By Myles Palmer
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Arsenal 1 Liverpool 1
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Did Vieira and Henry struggle because they were missing Ashley Cole and Ray Parlour?
Maybe.
Without Cole’s overlaps, Arsenal were one player short down the left side, so Pires and Henry were having to take up positions that Cole would have taken up.
Since Arsenal are a left-sided team, that was a big problem. That was why they didn’t create as many chances as usual.
Upson played well at left back but he lacks the attacking instincts of Cole, who was a striker when he was 13.
Parlour sets the tempo for Arsenal, so they missed his running power, which might have liberated Vieira from a logjam where he found himself trapped and frustrated.
A team is a piece of machinery and if you take two important cogs out of the machine it will stutter and malfunction. That’s what happened.
After 15 minutes it was clear that this was a different Liverpool to the team we have seen recently. They were tighter, tougher, sharper. Very hard to break down.
Arsenal always play through the middle – and Liverpool always block up the middle when Hamann is in the team.
After 25, Kanu played Ljungberg in and he took the ball round Dudek and then shot wide of the far post – a crucial miss in such a tight game.
Henry was abysmal, so Ljungberg was the only player who looked capable of scoring.
After his miss I thought the game would be a draw.
Liverpool were playing belt-and-braces football, defending deep and blocking the edge of the box with eight players.
Horrible football! Who would want to watch them every week?
I still fancied Arsenal to make a couple chances but I also fancied Dudek to make saves for a 0-0.
Campbell and Keown were superb and hardly gave Owen and Anelka a kick all day.
In the second half Vieira’s nightmare continued. He gave the ball away twice in ten seconds and then slid in carelessly on Anelka to get his eighth yellow card of the Premiership season.
After 55, Bergkamp replaced Kanu.
After 60, Murphy headed Riise’s fine cross over the bar.
I’d said in the preview that Riise would give Arsenal problems. His duel with Freddie turned out to be a good battle of the bantamweights.
Then Arsenal made the breakthrough after 61.
Campbell hit a long, high ball into the corner, Bergkamp held off Carragher cleverly, played a cute pass to Pires, who fed Freddie at the near post.
The Swede stabbed in from six yards. A typical goal from a move they work on all the time in training.
The combination between Bergkamp and Pires was sublime and made you think that they two should have more playing time together.
Bergkamp, apparently pinned down near the corner flag, took four touches, Pires two, Ljungberg one – a great goal and one which deserved to win the match.
After 68, Riise won the ball, zoomed down the flank, leaving Luzhny in his wake, and scored from Gerrard’s long diagonal pass.A shame as Luzhny had a good first half.
Keeper Stuart Taylor was in a bad starting position. He should have been on the edge of his box. He came forward, shuffled back and gave Riise time to pick his spot.
Riise buried his left-footed shot inside the near post. Terrible goalkeeping, kamikaze stuff.
Taylor froze.He had one decision to make in the match and he got it wrong.
Richard Wright was on the bench. Will Wright come back for the Leeds game? I’m told he had a bad game at Coventry in last week’s reserve game, which Arsenal lost 3-2.
Any good news?
Well, Arsenal are 4th in the table and two points off the lead with a game in hand.
Can they win a trophy this season without a goalkeeper?
Let’s wait and see on that one.
13th January 2002.
P.S. I hope to reply to some of your emails next week. When I master the technicalities.