By Myles Palmer
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ARSENAL are among the top 10 clubs in Europe, but have never been in the top four.
I’m sure they will beat Lokomotiv Moscow at Highbury.
But I’m also sure they can’t get to the semi-final without another striker.
With Lehmann and Harry Kewell, I thought: game on.
Without Kewell, and missing a penalty after 31 minutes in the first game, when 2-0 down against Inter, I said to myself : “Forget it, it’s over, I can’t go through all this again.I’ve lived through it for six years, and I’ve re-lived it again as I wrote a book about it, saying that the Champions League is a learning curve and it will take three or four years.”
I’ve hoped, I’ve talked, I’ve listened, I’ve written about it on ANR, I’ve talked again, I’ve thought about it, I’ve watched the videos to see where Arsenal went wrong, and I still believe that, even though the team will beat Lokomotiv by one or two goals, that they are as far away from winning the European Cup as they were when Dixon and Parlour were sent off against Lens at Wembley.
HOWEVER, ARSENE is right when he says that BOTH Inter games were closer than 3-0 and 5-1.
Lokomotiv will not be 3-0 or 5-1.
Because the teamwork of Lokomotiv is marvellous.They are organised, fluent, solid, a well-built machine.
IN THE TRANSFER WINDOW, we expect Arsene to sign a striker.
He has a history of signing players with baggage and re-vitalising them : Petit, Overmars, Kanu, Henry, Pires.
So why not sign Rivaldo?
Like Kewell, he is left footed and can head the ball.
He wants to play and will take a big pay cut.
RIVALDO is not finished, just unhappy.
He is just trying to recover from his wife leaving him and taking the kids, so he had to fly back and forward to Brazil to arrange access.
When you are as good as he was, you can never completely lose it.
Rivaldo is a huge talent who can win big games, even now
Unlike Bergkamp, he flies.
And Rivaldo is 31, three years younger than Bergkamp.
Unlike Henry, he heads the ball.
Unlike everyone except Edu and Cole, he is left-footed and gives you balance.
Rivaldo could come to Arsenal and partner Henry and play various roles in different games. He can do a bit of everything in midfield and attack.
He is a fantastic long passer and a great shooter from distance – two things Arsenal badly need.
Arsene rarely buys older players for short-term use. He had to buy Suker because it was too late to get anyone else.
SUKER looked for ten seconds like a striker who could make a good team great.
But you could not play Suker with Overmars and Bergkamp because all of them are too diffident.
Suker was a sniper, a poacher, a specialist, while Rivaldo is a maestro, a playmaker-finisher of genius, a player with guile and bottle and endless invention.
ALL GOONERS wonder who Arsene will buy in January.
They wait and wonder if he will sign a matchwinner.
We have seen recently, again, that Thierry can set up goals for players running into the box.
And while he is doing that, and while Robert and Dennis and Freddie and Gilberto are running into the box, goals can be scored.
There are, as you know, three main ways to score a goal.
You can dribble through a defence, you can pass your way through, or you can go over the top, for which you need big men who can head the ball.
Arsenal are a team of big men who can’t head the ball.
I have never seen so many big men in one team who are all average or bad at heading the ball.
So Arsenal score fewer headers than any other top team.
That factor, more than any other, is what prevents them from jumping into Europe’s top four.
9th December 2003.