By Myles Palmer
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Chelsea 1 Arsenal 1
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I did something I never, never do these days.
Went to a game as a fan, with my best mate Doug, who came up with three tickets in the West Stand Lower Tier.
Caroline,16,came with us and kept her views to herself as we sat behind six yobbos who jumped to their feet every time Zola got into the box.
It was a cracking game until Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was sent off after 70 minutes.
If Hasselbaink had stayed on, Chelsea might have won. TV replays of the altercation showed that Martin Keown’s provocation led to a backward headbutt by JFK.His head only travelled about two inches but Keown’s face was so close that contact was made.Having seen five replays, I thought it was deliberate.
But it was NOT an elbow in the face, although Keown went down as if he had been hit by an elbow.He gets involved in far too many of these incidents. The Viduka one was similar.
Main team news was that Arsene had kept faith with his new way of playing, but dropped Ljungberg to bring in Henry on the left.
Keown came in for Campbell, who was on the bench.
The first goal came from a move on the right, just like the Leicester game.
Pires was played in cleverly by Lauren. He shot fiercely , De Goey parried the ball into the body of Henry, who shovelled it in with his big boot from ten yards. So it was 1-0 after 17 minutes.
Zola won a penalty after 33.He swerved away from Keown and ran into Adams and dived.A cute and typical Zola dive, a harsh penalty award by ref Mike Riley.
JFH buried the kick without a run-up. Seaman dived the right way and got quite close to the ball without ever having a hope of saving it.
Ashley Cole was tremendously tenacious and positive. He raced forward again and again. His appetite for the game is huge and his ability to initiate moves and maintain momentum is fantastic.
At the moment Cole is much better for Arsenal than for England because he knows his team-mates so well at Arsenal.
I like the improving right wing partnerhip of Lauren and Wiltord and I alsot like the 4-3-3 with Bergkamp way up front in the middle.
I’m so glad Lauren is in the team every week now, and that Wiltord has found his role, linking with him.
Arsenal now play with width after years of playing narrow football. It means that Lauren , Wiltord and Cole zoom back and forward at high speed for the whole game. And it means that they pass the ball at shallower angles and use more passes than they did from 1997-2000.
When Pires is getting plenty of the ball and pulling the strings, Arsenal look like scoring. Grimandi had a good first half alongside him.
But Van Bronckhorst was mediocre today.
One-paced, couldn’t clear the first defender, Lampard, with his left wing corners.But he can do better and will do better. Gio is depressed. Getting knocked out of the World Cup will take a yard off anybody.
When Kanu came on he turned Terry inside out and shot left-footed before Desailly could reach him, but De Goey parried well.
Bergkamp missed two second half chances. First was a header from a Lauren cross. Second was a bad miscue from a low right wing cross.
Overall, Chelsea deserved a draw, although Lampard and Gronkjaer stunk the place out. Zenden was pretty good and new right back Gallas had his moments.
So 1-1 at Chelsea was a good result after the disruption of an international fortnight. Much better than Liverpool 1 Aston Villa 3.
And there was nothing in the game as gross and psychotic and Gerrard’s over-the-top tackle on Boateng.
For that X-certificate assault he truly deserves a three-match ban.It was almost as bad as Gazza on Gary Charles. Please Steve, DON’T be like Gazza.
How will his ban affect England v Greece?
September 9th 2001.