By Myles Palmer
LAST WEEK Robbie Keane did nothing against Arsenal and they thrashed Spurs 3-0.
Today at Southampton another of my favourite strikers, Marian Pahars, is likely to face Sol, Oleg and Cygan.
Pahars is under-rated.A feisty,quick, bold, two-footed winger-striker who gets in where it hurts and finishes well.
Pahars can make his own goals, like Overmars did, but he can also get on the end of crosses and passes.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that Pahars is coming back from injury and I reckon that he would need to have played the last five games and scored at least two goals in those five games to be a big threat to Arsenal.
To do what Pahars does, you gave to be very fit and sharp and confident.
I fancy day of near-misses for the Latvian, against Seaman, who is back in goal.
Arsene’s been saying that he would like to win the league from the front.
That he’s always much happier being top of the table rather than second and needing to catch up.
He won his Monaco title like that in his first season.
I once asked him whether they won the league in a home game or an away game and he said they won it without playing.
Their rivals played the day before, didn’t win, and it was then mathematically impossible for Monaco to be caught.
THE PROF WOULD LOVE TO DO THAT WITH ARSENAL !
WHY? Because he hopes to be still in the Champions League in April and aiming at the final at Old Trafford.
Today’s noon Sky game is Man United v Newcastle.
In recent months, as tough, hungry,compact Everton, bossed by David Moyes, the coach Ferguson wanted as his No.2, have effected a revival, Man United’s all-stars have continued to stutter and stumble and get a lot of bad press.
The Sun says Ferguson has written a letter to each player telling them not to speak to the press without his permission!
The two most interesting stories of the week were Mike Phelan and Houllier slagging off Stevie G.
Mike Phelan was United reserve coach and has now been promoted to first team duties, with Ricky Sbrabia being pinched from Sunderland to take the reserves.
With assistant manager Carlos Queiroz taking training, United had become dreadful.
They had started to look Veronised,started to play like Portugal, pretty football, loads of flash passes, passes with the outside of the foot, giving the ball away again and again and again and again.
A shambles, nothing like the compact 442 machine that devoured all before it like a combine harvester, flattening teams like fields of wheat, looking so invincible that opponents were beaten before they went on the pitch.
Why was Queiroz brought in?
To give them a bit of sophistication? To help them win the Champions League again by adding something to United in big European games?
Queiroz is almost Fergie’s age, Jim Ryan’s age (Ryan was the stopgap when Steve McClaren left)and they needed a younger coach, someone who was the same age as Brian Kidd when he started the job, or McClaren, when he took training.
Kidd and McClaren were very, very important to United’s successes.
And Fergie would be the first man to admit that.
United next two Prem games are Liverpool away and Arsenal at Old Trafford on December 7th.
I don’t think United will win at Anfield.And I don’t think they will beat Arsenal either,with or without Keane, who might be back.
To beat Newcastle today, United will have to play more like Everton. More like Newcastle, in fact.
And we know that Shearer does not like Fergie.
Big Al thinks Fergie should have tapped him up at Southampton, phoned him against the regulations, as Kenny Dalglish kept doing.
Alan Shearer would love it, just love it, if he scored his 100th goal for Newcastle at Old Trafford today.
Liverpool to win at Fulham? Maybe.
Houllier blaming Gerrard for their CL exit reminded me of the time he called Ginola’s error “criminal” when France failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup.
Very harsh. Whatever an Arsenal player does or doesn’t do, he knows that Arsene would never slaughter him in public like that.
Have a good weekend!
10 a.m. Saturday 23rd November 2002.