By Myles Palmer
Next week’s game in Greece could be a turning point for this Arsenal team.
They should look at Wednesday night as an opportunity.
If they produce their best performance of the season and beat Panathinaikos, or even if they just win the game, they might give themselves the confidence to go all the way to the final in Hampden next May.
OK, they did NOT play well as a team when they beat Schalke 3-2 on Tuesday night.They were lucky.
Schalke could have scored four goals before Ljungberg’s deflected shot wrong-footed keeper Reck.
And Asamoah hit the bar when it was 3-2. If that shot had gone in the Gunners would be in a dire position now in Group C.
The defensive positional play of Lauren and van Bronckhorst was imbecilic and frightening.
If George Graham saw it, which I’m sure he did, he would have been appalled.He regards that kind of ball-watching as criminal.
In football a defender has to learn the alphabet.
A professional defender, who has agreed in writing to accept 25,000 quid a week, should know that balls do NOT score goals.Unmarked men score goals.
I thought of a line in Dave Seaman’s book : we don’t do defensive drills any more.
Seaman said,”We don’t do any specialist training as a defence. Sometimes we might play four-against-four games,but that benefits the attackers far more than the defenders.
Arsene’s style is to put a lot more resposnsibility on individual players to make the systems work but it is hard to form a good defensive unit when it is made up of all different nationalities.”
It’s lovely that Arsene Wenger is an attacking coach who sticks to his principles. Because Arsenal need to attack at speed in home games and score first, or the whole evening can get bogged down in anxiety and neurosis.
But I can’t remember Arsenal winning a Champions League game 3-2 before. And I don’t expect them to win games 3-2 later in this campaign.They must keep it tighter – a lot tighter.
Arsenal gave Schalke eight chances to score and still won the game.
That will not happen again. It only happened this time because, as I predicted, Mpenza and Agali, are bang average strikers.
Having said that, Schalke are better than most of us thought they would be.They played coherently, methodically, intelligently and forcefully, using some accurate long balls. Centrebacks Hajto and Waldoch were excellent.
Their technical limitations were shown up by some wild shooting and overhitting of crosses, but they are not out of the group yet, even after losing their first two games.
The tiny French ref Mr Claude Colombo, who was even smaller than Ljungberg, changed his shirt from black to yellow at half-time.
Refs should never dress like the teams – it is ridiculous. I complained about that here last week, I think.
Arsene was in a good mood after the game, saying,”I concede that sometimes we were too open.”
He had taken Pires off and brought on Inamoto after 75 minutes.
He said,”I could see that Pires was tired.”
That comment makes me wonder about tomorrow’s team selection for Bolton.
He does not want Pires to be tired on Wednesday night. And he does not want Pires to be injured tomorrow.
Because Pires is going to be very, very, very important in Athens.
That game is MASSIVE – arithmetically, psychologically, and financially.
Panathinaikos are a good side.
How do I know that? Because they won their first two games 2-0. Teams that do not concede goals will usually do well in the Champions League.
Clean sheeets are what most coaches dream about.They are the basis of stability, the basis of success.
If Panathinaikos were not a good team before winning 2-0 away to Schalke, and before beating Real Mallorca 2-0 in Athens, then they are a good team now.
The game of football, as Ossie Ardiles once said, is all about confidence.
The Greeks might have feared Arsenal when Groups C came out of those little balls in Switzerland. But they will not fear them now because they have six points in the bag already and they have not conceded a goal yet.
Recent history suggests that Arsenal will NOT win in Athens.
In the Champions League Arsenal’s last three away games were 1-0 defeats : Bayern, Valencia and Mallorca.
So it will be interesting.
As I say, I think Athens gives this Arsenal team a huge and exciting opportunity.If they can beat Panathinaikos they might find a whole new level in the near future.
With Ashley Cole back, and Tony Adams adding leadership, Arsene will be looking for a game which is lot LESS OPEN than Tuesday night’s end-to-end contest.
The manager thinks that Thierry can score against anybody. And one goal might be enough.
Before that,league leaders Bolton at Highbury tomorrow.
Would he rest Thierry? Any chance he might start Jeffers with Bergkamp?
21st September 2001.