By Myles Palmer
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Arsenal 3 Real Mallorca 1
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Qualification for Phase Two is worth about 11 million quid.
Wenger’s heroes are now involved, hopefully, until March 20th 2002.
That’s the good news.
The bad news is that Arsenal won’t reach the quarter-finals by playing like this.
Last year they were lucky to reach the last eight. And it would be marvellous to do the same again.
The last eight will only be possible if they improve their defending by 30 %.
But the night had some encouraging features. And the team is improving gradually.
Using one of his favourite phrases, which he hasn’t used lately, Arsene said the team was improving from game to game.
He always looks for that and if he sees it he is fairly happy.Some results are hiccups, wrinkles in the tapestry, but if the team is improving he reckons results will follow. And they usually do.
Sol Campbell is better on the left, as I said a few weeks ago. At least I think I said that. I certainly said it. Whether I wrote it here,I can’t remember.
Sol did well last night, all things considered.
He can become a rock, a towering presence. And playing him with Keown was the right call.
Just as retaining Bergkamp was the right call.
I asked Arsene about that and he said Dennis played very well on Saturday and is back on form.I think we all saw that and we all agree with that, don’t we?
Van Bronckhorst supplied two superb assists – a fabulous cross for Bergkamp to head in from eight yards, and a quick freekick to give Henry the breakway for the third in stoppage time.
I watched the video.
Henry was visibly embarrassed when told that Ron Atkinson had made him man of the match.
He knew he was more like the mug of the match, fiddling and prancing and fannying around all through the game.
But he is a phenomenal athlete with extraordinary skills and the way he arrowed straight at keeper Leo Franco and buried that shot WAS world class.
Poor old Gilles Grimandi. He had a dire game against Blackburn and he was mainly a passenger here.
Van Bronckhorst lacks pace and power, but he is a canny technician and he will score his first goal for Arsenal sometime in November.
The question remains : Should Arsene sign another left back as cover for Ashley Cole? One who would NOT be eligible for the Champions League.
WHY WAS THE FIRST HALF SO BAD?
Because the players felt pressure, tension, anxiety. And the crowd was apprehensive.
If Mallorca had scored first it was going to be a hard day’s night. They didn’t, but it was still a long slog.
The two main factors were tension and the new defence.
In the same game with Seaman, Dixon and Adams playing, Ashley Cole would have been bombing forward, adding width and momentum.
Instead,with the side they had out, Arsenal often had five back marking two.
And Mallorca kept seven players narrow in front of their box, forcing Arsenal to play a short-passing game. That is not Arsenal’s game.
It’s not what they are good at : passing the ball to the feet of marked men around the box.
So the first half was dreary : one fierce shot by Vieira which was well saved (21 minutes). And one good cross by Freddie to the near post,which Henry stabbed a foot wide.
Bergkamp was pushed down on the edge of the box after 40 minutes.
As Arsene said,”We had a man sent off for that in Spain.” TV replays were not conclusive but I thought it WAS a penalty at the time.
Then Bergkamp broke away on the right and beat the keeper with a chip which floated a yard beyond the far post.
Verdict on the first half?
Bad shooting by Arsenal. Atrocious shooting. Why? Tension. It was a big night, a pressure game, and the players tightened up.
If they had played as fast and loose and slick as usual they would have scored two goals by then.
I could not see where a goal was coming from because trying to inter-pass through seven defenders is very difficult, especially when your players are tense.
After half-time Mallorca had a good spell, and the unmarked Campano missed the best chance of the game so far.
Then van Bronckhorst lost the ball on the touchline and Arsenal conceded a corner on that side. By then I was super-apprehensive, about to shrivel into the zone of no-return, the zone of waiting-to-lose.
Then the North Bank woke up and got behind the team and Freddie hit a good early cross from near the touchline which beat Henry’s head, bounced and was knocked in at the far post by Pires.
1-0 to the Arsenal after 61 minutes.
Then van Bronckhorst ran onto a Pires pass down the line. He crossed first time and perfectly in front of the six-yard box.
