By Myles Palmer
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Middlesbrough 0 Arsenal 1 Nesta og 38
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Chelsea 1 Fulham 0 Terry 40
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Arsenal played badly and won.
The Chelsea game was a better football match but Hasselbaink and Gudjohnsen turned out to be paper tigers on the day.
Most semis are tense, messy games.But each new season we forget how scrappy last year’s semis were.
Basically, the FA Cup is six matches and most teams who win it have one game where they play badly and survive.
Old Trafford was a tactical victory for Steve McClaren, whose patched-up team nullified Arsenal and prevented them playing their normal game.
Boro pressed, chased, dived in for balls that were not theirs to dive in for, rattled Arsenal’s cage all day long.And Arsenal could not handle it.
Luckily for them Ehiogu went off with a hamstring and his replacement Gianluca Festa swiftly scored an own-goal straight out of the Ramon Vega textbook.
Henry’s dipping, inswinging corner hit Festa’s knee and rocketed past Schwarzer in 38 minutes.
Richard Wright was Arsenal’s best player.
The team missed the composure that Pires and Adams would have provided.
Adams was injured and did not travel.He is retiring in the summer, by the way. That is definite.
Vieira did OK in midfield and OK at centreback after Sol Campbell went off with a hamstring injury in 56 minutes.
Luzhny had already departed(32), so Dixon came on and Lauren switched to left back. The team stabilised after Luzhny went off.
Marcel Desailly played an awesome game, as if it was France v Argentina in a World Cup semi.
Desailly is a magnificent gladiator in big games – but not in small games.
He was better than the whole Arsenal team put together.
On Sunday night at 10.45 I saw Nick Faldo on BBC1 talking about Tiger Woods.
Faldo said,”He’s the strongest man out there – physically, mentally,technically.”
I might say the same about Marcel Desailly. An awesome competitor who has won everything in football.
He needs a new challenge.
And I can reveal that he will soon have one : After Desailly has beaten Arsenal in Cardiff, and France have retained the World Cup, he is gonna take up golf and whip Tiger Woods’s ass at the Masters in Augusta next April.
John Terry was not far behind Desailly.
Terry is the best English centreback by a country mile, better than Rio.
Shame he has a court case coming up. Because John Terry is as good as Beckham, Scholes, Owen and Gerrard.
I believe Ranieri should play Dalla Bona, not Lampard.
But managers always pick the players they have paid big money for.
So I can look forward to Wiltord spoiling my day yet again. I shall be gently building down to Cardiff, just as I built down to these predictable semi-finals.
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MIDDLESBROUGH (4-4-2): Schwarzer; Stockdale, Ehiogu (Festa, 32), Southgate, Queudrue; Wilkshire (Stamp, 55), Debève, Mustoe, Johnston (Marinelli, 76); Boksic,
Windass.
Subs not used: Crossley (gk), Cooper.
ARSENAL(4-4-2):Wright; Lauren, Keown,Campbell(Parlour, 57), Luzhny (Dixon,32); Wiltord, Vieira, Edu, Ljungberg; Bergkamp (Kanu, 88), Henry.
Subs not used: Seaman (gk), Jeffers.
FULHAM(4-4-2):Van der Sar; Finnan, Melville, Goma, Brevett; Malbranque, Legwinski (Hayles, 87), Davis, Collins (Boa Morte, 65); Marlet, Saha.
Subs not used: Knight,Ouaddou, Taylor (gk).
CHELSEA(4-4-2): Cudicini; Melchiot, Desailly, Terry, Le Saux
(Ferrer, 4); Stanic (Zenden, 76), Lampard, Petit, Gronkjaer;
Hasselbaink (Jokanovic, 85), Gudjohnsen.
Subs not used: Zola, De Goey (gk).
15th April 2002.
P.S. Kevin Phillips WILL sign for Spurs.