By Myles Palmer
It has to be said that Arsenal have handled the Vieira Wants To Go saga rather well.
Yes, Wenger was very, very depressed about it. But Dein stuck to his immediate statement that PV was not for sale at any price.
And Wenger said : Watch what he does on the pitch.That will show you whether Patrick is committed to Arsenal or not.
Adams and Dixon did not play last night. Keown did, but Vieira was captain.
A Pires-Vieira move set up Wiltord for the first goal(6),Russell equalised with a header off the underside(38), Wiltord made it 2-1 after a pass by Pires(58), Vieira headed in a Pires corner(61), and sub Kanu set up sub Jeffers to make it 4-1 (71).
Norwich’s second goal was scored by Paul Hayes, brother of Martin, who did so well for Arsenal in 1986-87, scoring 24 goals.
Wenger’s starting line-up was a strong one with Sol Campbell and Richard Wright both playing the full 90.
This was always going to be the most illuminating friendly for fans trying to guess what side Wenger will use at Middlesbrough.
The manager would not, at this late stage, be making any fanciful changes, so what he did last night was always going to be a good guide to his current views on the pecking order.
Team : Wright; Luzhny, Keown, Campbell, Cole; Parlour,Vieira, van Bronckhorst, Pires; Wiltord, Henry.
After 62 minutes, when Arsenal were winning 3-1, Wenger made three changes. He put on Bergkamp for Pires, Jeffers for Wiltord,and Kanu for Henry.
After 64 minutes he made two further changes : Grimandi for Cole, Ljungberg for Parlour.
I doubt if he will play Sol Campbell against Barnet on Saturday.
Sol will be glad to have played the whole game last night, will be sharpened up by a further week’s training, and ready to face Middlesbrough ace Alen Boksic, a very fast, tricky, experienced centre forward.
Overall, a promising night for Gooners, even though Norwich are nowhere near as good as Middlesbrough.
Jeffers nicked a goal after coming on, which is what he is there for.
Vieira scored with a header. He should do that more often. He misses too many headers. Yesterday’s Standard stats revealed that the team only scored six headers in the Premiership all season – and no free kicks.
I firmly believe Arsenal should score at least one header per calendar month – and at least three direct free kicks every season. If they can’t do that it is because they do not practice them enough.
Van Bronckhorst, I think, has quite small feet, so he should be far better at getting the ball over a wall and down than Bergkamp and Henry, whose boots are like barges.
I shall be watching closely for improvements in those two areas!
8th August 2001.