By Myles Palmer
______________________________________
Arsenal 0 Inter Milan 3
Cruz 21, Van Der Meyde 24, Martins 41
_____________________________________
MY SINCERE APOLOGIES TO Hector Cuper and his team.
Inter were far better than I expected and far superior to Arsenal on the night.
Intelligent, tactically astute, compact, economical, creative, mature, explosive in attack.
A classic away performance by Hector Cuper’s Serie A runners-up.
Not bad for a manager they said would be sacked before Xmas.
Inter rose to the occasion – and Arsenal made them look good.
First 20 was high-speed attacking by Arsenal, exactly what we expected.
They tried to win the game in the first 24 minutes.
And by doing that they lost it in the first 24 minutes.
THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IS WILTORD.
Wiltord is not good enough to play for Arsenal. Never has been.
Deportivo did to Wiltord what Arsenal did to Clive Allen.
They took a look at him in training and sold him on without giving him a game.
Wiltord ran offside, fell over the ball, couldn’t get his passes in – he is useless.
Wiltord is the worst footballer ever to win 50 caps for France.
People keep telling me Wiltord is a decent Premiership player.
I strongly disagree.
I have never, never,NEVER thought Sylvain Wiltord was good enough to play for Arsenal.
If Arsenal had had a competent striker in the first 20 minutes they might have scored-and it would have been a different game.
At 2-0 down, Wiltord’s pass for the penalty incident was not a good pass. He did not see Freddie. He intended it for Pires, his mate.
But Freddie scampered through, leaned into Materazzi-and the Italian shoved him when the ball was not within playing distance of either of them.
I didn’t think it was a penalty.
Henry, the nearest Arsenal player, did not appeal.
But when you are 2-0 down at home after 31 minutes, a penalty is a lifeline.
Unfortunately, I knew Henry would miss it.
How did I know?
Because of what he did on the corner kick.
When the ref came over to check that the ball was in the quadrant, Henry waved his arms and appealed to the crowd and made a far bigger fuss than he needed to make.
Then Henry overkicked the corner 10 yards beyond the far post.
So I knew he would miss the penalty.
A powderpuff shot,his worst-ever penalty for Arsenal.
KOLO TOURE made two sensational recovery tackles on the dynamic Martins to prevent a 5-0 defeat.
And sub Kallon hit the post in injury time
At half-time Freddie bawled out Pires as they walked off, for playing a stupid crossfield ball that was intercepted, leading to the third goal.
That was surprising. You never see Arsenal players accusing each other.
Arsene creates a harmonious squad, harmonious training, harmonious travelling, harmonious fast passing.
BUT DON’T BLAME THE SWEDE FOR BEING DISGUSTED BY WHAT PIRES DID!
You have to have better concentration than that.
This team needs more shouting.
A football pitch is a place of conflict.
But it’s not Ljungberg’s job to shout at Pires.
If anybody shouts at Pires it should be the manager or the captain.
SUNDAY AT OLD TRAFFORD will be interesting.
The full backs are poor at the moment.
Lehmann should have saved the second goal.
Sol’s father has had a second stroke and, in hindsight, he should not have played.His dad died on Wednesday night.
I picked Keown, Arsene didn’t.
He is the manager and he knows the players far better than anybody.
But his team has the same fundamental fault it had five years ago : it is one-dimensional.
There is no Plan B.
Plan A is attack early and fast, with Cole playing as an extra forward.
ARSENAL NEED A TARGET MAN, another option when Plan A fails.
A player who can win balls in the box against Deportivo, Ajax, Valencia, Inter and all the other teams who have rumbled Arsene’s version of the fast and beautiful narrow game.
Arsene is a marvellous manager but also an extremely stubborn man who sticks to his ideas.
He has no director, no assistant at his side, who two years ago would say: Arsene, our strikers are a motley crew – Kanu, Bergkamp,Henry,Wiltord is a very badly balanced quartet.
He has no assistant who can teach defence.
INTER have an ethic, players who can mark and tackle and cover 365 days a year and enjoy defending, take real pride in it.
Arsene cannot teach defence, so he needs a coach who can teach his team to defend efficiently and make them believe, as Inter do, that defending is a hugely enjoyable part of the game.
I was surprised and demoralized on Wednesday night.
For me Henry’s penalty miss after 32 was a William Pitt moment.
When Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger went into his London house five weeks after Napoleon won the great battle of Austerlitz (1805) and saw a map of Europe on the wall, Pitt famously said, “Roll up that map,it will not be wanted these ten years.”
Still, 3 small consolations this week.
I won every bet except Arsenal: Milan, Juventus, Bayern, Sociedad, Lyon, Dynamo Kiev.
Doug sent me a paperback yesterday: Cloughie: Walking On Water.
I read the first 10 pages in the garden, about his NHS liver transplant, and was soon laughing out loud.
It is an old man’s book, a book of regrets, confessions and boasting.
Brian Clough was a genius who backed up his big mouth by achieving miracles at Derby County and Nottingham Forest.
Third consolation?
We went out last night to vote Lib Dem in the Brent East by-election.
With Caroline getting her first vote and being interviewed by Japanese TV at the polling station.The Japs are looking at our system.
The Lib Dems won.
Sarah Teather is a tiny, plump 29-year old woman who is now Britain’s youngest MP.
Good luck, Sarah.
Take that 29% swing, Tony Blair!
That’s what we think of your corrupt buddy George Bush and your illegal war in Iraq.
Have a happy weekend!
19th September 2003.