By Myles Palmer
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Middlesbrough 0 Arsenal 4
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Henry 3, Gilberto 12, Wiltord 22 , 60
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SHORT MATCHES will improve Arsenal’s disciplinary record.
This was a very short match.
It was one of those games where, after only 2 minutes, you wish you’d had a bigger bet on Arsenal.
It was so obvious. Even before the first goal, it was obvious.
It was men and boys. No contest.
After 3, Henry knocked in the loose ball after Schwarzer saved Ljungberg’s shot from the right.
THE GAME WAS OVER AFTER THREE MINUTES !
After 12, Pires combined with Cole, who made a
rocket-propelled overlap, and picked out Gilberto with a crafty ball cut back from the left, allowing the Brazilian to volley in a bouncing shot from 15 yards.
Then Sol mistimed a power header which could have been 3-0 in 17 minutes.
Wiltord’s volley for the third came after another typical Arsene-attack, slicing through Boro like a rapier.
This was the kind of goal Liverpool could score if the dimwit Houllier played Kewell as a half-striker, rather than on the right wing.
IT WAS ABOLUTELY FABTASTIC !
Pires was ten yards behind the centre circle when he knocked a classic middle-to-left ball down the channel and Thierry zoomed onto it and cruised into the box and clipped the ball across Wiltord to knock in from six yards.
He popped the ball into a tiny space between the third and fourth defender, at a nice height for his mate to stab in. It was sweetly improvised and uncannily accurate.
Wiltord didn’t have to jump or stretch. He just stuck his foot outand guided the ball past the helpless Schwarzer.
Ronaldo couldn’t have made that pass. Totti couldn’t.Shevchenko couldn’t.
Its hard to think of any player who could.
Maybe Overmars.
It was one of the finest goals that Arsene’s Arsenal have everscored – and that’s saying something about a team that scores Goal of the Month almost every week.
This was the kind of Arsenal move that AW has worked long and hard to create on his training pitch: a killer pass, an explosive run, an assist of sublime subtlety, an unstoppable finish.
Pires-Henry-Wiltord : 3-0.
This is where the Professor gets his kicks, watching his boys create flashes of lightning, scoring wonder goals.
He has created a style of play that nobody can copy because nobody else has Vieira and Pires and Henry.
LEHMANN had made two good saves from Nemeth, so it wasn’t totally one-way traffic.
But when Henry glanced a header just wide on 40, a fourth goal looked likely.
Would Bergkamp come on and score a couple, as he did here two years ago?
After 60, Campbell’s diagonal pass found Ljungberg turning sweetly in a borderline offside position and passing across the goal for Wiltord to jab in for 4-0.
Lehmann made a fine diving save from Juninho, who had cleverly beaten two defenders in the D .
On 74, Bergkamp, Edu and Parlour came on for Wiltord,Ljungberg and Pires.
There were no further goals.
There are a lot of shifts and shuffles within a team during a season and we are watching one now : Wiltord is a striker again.
He has been a wide right player.
For the last two years or more a £12 million Frenchman has been understudying a £3million Swede.
Wiltord has started a lot of games, but often because other players have been injured.
It’s a paradox : somebody who hasn’t really been a first eleven player, but has played a helluva lot of games for the first team.
Pre-Pires, Freddie played on the left, replacing Overmars.
When Pires came, Freddie played on the right in the Double season and scored 17 goals.
On Sunday two goals came from Freddie’s side: the first and the fourth.
Obviously, the team is different now.Because when Dennis plays, Freddie gets in the box and scores.
When Dennis doesn’t play, Freddie scuttles along the touchline,which is not really his game.But it worked at the Riverside.
Overall, a good work-out before Aston Villa on Wednesday night.
Lehmann’s concentration looked very good again. Having nothing to do, then making two good saves from Nemeth.
Then having nothing to do until 73 – and making a fine save from Juninho.Excellent.
Jens Lehmann is a top man, as I knew he would be.
Cole was flying and Vieira was omnipotent.
Toure showed raw power, endless enthusiasm. A footballer with a Formula 1 engine, improving from game to game.
REAL MADRID started well in Mallorca when Beckham’s left wing corner reached the unmarked Figo, who allowed the ball to bounce and hit his stomach before scoring the first in the Spanish Super Cup first leg.
But Ronaldo was ridiculously sloppy, Roberto Carlos wasn’t as good as Ashley Cole, and Mallorca played some good stuff before Dutchman Arnold Bruggink made it 1-1.
Then Samuel Eto’o was left unmarked on the right, so he scored the winner.
Carlos was AWOL on that goal. Maybe he didn’t wanna be nutmegged again by Eto’o, as he was on May 4th, the last time these teams played.
Mallorca won 5-1 in Madrid that time. Eto’o knocked it between Carlos’s legs, exploded past him in the box and whipped the ball into the net before Casillas could move. Electrifying !
Looks like that Far East shirt-flogging tour has knackered the all-white aristocrats.
Madrid have sold out. Simple as that.
Real Madrid have sold out: sacked Del Bosque, dumped Hierro, alienated Makelele, and started making decisions based on marketing rather than football.
Makelele was the linchpin of the team last year.Without Hierro,even more so.
As Keith Burkinshaw said, on being sacked after Spurs won the UEFA Cup in 1984, “There used to be a football club over there.”
If Arsenal played Real Madrid now, they would annihilate them.
But they can’t play them till after Xmas.
For seven years, Arsene Wenger has been waiting for Arsenal to play Real Madrid.
He has never mentioned it, but he’s been building up to it for seven years. I’ve never mentioned it because it was always too soon to mention it.
But I have a funny feeling that this is the season when that long-awaited contest will finally happen.
Arsenal are seeded 5th in Europe by UEFA.
Fifth is not bad.
26th August 2003.