By Myles Palmer
JAPAN probably looked more inviting than ever to Arsene Wenger on Sunday with his friend Gerard Houllier in intensive care after cardiac surgery.
The pressure on managers is huge and it is not helped by hacks writing articles saying Arsenal’s season will be over if they don’t beat Panthainaikos.
However, people will always say there’s more pressure bringing up three kids in a council flat on 150 quid a week.
Basically, Arsenal are second in a superleague of five Premiership teams.
The gap between top and bottom, between Man United and West Ham, is now FAR bigger than it has ever been.
Leeds, at the moment, are the best team because they are the most tightly organised and have the meanest defence.
Liverpool are formidable but depend too much on Owen’s pace and goals.
Man United are strong because this year Fergie bought wisely and spinally.
Blanc, Veron and van Nistelrooy, added to Barthez and Keane, give them the strongest spine of any team in the world.Big players for big positions.
Chelsea might be the fifth challenger because Hasselbaink is better than Angel and Vassell combined.
ARSENAL v PANATHINAIKOS looks like a big game and a testing game.
The Greeks are a lot better than Southampton, who
don’t have anybody as good as Karagounis, the man who almost beat England at Old Trafford.
But I think Richard Wright can keep a clean sheet. If he can do that Arsenal only need one goal to win the game.
On Saturday an early Robert Pires goal meant that the Southampton game WAS a walkover.
Arsenal dominated totally, toying with the stuttering Saints.Vieira, fouled three times, just ignored the fouls.
TV replays showed that both Arsenal’s goals were jammy.
Pires scored the first goal after only five minutes.
Henry made the through ball, not a perfect pass by any means,too close to Wiltord,and the ball flew off Wiltord’s right shin to Pires, who converted with sublime accuracy, rolling his shot sweetly round the keeper and just inside the base of the post.
Henry missed a sitter when a Wiltord shot rebounded off the post.
Gilles Grimandi said,”It was just unbelievable. I’ve told him he should win an award for it. It’s definitely the miss of the season so far and I’ll be amazed if there is a more outrageous miss this campaign.”
Henry has fabulous feet and if he had paying more attention he would have scored comfortably with a sidefoot shot. Or, as he said on ITV, he could have controlled the ball before shooting.
The goal in football is eight feet high and 24 feet wide and the geometry of Henry missing THE WHOLE GOAL from where he was standing was astonishing, epecially when seen from behind the net.
But, on this occasion, his mistake was not important because Arsenal were always going to beat Southampton after that early strike by Pires.
Henry’s goal after 74 minutes came when he hit a shot straight at Stuart Ripley and the deflection wrong-footed keeper Paul Jones.
On Capital Radio Tony Gale said he would always play Bergkamp ahead of Wiltord if he was fit and on form. Most of us would.
Dennis had an ankle injury and may not have been able to play 90 minutes at Southampton. He may be fully fit now, or still having treatment on his ankle.We don’t know. And we are not likely to be told.
Either way, most Gooners would like to see DB10 start tomorrow night.His football brain is important, even with Pires, another good brain, in the side.
Inevitably, the media are building this one up as a must win game.
Fair enough, but ALL home games are must-win games in the UCL.
Today’s Guardian has a hilarious tactics feature by Ron Atkinson.
Big Ron says that Arsenal need somebody to make David Platt-type runs to support Henry.
What rubbish! They need a big,skilful centre forward,a Boksic-Viduka type, who can head the ball, hold it in the box and work the left near post as Henry’s partner.
Poor old Ron. I will always remember him ranting and raving on the radio after West Brom were taken apart by a Yugoslav team, maybe Red Star Belgrade.
He said something like,”We murdered them, we were all over them, they only had two attacks all night!I can’t believe we’ve lost!”
Big Ron was a master tactician even then.
15th October 2001.