By Myles Palmer
Last-minute thoughts about tonight’s game?
Just two : Arsenal and Man United need each other.
And United are more likely to copy Ajax than take turns kicking Vieira.
Champions need opponents. They need rivals. They always have and always will.
Borg needed McEnroe, Ali needed Smokin’ Joe Frazier.
Back in 1999, Arsenal competed fiercely with Man United and sharpened them up so much that they made them powerful enough to win the treble and get Alex a K from trendy Tony Blair.
Why were Arsenal rubbish against Sheffield United?
Because they didn’t need to be good to win 1-0.
The performance in football is always shaped and inspired and limited by the opposing team.
Quality opposition produces maximum effort by any good team.
So that is the first thing : Arsene and Fergie need each other.
Each gives the other something to aim at.Each recognises that his rival has a different style, knows that he could never be like the other guy.
One is like a belligerent Scottish headmaster of a secondary modern school.
The other is a plausible professor at a modern polytechnic who only shouts at his students once every three terms.
BUT THE SCOT AND THE FRENCHMAN BRING OUT THE BEST IN EACH OTHER.
The second thing is that Man United tried to kick Arsenal off the field twice.
Once last May, when Arsenal won the title at Old Trafford.
And once in the FA Cup in February, when Jeff Winter booked three players in the first seven minutes.
Both times, kicking failed.
Fergie’s is not a mug. I don’t think he will try that again.
But I’d say this: If he could defend deep and kick as well, he would.
But he can’t do that. The two don’t go together.
He will not want his players to foul in his defensive third.
There has been a lot written previewing this game.I’ve read some of it.
I’m not a really fan of stats and history, but I am, to some extent, a fan of form and sequences.
I’m told that Sky’s Monday preview pointed out that the team that scores first invariably wins this match.
Only twice that did not happen.
When Freddie scored, then Roy Keane scored twice.
When Stuart Taylor was in goal and Scholes scored but Arsenal won 3-1, when boobs by Barthez gave Henry two goals.
At Newcastle, Man United played brilliantly.
But quite conservatively early on.With seven or eight men behind the ball.
THE KEY IS THAT UNITED DON’T HAVE TO WIN.
A draw would be a good result for them.
So I reckon Fergie will do an Ajax: defend deep and pass it square among eight players in their own half.
And see how the game goes.
If United had to win, I think he might keep the same team, if everyone is fit, leaving Beckham on the bench.
But because United are three points ahead he might play a game of wait and see.
Keeping Solskjaer on the bench.If he needs a goal, he can bring him on.
With Cole and Henry flying down the left, I reckon Fergie will start Beckham, a better defender than Solskjaer, even if he is not as quick as Cole.
I can see Becks hitting a few long balls up to Giggs and Van Nistelrooy. If Giggs is fit.
Fergie knows that Arsenal don’t score from headers in open play, don’t cross the ball much, rarely score direct from free-kicks and don’t score from 25 yards.
SO IT MAKES SENSE TO DEFEND DEEP.
If you are gonna defend the box against any team, you defend the box against Arsenal, as Ajax and Valencia did so cleverly.
Sir Alex will regard this as a Champions League away day and set his stall out accordingly.
OK, he could press ferociously in midfield and kick lumps out of Vieira.
But that would upset the crowd and ref Mark Halsey.
So I think it will be a crafty,conservative United we see tonight.
Clearly, teams who win titles do so by playing well in March and April.
And Arsenal haven’t played well lately.They have won only five of the last eleven games.
They have lost an 8-point lead and are now three points behind with a game in hand.
Gilberto is playing from memory and hasn’t made many tackles since January.
He used to get a lot of tackles in. Now he doesn’t. He is very tired.
Lauren, one of my favourite players, is a bit shaky.
He goes AWOL, can’t seem to choose the right moment to go forward.
Va-va-voom has done nothing much for a month.
Will the moody Henry be any better tonight?
He usually has a good game against United.And I’m assured he is really, really, really up for this one.
One of my best pals says : If Arsenal start well,United will kick. He reckons that Butt, Keane and Scholes are all kickers and they won’t be able to stop themselves. If Arsenal start tentatively, United might take the game over.
I HOPE HE IS WRONG ABOUT THAT.
Paul Scholes destroyed Newcastle last Saturday by playing like the Scholes of Le Tournoi in 1997, the buzzy reflex player who exploded into the England team.
Clearly, all football matches are different. Because the circumstances of each match are different, even if the 22 players are the same.
If Arsenal are good enough to win the double Double, they will do so. We have to wait and see.
If they lose tonight, it’s over. If they draw, it’s not.
I fancy a one-nil to the Arsenal.
If anybody can pinch a yard in the box, zip behind a defence, get to a loose ball, Freddie can.
16th April 2003.