By Myles Palmer
MATCHDAY 2 is a massive night for all the clubs who lost on Matchday 1.
Like Lokomotiv Moscow and Arsenal.
On a wet Friday at Highbury, Arsenal beat Newcastle 3-2 and I began to see signs that Thierry Henry may at last be losing the fragile winger’s mentality that has been holding him back.
Thierry is still improving.
Two years ago Thierry could not carry Wiltord.
Now, at times, he can.
There are moments when I think he could become as good as Ruud Gullit.
Gullit was a very,very unusual player that I once struggled to describe in some Wembley programme notes years ago, when Holland came to play England.
What I concluded was this : Ruud Gullit was a one-off.
I didn’t understand the way he played because I had never seen anybody like him before.
Gullit was not a striker, not a playmaker, not a winger, not a midfielder, not even a half-striker.
HE WAS DIFFERENT. HE WAS RUUD GULLIT.
He did the things that Gullit did – and won games.
Gullit was powerful, explosively fast, very inventive and smart, amazingly skilful, and awesome in the air.
He won Serie A titles and European Cups with AC Milan.
Now, at times, I’m seeing Thierry Henry have a similar influence on big games.
On Friday he raced to the far post to stab in Lauren’s cross after Bramble miskicked.
He rarely does that. He very rarely scores from two yards at the far post.
Dyer set up Robert for 1-1, Freddie hit the post,Gilberto made it 2-1 with an attempted heder that went in off his shoulder, then Dyer set up Bernard for the best goal of the game, a blistering shot between Lehmann and his near post.
Then Jenas panicked and handled and Henry clipped the penalty sweetly down the middle as Given dived left.
Once again, Henry was the matchwinner, as he was in Rome, where he scored a hat-trick in a 3-1 victory over Capello’s Roma last season.
I wonder if Henry reminds Capello of Gullit, just a bit.
Referee Mike Riley had a good game.
He gave Lauren Robert a yellow for a vicious two-footed chop on Freddie, which has put him out of the Moscow game.
VERDICT: For the the first time,Henry was starting to remind me of Gullit.
Both played in brilliant spurts, decisive spurts of skilful energy, skilful pace and power.
But,at the moment, it’s just glimpses.Thierry has a long way to go.
Of course, Gullit played in an Italian club team that had Baresi and knew how to defend.
And Sacchi and Capello are tacticians.
Arsene, for all his many talents, is no tactician.
SIR ALEX’S BUDDY Hugh McIlvanney slagged off Arsene in The Sunday Times.
So predictable.
Hugh calls Arsenal’s behaviour toxic and nauseating and cowardly and says RVN is a nice guy.
He says,”we were forced to wonder if the relentless insularity of his attitudes might soon have to be viewed as an illness.”
ONE OF MY favourite singers died last Friday, Robert Palmer.
All the tributes and obits missed the two key points about Robert.
He was the finest rhythm singer Britain has ever produced.
And he was a catalyst in the evolution of Island Records and their promotion of what we now call “world music.”
29th September 2003.