By Myles Palmer
___________________________
PATRICK VIEIRA has become the stalemate-breaker, the man who starts Arsenal on the road to victory.
Against Middlesbrough in the league game, he won the penalty by being too good for Ehiogu, making him look clumsy.
Against Aston Villa he got forward again at a decisive moment and won the free-kick from which Henry scored that cheeky goal.
Now that Vieira is fully fit again, he is confident. And when he is confident, he is a fantastic skipper who can win games and keep them won.
Two things should be said about the Kanu penalty.
FIrst,Cygan did very well to win the original interception and play the ball forward to Pires, whose pass went to Kanu.
Secondly, it was a dive.
It was an outrageous dive by Kanu, which I called correctly first time I saw it.
Having looked at replays 10 times, and looked at frame by frame, Kanu had nowhere to go and could never have reached that ball before Sorensen, Johnsen or Delaney got to it.
Freddie had made his scissors run behind the defence, as he often does for Kanu, but Kanu had missed the moment to play in the Swede.
So the improviser was stuck. There was no player he could pass to.
And Kanu was only two yards from Mellberg.
So he knocked the ball between two defenders, put his shoulder down, threw himself into the stationary centreback, and fell on the ground.
NEVER A PENALTY !
Never a penalty in a million years.
But ref Mark Halsey gave it.
It was the most blatant dive I’ve seen in any Arsenal game since October 1999, when Cocu propelled himself over Tony Adams’s outstretched leg to deceive Swiss ref Urs Meier at Wembley.
KANU is playing for a new contract.
After under-achieving pathetically for two years, he has decided to start earning his £45,000 a week.
Because he wants another year, which will give him British citizenship. That will allow him to move his family over here.
If Wiltord is sold, and Bergkamp retires, a manager who loves stability, like Arsene, might be tempted keep Kanu on a reduced contract.
If that scenario works out, Arsene would still need two new strikers in the summer.
EDU was excellent and most of the kids did OK in the 1-0 defeat by Middlesbrough on Tuesday night.
Gael Clichy is a terrific left back, a good deputy for Ashley Cole.
David Bentley is a silky, subtle artiste with potential. After Danny Mills was booked, Bentley should have put himself about more, as Ryan Smith did when he came on.
GRAHAM STACK is a better keeper than Stuart Taylor.
He is brave, authoritative, has good hands – a superb 22-year old goalkeeper.
Stacky could take over from Lehmann.
And maybe Lehmann can teach Stacky how to punch shots like Maccarone’s,rather than palm them away.
Punching is not a British tradition in goalkeeping, but it gets more distance.
JUNINHO was better than Bentley because he is a World Cup player and Bentley is a kid.
Juninho had three shots and Bentley had two.
Juninho hit the post, had one saved, and scored the only goal after a 10-pass move which followed Bentley losing the ball at the other end.
Keown was fouled in the build-up, but he should have cleared the ball before he was fouled.
He says the second leg will be interesting if Arsenal score an early goal.
BENTLEY’S first shot was clipped over the bar from Kanu’s pass when it was 0-0.
His second shot came near the end when sub Jerome Thomas hooked in a good cross from the right, which found Bentley nearer the goal than he had been on his first chance.
It looked as if Bentley was afraid to sky this second chance. He was inhibited. He stroked the ball with the side of his foot- a powderpuff shot which Schwarzer saved comfortably.
THAT WAS ARSENAL’S ONLY SHOT ON TARGET.
Having seen Jerome Thomas play a couple of games for QPR in Nationwide 2, I like him.
Friends say Thomas not good enough to play for Arsenal, but I’m not sure about that.
I was amazed that Arsene started the 17-year old Quincy Owusu-Abeyie ahead of Thomas.
The kid was out of his depth against Ehiogu and Riggott.
He ran offside a couple of times, got a couple of decent passes in, but found himself isolated far too often.
That was partly a function of playing with Kanu, who does not make enough runs to support a strike partner.
It was also a function of Arsenal’s style of play, a distinctive house style in which the strikers mostly shoot or pass to each other, but do not pass to midfield players very much.
For Arsenal to create chances, Bentley needed to be making more diagonal runs, as Ljungberg does.
SATURDAY against Middlesbrough in the FA Cup?
Is Michael Owen playing for Boro? No !
Arsenal haven’t lost an FA Cup tie since Owen turned them upside down in Cardiff.
They have not lost in 19 FA Cup ties and they won’t lose this one.
Enjoy your sporting weekend!
22nd January 2004.