By Myles Palmer
Arsenal’s 0-0 in Moscow looks better after Chelski surprisingly lost at home to Besiktas.
Rotation 0 Besiktas 2 would have been my headline.
Ranieri surpassed himself with 5 changes.
His switch from 4-4-2 to 3-5-2 was a catastrophic own-goal.
Football is about ensemble play, partnerships,angles, understandings,confidence in the movement of your teammates.
Chelsea didn’t have any of that, so Claudio took Mutu and Crespo off at half-time.
Arsenal’s away point also looks better after Manchester United crashed 2-1 in Frankfurt, their goal courtesy of an outrageous penalty dive by Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Arsenal defence played well in Moscow.
Lehmann came boldly out of his area, heading balls and kicking balls.
Kolo Toure improves with every game.
He had to after Inter, where he allowed Martins to get goalside of him and was having to make miraculous recovery tackles.
Keown is a great partner for Toure. Both made some great blocks on a night when almost every shot by both teams went straight down the goalkeepers’ throat.
Ashley Cole is playing very well again.
Gilberto and Edu were good.
Yes, Edu took some of the worst free-kicks in football history.
But he wasn’t helped by players not making runs to head the ball, which made him look really stupid a couple of times.
As I figured, Henry could not beat Lokomotiv on his own.
But Arsenal could still have won. They were very close to scoring three times.
And if Wiltord was a competent footballer, they would definitely have won that game.
DYNAMO KIEV played like soldiers against Inter in Milan,collectively fierce and brave.
Lanky dangerman Shatskikh had an off-night, but thunderboots Leko scared Toldo with some 25-yard cannonballs.
Awesome warrior Christian Vieri came off the bench and shrugged off criminal shirt tugs to head the winner, the ball flashing in off a defender’s shoulder.
JUVENTUS came back from an early goal by Olympiakos to win 2-1, both goals by Pavel Nedved, who was looking exceptionally bright in the Serie A clip I saw last weekend.
Nedved has a mission, having missed the AC Milan final at Old Trafford.
JUVENTUS are a serious club whose serious team has a phenomenal work ethic. They will win the Champions League in 2004.
REAL SOCIEDAD are a team I love, so I was glad to see Xabi Alonso score with a sensational late header to beat Glatasaray in Istanbul.
Nihat the electric Turk set up Kovacevic for the first goal and Hakar Sukur got a good toepoked equaliser, a lovely centre forward’s goal.
Xabi Alonso is an exciting young player. He’s like David Platt with skill.
That phrase reminds me of John Evans, my old flatmate, who was a plugger with CBS Records.
John came back from Wembley one night raving about Trevor Francis. He said, “He was like Channon with skill!”
DIDN’T SEE much of the Frankfurt game as I was mainly watching Porto v Real Madrid, a fiery all-Latin encounter that was intense and fascinating.
Costinha headed in a rebound to put Porto ahead and then Zidane went of with blood pouring from his skull, after a knee hit him accidentally.
Helguera and Solari put Madrid 2-1 up at half-time. Zidane made it 3-1.
I doubt if other clubs could go to Porto and win 3-1.Even Juventus.
ON THURSDAY I went to the AGM, which was livelier than usual.
Haven’t got time to write it up right now.
I will just say this : Danny Fiszman is a great guy whose authority is growing year by year.
Four years ago Danny was notorious for his silence. But he has been gradually growing into the role.
George Graham said in his book that Danny Fiszman should be the next chairman of Arsenal.
ALEX FYNN gave me a copy of his new book, The Glorious Game, and introduced me to Geoff Klass, the big new shareholder.
Geoff turned out to be a chunky, charming, dynamic kind of character wearing a really beautiful suit.
He would do. He owns the upmarket Herbie Frogg menswear shops.
Alex also introduced me to a slim thirtysomething lad, Alex Phillips (a senior manager at UEFA), who said he had read The Professor and enjoyed it, but he disagreed with some of my theories towards the end.
LIVERPOOL v Arsenal tomorrow morning?
Watch out for another Harry Kewell handball.
October 3rd 2003