By Myles Palmer
Arsenal 1 Southampton 1
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Wiltord 40, Tessem 80
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Matthew Upson started this match with Vieira in front of him for 27 minutes and he was playing nervously.
Then Vieira went off injured and he had Van Bronckhorst in front of him.
Then Ashley Cole was injured in 52 minutes and Grimandi came on in left midfield as Gio switched to left back.
After 70 minutes, when Bergkamp was taken off,Upson had Edu in front of him.
So Arsenal, having lost Keown before the game, lost two injured players during it.
The disruption, added to fatigue after wins over Liverpool and Blackburn in the previous seven days, was too just much.
The boys could not cope and could not perform with their usual zip.
Quite simply,Arsenal didn’t play well and didn’t deserve to win.
Indeed, Southampton played them off the field in the last 20 minutes.
Henry had three chances. He hit the keeper, hit the bar, and then hit the keeper again near the end.
The first chance, from a narrow angle, was one where he should have passed to Wiltord.
The second one looked a sitter but TV replays showed the ball rolling perfectly along the grass then bobbling up six inches, just as his right foot made contact.
The third chance was a near-post run, a nice shuffle to change feet and a stab which sometimes goes in, sometimes hits the keeper.
Opinions vary about how knackered Bergkamp was when Edu replaced him after 70 minutes.
Arsene has taken off a striker a few times and then conceded a late goal.Most managers do it.
Some thought DB looked tired.
Others would have kept him on to play keep-ball, since there had already been so much disruption of the team’s shape.
Edu made a silly tackle which gave away the freekick from which Joe Tessem headed the equaliser.
But Edu looked the part.
An intelligent player who got his head up and made two pases that nobody on the field except Pires would have even thought about.
It’s time for Arsene to give Edu a run in the side.
Yes, he has had a desperate time. He’s accident-prone. He has taken a long time to adjust. And he has been injured.
But Edu has the skills and vision to make a very good Premiership player. And, in particular, to make a very good player in the style of play that Arsene wants to use.
In other words, Edu can take one touch and shift the ball very quickly to where it needs to go.He has poise and a good range of passes.
In the few glimpses that we have had,Edu looks a better player than Van Bronckhorst, who was the invisible man against Southampton.
Saturday? Just forget it.
Campbell and Pires were very good, Luzhny was awful.
Upson, who at last seemed ready to deputise for Keown, was panicky and unable to pass to a red shirt.
Poor Parlour went to pieces as soon as he got the armband. The game just passed him by.
Richard Wright was a bag of nerves, blasting passbacks here there and everywhere.
As I say, forget it.Losing those two points is no catastrophe.
BASICALLY, ARSENAL ARE BETTER THAN THAT.
They are MUCH better than that.
Arsene Wenger was very down after the game. Very, very disappointed.
His team badly needs leadership right now.
With any luck the best leader in English football will be back for the Everton game.
It looks like another case of Tony Adams to the rescue.
Let’s hope Tony comes through that reserve game on Monday night and leads the team out against his old pal Kevin Campbell at Goodison next Sunday.
February 3rd 2002.