By Myles Palmer
THOUSANDS OF GOONERS are wondering whether Arsenal can take their domestic form into Europe.
With Dennis as dynamic as ever, with Patrick fresh, with Freddie flying, can Arsenal slice PSV Eindhoven to shreds on Wednesday night?
It’s unlikely, but possible.
PSV are much better than Man City or Bolton, but are they better than Borussia Dortmund?
WE WON’T KNOW TILL WEDNESDAY.
Saturday’s 2-1 win was a lacklustre game until Dennis came on and split the Bolton defence with his first pass.
Henry arrowed through and scored, but was given offside. Maybe he was offside.
But it was a magical pass by Dennis which lifted the game.
Great news that he is travelling to Eindhoven- Freddie will be ecstatic about that.
Overall, Arsenal were lucky because Henry had hit the post with a penalty after Gudni Bergsson tugged Ljungberg.
And Campo had been sent off after doing a good two-footed
job for 80 minutes in front of the back four.
Ref David Pugh, a novice at this level, behaved stupidly by giving Campo two yellows.
In the first incident his heel was kicked by Parlour, but Pugh didn’t see that, and Campo got mad.
In the second Campo threw the ball away. Since he has only been in England for a month Pugh should have given him a warning.
But the FA insist that refs cannot use commonsense any more.
The FA are true Stalinists because they insist that all matches are the same and all players are the same,thus preventing refs from using commonsense. It’s sad, stupid, pathetic.
KANU had a poor game and was lucky to be still on the field after 90 minutes to score that winner.
HENRY had two assists on the winning goal-one for the jump to knock down Cole’s cross, and the other for staying in an offside position and blocking the keeper’s view of a ball which flew up so high that the two defednders couldn’t see it.
Kanu read the bounce well and stabbed home.
Seaman was the happiest man in Highbury, after Farrelly’s equaliser had left him looking a bit silly again.
Farrelly aimed his cross for Holdsworth at the far post.He rushed the cross because Parlour got so close to him, miskicked it slightly, and the ball floated in at the far post.
I’m 100% certain that Farrelly’s goal was a fluke, just as I’m 110% certain that Ronaldinho AIMED his freekick into the top corner of the net.
JEFFERS, a sub, disappointed me by missing two sitters. He should have scored one.
I had such high hopes for Jeffers in summer 2001.
One night this summer, when we went to a school production of GREASE, we met my pal Stewart and he asked about my hopes for this season and I said the first thing that came into my head.
Which was, “I still think Jeffers could come good and score 25 goals this season.”
He is a very talented striker, a player with the right attributes to be a fox in the box.
Will Jeffers make it at Arsenal?Or could he be sold in January?
Its very hard to predict because each player is a different human being with a different character.
It’s hard for PENNANT, as it is for Jeffers, because they are trying to get into the best team in England.
If Pennant hangs out in Watford nightclubs,telling people he’s a Premiership footballer, and gets high fives from all his homeboy buddies, and drives around in his silver Alfa Romeo thinking he is a Premiership footballer, then he might not make it.
He is 19 and Arsene is being patient with him. He’s had many offers for the kid, but he won’t sell. He wants to give him every chance to fulfill his promise.
And Pennant really wants to play for the first team and do well.
But Toure is ahead of him now, and Wiltord is playing wide, and Pires will be back in November, so Pennant’s chances will be limited. And he hasn’t been on the bench for the last three games.
GILBERTO missed the suspended Vieira and had his wobbliest game yet, giving away four balls in a row at one point.
He is a great player, though, and the accuracy of his early passes is essential to Arsenal’s swift-breaking style.
His skills are subtle, hard to see : he invariable plays his first-time passes into a player’s stride, so he accelerates the move.
Arsenal players frequently zoom foward as if they have been fired from catapult. Often, Gilberto is the catapult.
They work on achieving high-speed moves and score most of their goals from fast passing.
FREDDIE was at the heart of every dangerous moment.
The tasty pass he slipped to HENRY for the first goal was in the Dennis class.
It’s just possible that Freddie could play that role when Dennis retires.
Fans phone and email me to ask: Why does HENRY still take every free-kick?
And I say : Don’t ask me, you’re talking to the wrong man- I can’t explain it.
Vieira is happy these days and it shows.
Before the game he signed about 30 autographs for the kids at the soccer school, who were playing on the indoor astroturf.
Young schoolboys probably think that Patrick Vieira is a superman from another planet, not a human being like them.
In fact,Patrick IS like them. He’s just taller.
G’night!
222 September 2002.