By Myles Palmer
CHELSEA scored three goals from rebounds last night.
A 4-0 win away to Lazio is a fantastic result, and Chelsea played very well and took their chances boldly.
Damien Duff’s goal, beating two men as he snaked in from the left, could have been scored by Thierry Henry, but it could not have been scored by Bergkamp, Wiltord or Ljungberg.
Reserve keeper Matteo Sereni is the biggest clown I’ve seen in gloves since Hilario of Porto gave Man United an over-rated 4-0 win a few years ago.
Sereni slapped Veron’s free-kick onto Crespo’s head for the first goal.
Not the kind of goal Arsenal ever score.
Because Arsenal don’t play for rebounds. They only have one player who wants to get in where it hurts: Freddie.
Lazio badly missed Peruzzi and Stam.
And three of the goals were scored after the sending off off of Mihajlovic, the player who racially abused Patrick Vieira.
All of which proves what?
It proves this : every football match is different.
Even if the same 22 players face each other a week later, with the same referee, the second match will be a lot different.
I SAW FREDDIE in Sefridges yesterday.
Walking down Oxford Street, towards Marble Arch, I went past the department store.
And 20 big windows were filled by a giant cardboard images of Freddie with a jaguar jumping out of his underpants.
It’s a good photo, if you like that sort of thing.
Freddie is bronzed and has a tattoo of a jaguar on his lower abdomen, so that the big cat is jumping out of his Calvin Kleins.
Thursday will see Freddie the icon making a PA at the store.
If Freddie the footballer has had a good night against Kiev, he will have fun.
If he does to Kiev what he did to Lazio and Juventus, he will be a hero at Selfridges.
If not, the timing of the PA might be embarrassing.
YESTERDAY I didn’t fancy Arsenal in this game.
Do I fancy them any more today?
Not really.
Arsenal are not good in a tactical game. They don’t keep the ball well enough for long enough.
They rarely score from volleys, headers or rebounds. They mainly score from one-one-ones and passes into the box, not crosses into the box.
They miss penalties.
Their Champions League sequence is very bad – 8 games without a win.
They need to turn the sequence round, starting tonight, but they have a long history of doing worse in the second game : Lens,Barcelona, Fiorentina, Valencia, Ajax.
Deportivo was 0-2 away and 0-2 at home.
Arsenal were outclassed in the second game, which was over in half an hour.
DYNAMO KIEV are not as good as Deportivo La Coruna, then or now, but they look smart enough to prevent Arsenal winning.
But anything can happen in a football match.And it won’t help if the fans are nervous.
So get behind the team!
It’s not over yet. Mathematically, there is still a lot to play for.
The fact that I’ve lowered my expectations is my problem.
As I say, every football match is different.
November 5th 2003.