Bergkamp powered his header straight through the keeper for 2-0 after 63 minutes.
A moment of dopey defending gave Mallorca a goal after 74 minutes.
Novo ran onto a simple pass, behind Vieira and in front of Keown, and took the ball neatly round the advancing Wright.
Maybe keepers should not come to corner of their six-yard boxes so often. Good players can fox them far too easily, put them on the deck, shuffle round them and score easily. That was what Novo did.
The Novo goal happened just after Wenger brought Wiltord on for Bergkamp, who got a standing ovation.
Kanu came on for Ljungberg, and Parlour for Grimandi, but Arsenal were unconvincing at 2-1.
Then van Bronckhurst took a quick free-kick on the edge of his own penalty area, from the wrong position, and with a moving ball – and the rest is history.
Henry flew down the field like a gazelle, backed the over-exposed Leo Franco towards his net, and beat him with a low right-foot shot of immense finesse.
Note for anoraks: the three Arsenal scorers – Pires, Bergkamp and Henry – were the same as those in the Blackburn game, and in the same order. How often has that happened before?
Surprisingly, the game was NOT sold out – 34,000 compared to the previous 35,400 against Schalke and Panathinaikos.
CONCLUSION?
Great to be through on Matchday 5, not sweating on a draw in Germany.
The game was won by width, which is rare. Narrow football failed in the first half, but crosses succeeded in the second.
Can Arsenal improve enough to get to the quarter-final and beat a better side than Mallorca?
I don’t know. Nobody does.
But I would say this : they lost two of their first three games in Group Stage One and still qualified.
They cannot do that in Group Stage Two. It will be harder, so a good start is vital.
However, Sol Campbell might be a massive presence in the defence by then.
Clearly, Sol will never be a tactical leader like Tony Adams. Nobody will. Those players come along every 25 years, if you are lucky.
Finding a centreback who can defend like that is like finding somebody who can score goals like Jimmy Greaves or Robbie Fowler.
Most defenders can only worry about the ball and their man.They are fully occupied by those two dangers.
Tony Adams has a very unusual gift. He is aware of his fellow defenders, and the ball, and all his opponents.
To see the action in 3D, to read the play, to see what is going wrong, to dictate what part of the field you want the game to be played in – that was what Tony Adams could do. Bryan Robson could do that, Franco Baresi,and very few others.
Sol can never do that. But what he can do is use his left foot better than Adams, block shots as bravely as Adams, score at set-pieces like Adams.
He is still slow, still rusty, still unfamiliar with his colleagues, stillfinding his feet in a new team, still a bit wary about a Champions League which is more testing than any club competition that Spurs ever played in.
Sol needs time to settle in,more games under his belt, more wins,more confidence.
And surely in Phase Two the team will not be so uptight when shooting.
16 shots wide! Incredible! 16 shots wide in a game like this!
And a lot of those were very wide. I don’t think it was lack of technique.
I don’t think it was stupidity in shooting from silly positions, apart from Wiltord’s half volley into Row Z of the North Bank.
More likely, it was tension.
I shall remember Mallorca as the night when Arsenal were too uptight to shoot straight.
But they eventually scored three goals in 61, 63 and 93 minutes.
There is plenty of room for improvement. Like Arsene, I don’t like to look too far ahead, I just hope to see an improvement from game to game.
Can Arsenal score three goals at Sunderland?
I wouldn’t think so. But I wouldn’t rule it out.
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ARSENAL(4-4-2): Wright; Lauren, Campbell, Keown, Van Bronckhorst; Ljungberg, Grimandi (Parlour, 64min), Vieira, Pires; Bergkamp (Wiltord, 72), Henry.
REAL MALLORCA(4-5-1): Leo Franco; Fatih (Biagini, 65), Olaizola, Nadal, Miquel Soler; Campano, Novo, Marcos, Paunovic, Cristian Dias; Luque.
Referee: Dick Jol (Netherlands).
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26th October 2001.