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No reason why Blackburn can't challenge for fourth place, says David Dunn

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Betfair caught up with Blackburn star David Dunn to talk about Blackburn's targets this season, adding to his solitary England cap and David Bentley

Blackburn will be the latest team to try to end Arsenal's season-long unbeaten record at home on Monday. Betfair talked to former England midfield man David Dunn about their chances

You'll be suspended on Monday. What's that like when the team are playing and you are not involved?

Tough. I think all footballers hate watching. You always want to be playing, especially at places like The Emirates. But I'll be willing the lads on and just hope they can do well there. There's no reason why we can't.

What's the key to getting something from Arsenal?

Basically you've got to concentrate completely. Their movement off the ball is so good that you have to be alive all the time to handle that. We did very well at Villa a couple of weeks ago when the manager set us up to be more difficult to beat and that will give us some confidence. We've also got a very good record away from home this season because we've got players who can turn defence into attack very quickly and break sides down.

Does it help or make it harder to have a Monday game?

It probably helps this week because we've had a lot of people away at internationals and it gives a bit of time to work on things when they get back. Sometimes you can find yourselves just playing without the chance to prepare properly.

Blackburn are actually in a good position to kick on and qualify for Europe again. How far do you think you can go?

We've got a lot of belief in the team. I don't want to put too much pressure on us by talking about fourth place or anything like that, but if we have a good run like we did earlier in the season there's no reason why we can't get up there. We've got creative players and a lot of ability.

Talking of creative players, David Bentley's the one getting all the attention at the moment. How good is he?

Bents has done great. He's obviously still young and he's still learning but he's a great talent and such a confident lad. And in football I think if you're a confident player you've done half of the job. I don't care how good a footballer you are ability-wise, if you've not got the confidence to go out there and play it counts for nothing, and he's certainly got bundles of both.

Should he go on from Wednesday night at Wembley to become an England regular?

I think so. He seems to be in every squad at the moment so good luck to him and hopefully he can go on. He's a pain in the arse. No, he's all right, Bents. He's not the quickest though. I'm only saying that because he said that about me!

What about your own prospects. Do you ever think about adding to your one England cap?

I'd love to but whether it's going to happen is pie in the sky. There are a lot of good English players around at the moment and I just want to get back to my best form at
Blackburn. Sometimes it comes back slowly. I need to get back to being more creative rather than playing too deep. I think once I get into those positions I can create things and hurt defences when I'm running.

So does a week off through suspension mean a lot of hard work on the training ground?

Yes, absolutely. The medical staff at Blackburn have been terrific helping me get back my fitness levels after all the problems I had while I was at Birmingham. It's been good to be able to play so many games this season which was the first target I set for myself. Because of not being in the Cup we've actually got a two-week break before we play again so it's going to be important to keep the levels up so that it doesn't drop away when we start again, especially as that will be a local derby against Bolton.

We've got a free £50 bet to say thanks for doing this interview in aid of your favourite charity. What would you like it to go on?

I said the other week that I sometimes feel I owe Birmingham City a little bit because with all the injuries I had I didn't really play enough games for them, so I'll lay them for relegation at [2.62]. And the winnings can go to the Jason Roberts foundation which is a brilliant project for using football to try to help kids from bad backgrounds to stay out of trouble that my team mate at Ewood started.