By Myles Palmer
Do you want to interview yourself again?
No, but it saves time.I’m short of time today.This odd format compresses, concentrates my thoughts.Maybe I can write five articles in the space of one.
What did you think of the 1-0 defeat in Athens?
It is a sequence which we all saw developing. Arsenal lost 1-0 in Munich and 1-0 in Valencia and 1-0 in Mallorca.
But Matthew Upson played well and probably saved his Arsenal career.Lauren and Cole were excellent.
The diving and cheating by Panathinaikos players was pathetic and UEFA should punish them.
But I don’t want to see Thierry Henry mouthing off at their player after the game and I don’t want to read him mouthing off in the papers. Even if I agree with most of what he is saying. Henry only had one shot in that game!
I wanna see the kind of goal Robbie Keane scored on my BBC1 Breakfast news this morning. When he powered through the Maratimo defence and blasted in the all-important first goal and did a cartwheel and punched the air fiercely and was just exploding with joy and aggression.Keane was so pumped up.
Until September 11th we have been living in a pretty bland world and we want sport to be an intense experience, an intense entertainment.
That Keane goal demonstrates the kind of passion Arsenal fans want to see. OK, Robbie Keane has been patchy in recent weeks.But, as I said in my book, he is a player Wenger should have signed.He is 20 times better than Wiltord.
Did you blame Seaman for the Karagounis header?
Absolutely! Everyone thinks he should have saved it.There was some doubt about Owen’s second goal in Cardiff, and Carew’s header had good pace on it, but this was a tame low header that Seaman would have caught in one hand in 1995.
Should Wenger have signed Dudek?
Well, we don’t know how good Dudek is yet. Houllier is a much more ruthless and judgemental character than Wenger.
He dumped Westerweld, who had helped win him three cups last season, signed Dudek and stuck him in against Villa two days later.
Villa scored three goals but none was down to the new keeper. Since then Dudek has kept three consecutive clean sheets : Dortmund, Spurs and Kiev.Seaman has not kept a clean sheet in his last six games.
OK, Liverpool are a defensive team, and Kiev are pedestrian now compared to the classy side which outplayed Arsenal. But a clean sheet is a clean sheet and Arsenal have have not kept a Champions League clean sheet since Lyon in February.
What did Thierry Henry say about Arsenal’s abysmal first half?
He said, “The most upsetting thing was that we didn’t play. In the first half we were just waiting all game, waiting for them to score a goal. That’s the only thing that can happen if you just wait – you will concede a goal. After that we went forward and you could see what happened. We had the chances but, as usual, it was too late.
“You can’t play well only in the second half and expect to win. We didn’t do it and that’s why they deserved to win.’
It seems to me that Arsene establishes a pattern of play and insists on taking it with him everywhere he goes.Before Athens he talked about focussing on “our game”.
The fundamental problem, as I see it, is that the team is unwilling to follow Arsene’s instructions and attack as much as he wants them to in the early stages of big games away from home.
They did not attack as much as they should have done in the first 74 minutes in Valencia, before Carew scored.
Arsene, like Cruyff, is a compulsive attacking coach. His defence is crumbling and his response to having a weaker defence is to attack even more. Sometimes that works, like when they beat Schalke 3-2.
So what should Arsene do now?
Revise his away tactics, obviously. Revise them by building round what his players feel is a safer way of playing.
If Arsenal lack the confidence and defensive solidity to play in an uninhibited, attacking style, as the manager wants them to, he should create a more inhibited style of play for away games until their confidence comes back.
When Thierry says,”We didnt play in the first half,” he means : I didn’t get enough support
What they have tried so far has not worked, except in Lyon, where they played really well and very tightly,keeping possession.
If you play as fast as Arsenal play, you will keep losing the ball. If you play Wiltord, you will keep losing the ball.
If you want to play 4-4-2 speed football, hit Kanu with long balls from Cole and Upson and Van Bronckhorst. Borrow a page out of the Houllier textbook. Kanu has his faults but Arsene hasn’t picked him much since his agent’s outburst, saying my man MUST be in the team.
They should be playing split strikers and practicing keep-ball before every Champions League away game.
Do you think that after four seasons in the Champions League Arsenal should have learned how to win tight games against compact, workmanlike Greek opposition?
They should beat them by one goal. Not hammer them, because nobody hammers anybody in the Champions League. It’s made up of big teams that dominate their own leagues and medium-sized teams that don’t have superstar benches, so they have to work well collectively.
Panathinaikos and Lens come into that category.In fact, Lens were better than Panathinaikos, who sat back and played a spoiling game after scoring in 25 minutes.
Panathinaikos are dead ordinary and will do zilch in Group Stage Two.
So William Hill have today shortened the odds on Arsene going to Manchester United?
With Fergie still there? No way!I do NOT believe Arsene Wenger will ever manage Man United. Kenyon is far less experienced than Dein, Kenyon doesn’t control the board there, and anyway United will not want him if Arsenal go out in Group C.
If Arsene goes to Man United then he is not the man I know and the man I wrote the book about. I will rip the book up and burn it in my back garden with all my Arsenal programmes. And I will give up football journalism because I will have proved that I’m no judge of this great game.
What about your own commitment this season? Is that fading?
I’m still waiting for this season to start. I don’t feel as if it has really started yet.I haven’t picked up the rhythm of it yet. I’ve missed two of the last three Gazzettas on Saturday morning because I’m not yet into the rhythm of the season.
There’s three reasons for that : England playing three games in August and early September, the WTC atrocity, and my son Michael going off to university two weeks ago. He is having a good time in Sheffield, but we miss him. I thought Caroline, 16, was being brave about it.But two days ago she told Jan,”This house is rubbish without Michael.” She misses him terribly.
We have all talked about Michael going, and joked about it, round the dinner table for the last year. But there’s only three for dinner now and we don’t joke as much.
I know that exactly the same thing happens to thousands of families every September, but this month has been strange for me and my enthusiasm for football is only 30% of what it was.
But it might come back at any time?
Who knows? The stuff I write here is impressionistic, subjective, moody, off the the top of my head – and I think regular readers realise that.
Some of the things I said in my book, some criticisms of Arsene, seem more true this month than ever before, so I worry about him.And I hope the book has not upset him. I don’t think it will have.He is too busy to worry about what journalists say.
Managing a big club is a lonely job for anybody, and it is even lonelier for a man who sticks so stubbornly to his ideas as Arsene does.
What’s the bottom line?
The bottom line is this : the only man who can turn Arsenal round is Arsene Wenger.
A football team means something slightly different to each fan and journalist.It fits into each person’s life in a slightly different way – it can be a hobby, an interest, a talking point, a way of life, or an unhealthy obsession.
My view of Arsenal has slowly become, since 1986, very personal. I’m always happy when the manager does things I agree with.And I’m disappointed when he does things I disagree with.
Unfortunately, many of Arsene’s recent selections have baffled me. I would have started van Bronckhorst with Vieira and had Ljungberg wide right.
VB is more strategic, has more defensive awareness, might have prevented their goal – and he can hit longer passes.Against three centrebacks I would have brought Kanu on as soon as Panathinaikos scored.
For some of us it is hard to switch football off. My mate Stewart Joseph suddenly invited me to see soul singer Lynden David Hall at the Borderline last night.
I had been in the gym at 8.30 a.m. so I was knackered, but the gig was fun. Stewart is a Gooner, so there we were at 11p.m. at the top of Tottenham Court Road talking about Arsene’s team selections.
Will Arsenal beat Derby away and Southampton away?
Yes.
Would you drop Seaman,Wiltord and Parlour?
Yes, definitely.
28th September 2001.