By Myles Palmer
Am I optimistic?
Yes.
Why?
Because Arsenal have won only three of their last 11 Premiership games.
They are better than that.
Arsenal have to be better than that.
I expect them to beat Leicester now that Adams and Bergkamp are back.
Dutch tax laws delayed Bergkamp’s signing of his new contract.
Now that’s all sorted it is time for him to turn it on.
He’s talking a good game, saying he has a lot of football left in him.
I think he has.
Bergkamp says Wenger’s rotation has not worked.
I agree with him on that as well.
And Dennis, like Vieira, will benefit hugely from the arrival of Edu. He can play further forward and receive better passes.
I said months ago that Edu would come. And I always thought he would be a great player.
Now Vieira, after training with Edu, says, “He’s a fantastic player.”
That’s good enough for me – and you!
And Wenger waited for him. He could have signed somebody else. But he waited for Edu because he is the missing link, a long-passing,ball-holding, left footed playmaker who can re-balance the team at last.
Leicester are fragile without Neil Lennon. Because Lennon, with help from Muzzy Izzet, was Leicester City. He was the short-ball man,the Irish Peter Reid, who knitted it all together.
Martin O’Neill is a passionate guy who inspired Leicester to play passionately.
New manager Peter Taylor is a tactical guy who spends all day teaching them how to play 3-5-2.
Taylor is son of Hoddle but even Hoddle can’t name one club side that has consistently won trophies playing 3-5-2.
Mancini? A creative half-striker who was 80% as good as Baggio, who the greatest half-striker of the last 20 years. He was long in the tooth when he played for Sampdoria against Arsenal in the Cup Winners Cup in 1995.
So I’m convinced that Arsenal will beat Leicester 1-0 just as they beat Middlesbrough 1-0.
But it might be a draw if the rusty, timid Seaman bottles another punch(like Chelsea) or Silvinho (who has moments when he is a ball-watching Kenny Sansom clone) lets a man come inside him on the far post (like Charlton).
19th January 2001