After the match, a dead silence settled over the away dressing room at Ewood Park Stadium.
The damp post-rain air brought in from the pitch mingled with the stench of the players' sweat, mud, and grass clippings, forming an indescribable odor. As everyone entered the dressing room, it was as if they were glued to their seats by their own sweat. Aside from the occasional rustle or the soft crack of a water bottle or energy drink being opened, a heavy, suffocating silence pressed down on everyone's chests.
They had won!
5-4!
But this was destined to be a scoreline devoid of pride. After all, they had just faced the league's bottom dwellers. It was an absurd victory! Arsenal, one of the Premier League's Big Four, had actually been battered so miserably by the bottom-of-the-table Blackburn. If word of this got out, everyone present would die of shame! It wasn't that top clubs couldn't accept defeat, but they absolutely couldn't afford to lose face like this!
