a massive point in the game."

Blackburn welcome QPR to Ewood Park next weekend.