By Myles Palmer
LIVERPOOL is a big, big test at 11.30 on Saturday morning.
Why? Because Wenger’s heroes have only won two of their eight Premiership away games.
If Arsenal can beat Liverpool they can win the league. If they lose they should just focus on Lyon/Moscow/Munich and consolidate second place in the Premiership.
So Anfield is more than serious. It’s pivotal.
Liverpool’s last six games were against Stoke, Charlton, Olympiakos,Ipswich, Fulham and Man United.
Stoke and Manchester were away games.
Liverpool thrashed Stoke 8-0 and then they stuffed Charlton 3-0 and then they beat the useful Olympiakos 2-0 and then they lost 1-0 to Ipswich and then they edged out Fulham by 3-0 (with all the goals coming in extra time).
Then they went to Old Trafford where Danny Murphy showed Beckham how to take a free-kick.
So Liverpool are on form.They are playing well. They are defending well. They have conceded only ONE GOAL in their last six matches.
Their six-match sequence is success, success, success, failure, success,success.
Liverpool had eight goalscorers in those six games : Ziege, Smicer, Babbel, Fowler, Hyypia, Heskey, Barmby and Owen shared those goals.
What is the best way to beat Liverpool? What is the best team to beat Liverpool? When is the best time to score the first goal?
Very difficult questions which I already regret asking.
First, a few comments about five players.
KANU has been a languid box-of-tricks and is becoming a rambuctious box-of-tricks. He was knocking people over at White Hart Lane !
But he still doesn’t play Henry in as often as Bergkamp does. And opponents don’t dive in on him as much as before. They’ve learned that this is what Kanu wants them to do.
The Nigerian can amble productively and he is developing a radar-like awareness of Parlour making runs past him. Kanu,as I’ve said from day one, needs players making runs alongside him, close to him, on both sides, so that he can set up shots.
ROBERT PIRES blew it when that fan threw the ball at him.
Spurs had just had two good breakaways : Sherwood stabbed wide, Clemence crossed low and poorly, allowing Manninger to dive on the ball. Henry has his best one on one with Sullivan after a Thelwell boob,and hit the keeper’s shoulder from six yards away.
Then, at a throw-in, a Spurs fan violently threw the ball at Pires.It bounced off him.
The ball was thrown again. Pires caught it and feinted to throw the ballback at the offending fan – something you must never, never do.Do not show you are rattled. Reacting gives a license to Liverpool and Charlton fans to try the same stunt in the next away games.
Pires, like Kanu, is a 60-minute player. He is important because he links Henry and Silvinho, but he should be more productive.
THIERRY HENRY has just been voted France’s Footballer of the Year,ahead of Zidane. He is not, as some fans have suggested, an arrogant World Cup winner who thinks all his shots should be goals. Quite the opposite.
Arsenal’s style of play, a pressing & penetrating style, attacking swiftly down avenues and using the acceleration of a greyhound striker, means that Henry has most of the shots, scores most of the goals, and chalks up most of the missed chances. As we saw at Spurs.
So Henry thinks that if he doesn’t score Arsenal might not win. The pressure builds up. He lets the pressure get to him.
And, although he is a phenomenally skilful and resourceful footballer, he is not a natural goalscorer like Ian Wright, Robbie Fowler or Kevin Phillips.
Henry should be aiming, like Anelka and Wrighty, at the small space between the keeper and the far post. But he is scared to miss.He is scared to shoot wide because it looks bad. He should be aiming at the three foot wide gap just inside the far post, which the keeper cannot cover if the shot is low and hard.
But if it goes wide Henry looks a mug. So he hits the keeper five times out of six.He would be better off missing the far post four times out of six, as Anelka seemed to do.
FREDDIE LJUNGBERG is a very fast midfielder who slows the game down.
He is still adapting to that right wing role, which does not suit him. He forages with great tenacity.He dribbles, he checks back with the ball, and too often slows the move down.If you slow the game down you have to be a better passer than he is.
Freddie is better on the left because he is more likely to score on the left.
DENNIS BERGKAMP produced his most effective substitute appearance for Arsenal at White Hart Lane.
