BLACKBURN boss Graeme Souness saluted his Ewood heroes after Rovers blew the title race wide open at the weekend.

Rovers became only the second team in Premiership history to do the "double" twice over Arsenal following their 2-0 victory.

But although there might have been an element of good fortune about their victory at Highbury earlier in the season, Souness insisted Rovers were full value for their latest win over the defending champions on Saturday as they handed Manchester United a title lifeline in the process.

"That was a really solid performance by us," said Souness today.

"There is no getting away from the fact that we were lucky at Highbury but this time our victory was fully deserved.

"We had so many good performances all over the park that I couldn't fault anyone on the day.

"You don't beat a team like Arsenal with just two or three players playing well, you need everyone to be on top of their games.

"Hakan Sukur, Garry Flitcroft and Tugay all deserve a special mention because I thought we were excellent in the centre of midfield.

"And I thought Martin Taylor did brilliantly, too, because Thierry Henry likes to drift out to the left and I was a bit worried about the fact that Lucas Neill was missing.

"But we defended like a proper team and I don't think anyone can deny we deserved our victory."

Arsenal have only suffered 15 double defeats since the launch of the Premiership, with 11 different teams achieving the feat.

And their dominant form in recent seasons is reflected by the fact that they have lost twice to the same team in a season on just six occasions in the last eight campaigns, with only three of those coming since the end of 1996-97 season.

But despite Rovers' fantastic achievement, Souness is still refusing to talk of a push for Europe during the final two months of the season, even though his team are now just five points off a Champions League place.

"I am not concentrating on that, I just want to us to get as many points as we can between now and the end of the season," said the Rovers' boss.

"We've got five away games and three at home so it's going to be hard but the three home games are all winnable and nine more points would give us a nice total.

"It would be nice to get into Europe for the fans but as I have said before there is also a down side to that.

"It's no coincidence that we looked tired at one point earlier in the season and competing in Europe can cause problems for a squad of our size.

"You only have to look at a club like Fulham to see that."