By Myles Palmer
Sol Campbell played very well in front of the hate mob. As I knew he would.
And Arsenal’s 1-1 draw at White Hart Lane is a point gained rather than two lost.
Because Liverpool only drew at Blackburn and Leeds, without Viduka and Kewell, lost 2-0 at Sunderland.
But Arsenal allowed Gus Poyet four chances and he scored from the fourth.
Richard Wright fumbled Poyet’s shot over the line in stoppage time.
Why? Because he had made some good saves and the ball was at a catchable height and he didn’t have to dive full length to reach it. So he decided to catch it. But he dropped the ball.
That mistake will haunt Wright, even if he saves a penalty in Spain.
I have said for decades that there are two types of goalkeeping mistakes.
Errors or technique and errors of judgement, and the two are easily confused.
The Poyet boob was an error of technique.Richard Wright was right to try to catch that shot, in my view. It was not an error of judgement, not a bad decision.
It’s too easy to say : Safety first! 1-0 up at White Hart Lane, injury time, knock it round the post for a corner. Even though a more experienced keeper like Lukic would have done exactly that.
Still, a 1- 1 draw at Tottenham is an OK result. This game is always intense and the ugly atmosphere made it hard for everybody, not just Sol.
Would Thierry Henry have turned it on in that atmosphere, had he been fit? We shall never know.But he is on Tuesday’s plane.
Sir Alex Ferguson will be watching the Deportivo-Arsenal game with special interest. United twice lost to Deportivo and they visit Highbury on Sunday.
The good news is that Sol Campbell is now lean and fit. He should improve with every game.
When Sol came on as a sub at Chelsea he looked fat. When he played against Schalke he looked fat and a bit ponderous.
But on Saturday at Spurs he looked slim.
Arsene says he is only a kilo above his optimum weight. The manager is very, very strict on weight and speed.
Because only super-fit and super-sharp athletes can
play his kind of football.Fast, intense, explosive football.
The other good news?
Kanu is coming back into form. He was using his body as well as his skills on Saturday. He is motivated by the Champions League, which he has already won with Ajax. He would love to win it again with Arsenal.
The Nigerian sorcerer had his finest game in a 1-1 draw in the Nou Camp, when he outshone Rivaldo.
Yes, Kanu was magical at Chelsea. He scored a hat-trick in 16 minutes after coming on as a sub. But his Barcelona performance was a 93-minute effort, not a cameo.
Diego Tristan and Valeron took the Manchester defence apart in a brilliant style.
Tristan is scoring more goals than Raul or Saviola in the league, seven so far.
He looks awesome, a big man with skill, like Viduka with pace.
When Arsenal last faced Deportivo they were top of the table and they are top of the table now.
Valeron is a canny attacking midfielder whose runs and shots will threaten in both games.
It is hard to compare Valeron’s style with players in the Premiership.
There is nobody quite like Valeron over here. He is like a slimmer, quicker Trevor Brooking : subtly weighted passes that make it easy for his teammates, perceptive runs into the box.
Valeron is a not a temperamental genius like Djalminha, the little Brazilian trickster, who is on the bench a lot now.
Tristan was rested last weekend and Roy Makaay grabbed a hat-trick against Sociedad on Saturday,who had scored first.
I happened to catch Makaay’s goals in CNN : a turn and low shot for the first, ramming in his own rebounding shot for the second, and a fine header from a narrow angle, across the keeper.
Makaay is a striker I have rated since he was at Tenerife in 1998/99. He scored 14 league goals and I hoped Arsenal might sign him when Tenerife were relegated. But maybe three Dutch forwards would have been one too many.
Lauren will know Amavisca from his time at Mallorca. A left winger capable of snaky dribbles and the odd goal.
Sol Campbell will REALLY enjoy this game.The crowd won’t be jeering his every kick. They won’t be throwing plastic water bottles at him. They won’t be holding up Judas placards.
So Sol will not have to worry about anything like that. He will just have to worry about Tristan, who might be the hottest centre forward Sol has faced since Ronaldo in Le Tournoi in 1997.
Maybe I’m building up Tristan too much. I sometimes do that.I hope he is NOT as good as I think he is.We shall find out soon enough.
NOSTALGIA CORNER :
THIS WAS WHAT I WROTE TO PREVIEW THE UEFA CUP TIES TWO SEASONS AGO :
Coach Javier Irureta has created a gritty, defensive team whose greatest virtue is their accurate passing.
Deportivo lead the Spanish League by six points. They are a Latin Everton, circa 1985. Compact play, mostly short passing, the game is 0-0 for quite a while, then Deportivo score and suddenly the match is over.
Not always, but four times out of five.
The team is built on four Brazilians and two Africans.
Three of the Brazilians are bruisers and the other is a magician. Where Everton defended the halfway line, they defend the box. They don’t use the offside trap.
Deportivo had a bad patch after the winter break, but are now playing well enough to win the first championship in their 93-year history.
(QUITE GOOD STUFF, TIGHTER THAN WHAT I’M WRITING
NOW !)
So, back then, Deportivo lost 5-1 to Arsenal and became Spanish champions in 1999-2000. They finished five points above Barcelona.
And they have improved considerably.
They have the same manager and many of the same players. They are stronger, more mature, more seasoned, more confident.
They were very good at that time, but they didn’t know how good they were because they had not won anything.Now they know how good they are.
But they are still underdogs because every club in Spain is an underdog except Real Madrid and Barcelona.
However, being underdogs is good for Deportivo – it defines them, motivates them, gives them a purpose, a reason to strive.That’s my theory anyway.
Right now, Deportivo are better than Juventus. So, of Arsenal’s six games in the Second Phase mini-league, this is the hardest game.
So I figure it’s a tasty first game because Arsenal are NOT under huge pressure to win it. No club expects to go to the Riazor and win.
And none of the 16 coaches in the Champions League expects Arsenal to beat Deportivo on Wednesday night.
This is the last 16 of the so-called Champions League and nobody knows what will happen. Nobody can predict what will happen, so I won’t.
All I can say is : These Deportivo guys are very good.They beat Manchester United twice and they might beat Arsenal twice.
But if Arsenal can win they need fear no-one.
OK,that’s a big if. It is the biggest if in the history of ANR! And one of the biggest ifs in the history of AFC.
19th November 2001.