By Myles Palmer
______________________
Tottenham 2 Arsenal 2
_______________________
Vieira 3, Pires 35, Redknapp 62, Keane 90(pen)
______________________________________________________
IT WOULD have been nice to win it with a win.
And it should have been 4-0 at half time
But sloppy play spoiled my enjoyment of Arsene Wenger’s third title.
So did further idiocy by eccentric keeper Jens Lehmann.
Maybe Graham Stack should play the next four games.
Right now, it’s hard to imagine Lehmann being at Arsenal next season.
Overall, it was an end-of-term party atmosphere, during the game.
NOT IN THE STAND : ON THE PITCH, DURING THE GAME !!!
Earlier, Arsenal’s title triumph started when Ameobi made it Newcastle 1-Chelsea 1.
Joe Cole had given Chelsea a flying start, spurting onto Lampard’s pass and jabbing his shot in off Given’s ankle.
Then Ameobi scored a great centre forward’s goal,a great Alan Shearer goal : he held off Desailly before turning to slam a right-foot shot into the bottom corner.
Shearer saw that and said to himself,”That’s my goal! I do that ! I’ve been doing that for 15 years ! I’ve got a copyright on it !”
Then Shearer backed into Desailly, who gave him three yards of space, and Big Al, the biggest medium-sized footballer on this planet, turned and hit a thunderous 25-yarder high into the far corner.
What focus Shearer has !
Truly, a one-off.
So the 2pm kick-off finished 2-1 at St James’s.
Chelsea haven’t won a game since they won 2-1 at Arsenal, courtesy of Jens Lehmann.
SO NEWCASTLE had done 50% of the day’s work before Arsenal got into the tunnel at the Lane.
After 3 minutes, Vieira scored from a Spurs corner.
Henry picked up a loose ball in the D (in the D !) and raced upfield and found Bergkamp on the left, and his crossfield pass bisected the defence and allowed Vieira to stab home.
It was an absolutely fabulous run by Henry and an absolutely fabulous pass as well.
Fantastic move, typically clinical counter-attack, wonderful final ball to give Patrick a one-on-one with Given from five yards
PV4 doesn’t get many goals, but he enjoyed this one, even if he had to run 90 yards to score it.
Like Charlie Nicholas,Patrick has a happy knack of scoring against Spurs.
After 35, Vieira made the second goal, running down the left onto Bergkamp’s pass, and supplying a perfect assist for Pires to make it 2-0.
Then Henry started showboating, thinking the game was over.
It became a training game : we know we are champions, who cares if we are a bit lackadaisical, a bit sloppy, we’re winning easily.
After an hour, Arsenal could count only five goal attempts, including Henry’s best effort, a vicious shot which was going inside the near post till Keller parried it away.
After 62, Defoe found Brown, he teed up Redknapp, who fired a phenomenal right-foot shot inches inside the post.
Lehmann had no chance.
Who shot? JR.
That made it 1-2.
After that I thought Pat Rice should have been on his feet, shouting, telling them to wake up.
After 72, Pires played in Henry, who took the more difficult option, choosing a grandstand slot into a 15-inch space at the near post, but sending the ball six inches wide.
He should have aimed to the other side.
LAUREN summed up the sloppiness by throwing the ball to Kanoute inside the Arsenal penalty area !!!!!!!!!!!
Everybody was baffled, including Kanoute, who failed to capitalise.
Keep-ball is not Arsenal’s game.
Their game is scoring with three passes, not keeping possession with 23 passes.
Keep ball is OK when you are winning 3-0, but not when you are winning 2-0 or 2-1.
After 78, Henry played in Pires, who hit a terrific drive but it smashed against the underside and bounced out.
When Reyes came on for Bergkamp in 80, I wondered whether the loss of Dennis’s passing might be costly.
Reyes, as usual, did not get a decent pass.
Henry does not like sharing the limelight with this kid.
Then came the aberration by Lehmann.
A right wing corner by Brown came in and Lehmann had his glove on the top of Robbie Keane’s head, pushing him down.
The ball glanced off the face of the crossbar, and was headed away, I think by Toure.
As this was happening, ref Mark Halsey was watching Lehmann, not the ball, which was out on Arsenal’s right side, where Spurs had regained possession.
The keeper pushed Keane, who then pushed him back, harder, and Lehmann fell over.
Halsey booked both players and gave a penalty, which Robbie Keane slotted with all the aplomb he showed in the 2002 World Cup.
Robbie Keane has bottle – that is why I have always rated him so highly.
So it was 2-2 and the gloss had been taken off the big day. It would have been nice to win it with a win.
2-2 was an anticlimax.Pity.
RONALDINHO did not disappoint in Madrid, where the lion-hearted Puyol was playing, having been patched up after last week’s injury
Solari slammed in an early goal, but Kluivert came on as a sub and headed in from Van Bronckhorst’s lob.
Overmars played on the right against Carlos and did well. Keeper Nuno Valdez was awesome, clawing balls off the line.
Figo was sent off, Zidane limped off, and Raul is still not scoring
After 86, Ronaldinho won the game with an audacious lob over seven defenders, to Xabi, who flicked neatly over the advancing Casillas.
Different class from RDHO! Vision, electric improvisations, killer balls.
Ronaldinho is not the greatest player in the world, but at Barca he can become the greatest. If he wants it enough.
Barca are now unbeaten in 16 league games.
Next season they will give Valencia and Madrid and Deportivo are serious challenge for the title.
__________________________
TEAMS
SPURS: Keller, Kelly (Poyet 79), Gardner, King, Taricco (Bunjevcevic 90), Davies,Brown, Redknapp, Jackson (Defoe 45), Kanoute, Keane.
Subs Not Used: Ricketts, Hirschfeld.
Yellow card: Redknapp.
ARSENAL: Lehmann, Lauren, Campbell, Toure, Cole, Parlour (Edu 67), Vieira, Silva, Pires, Henry, Bergkamp (Reyes 80).
Subs Not Used: Keown, Clichy, Stack.
Yellow card: Lehmann.
25th April 2004