He has never been a sub. He has no experience as a sub.He has come on and not done much in previous games.
But Spurs was a breakthrough night for him. He looked the business on Monday night. And he did the business.
Waiting to come on Dennis really looked the part. His face and body showed the focus of an Olympic 100-metre finalist 20 seconds before the gun. He looked strong, fresh, determined, ready to produce his best form, his best
passes and shots.His face contained a wonderful narrowness of concentration, as if he knew he could change the game, lift his team.
The quality that makes Bergkamp special is an explosive sharpness of touch and vision. He knows where the ball should go even before he kills it so effortlessly.
He came on after 62 minutes and just oozed authority.
Made you realise that what had been missing was a magnetic football intelligence. A brain that could organise attacks by seeing instantly, instinctively, where the ball should go and not go.
Wenger’s double team was unique in having a strategic intelligence in each department, in defence, midfield and attack, three guys who could READ the game and give shape to those around them : Adams, Petit and Bergkamp.
With Petit gone, Bergkamp’s absence now makes the team look a bit brainless.When they win this does not matter. But when they struggle it does.
So what will the Liverpool game be like?
Similar to the Spurs game? A fast, tight contest in which most of the chances will again fall to Thierry Henry?
One big difference : we expect Vieira to start the game. He will make a huge improvement. If the pitch is dry and flat, Pires and Henry and Silvinho will prosper on the left side.
Emile Heskey’s thunderous left-footed strike in September 1998 taught Martin Keown not to jockey the baby bulldozer onto his left foot. Heskey is the only striker I have ever seen outpower Sol Campbell, so he can be awesome. And he has improved under Houllier.
Smicer has become flavour of the month after a year and a half at Anfield, but Barmby is a bigger threat to Arsenal because he is a small, brainy touch player with bright movement.
Gerard Houllier, more than most, knows how Wenger’s brand of power football works : where it is devastating and how it can be countered,absorbed, stifled,smothered.
If the conditions are good there might be as many chances as there were at Tottenham.
But I doubt that. A noon game will not be as open as a night game. And Liverpool are a defensive team rather than a team with a great defence.
At the same time, I would not rate their 1-0 win at Old Trafford too highly. As Wenger said on Sky, United had an off day.That was not the real Man United.
Basically, this feels like a one-goal game.
So when is the best time to score?
Normally, ASAP.
Normally, Arsenal’s best bet is an early goal by Henry or Silvinho.Followed by a lot of hard work.
I’m sure the players know that if they perform as they did at Everton they will be hammered 4-0.
However,in the last six weeks I have not proved to be good at predicting Wenger’s team selections.
We have seen for five years that he is not a tinkerer. When he make changes to his team he makes a minimum of changes. And he never changes his system.
That inflexibility probably explains why Liverpool are Wenger’s bogey team. Why they beat Arsenal 2-0 and 1-0 last season.
If it was me I would do a George Graham tomorrow morning.
I would shut this game down.If it is a one-goal game, make sure Liverpool don’t get that goal.
So do the opposite of what Arsenal normally do.For once, just for once,don’t launch stylish, fast early strikes.
I’d start Bergkamp, drop Pires, play Ljungberg on the left, and use Vieira and Grimandi in midfield with Parlour tucking in. Sit back and say : come and get us! Fight for every ball, pass sideways a bit more, and gradually create a rumble of discontent in the crowd.
The longer it goes without a goal the more nervous the Liverpool players will get. Then, as they start to wobble, make a sudden strike down the left side and score the only goal of the game.
Time remaining : 15-25 minutes.
After that it will be a siege. You would love to break away and score again, but mainly you hope to hear the final whistle.
But I don’t think Wenger will play it that way.
He will stick to his guns. He will attack and hope that Thierry Henry does better against Westerveld than he did against Neil Sullivan.
Myself, I think Thierry should shoot earlier, and go for the far post.
Stop worrying about missing the target.Every striker misses the target.It’s part of the job.
22nd December 2000.
PS. If this preview is as wide of the mark as recent efforts which flashed three feet past the far post, it will be my last preview of the season !