By Myles Palmer
ARSENAL play marvellous football and keep losing.
Liverpool play rugged, scrappy football and keep winning.
Manchester United play patchy football but score late goals.
Which club will be champions?
Blackburn boss Graeme Souness admitted Arsenal could have won 5-2 on Saturday.But they lost 2-1.
Arsene said,”Against Everton, Auxerre and Blackburn today we had eight shots against us and conceded six goals. But we have very good mental strength and have been in this situation before. We will stick together and respond in our next game.”
EIGHT SHOTS, SIX GOALS CONCEDED?
That’s nothing to boast about!That’s a shocking stat that proves something is wrong, that they have been carved open decisively three games in a row.
How? Because they lack defensive stability. The back four do not play as a unit.They defend spaces,leaving men unmarked.
Radzinski ripped Cygan apart last week.Sol gave Wayne Rooney ten yards to turn and shoot.
Rooney himself said: I knew there wasn’t long to go. Too true. It was the 90th minute. If it had been the 80th minute Rooney might have passed the ball.All the more reason to get tight on him.
Against Blackburn they conceded six minutes into the first half, and six minutes into the second.
They missed Vieira hugely, but they still should have had more stability in defence.
Even so, I’m a bit bemused. I thought Bergkamp would start and I didn’t reckon Edu would volley an own-goal after six minutes.
Sol could have done better on his block attempt as Yorke crossed that ball from the right side.
On 45, Edu hit the equaliser from a free-kick which looked as if it had been rehearsed, with Cygan ducking under his fast inswinger.
After Bergkamp and Pires came on (63), the chances multiplied.
Arsenal had 27 goal attempts and 14 on target.
But Brad Friedel made many saves and three world class saves, the best being a late left-handed one from Wiltord.
On 51, Tugay slid a penetrating ball between Campbell and Lauren for Ostenstad, whose square pass beat Cygan, and Yorke’s finish was refrigerated, an ice-cool clip past Seaman.
Lauren did not instinctively cover Ostenstad’s run. Campbell signalled, screamed at him.But it was too late.
Sol was yelling at players all through the game. Maybe he should have been captain, not Seaman, but Arsene always observes seniority, rather than risking something more radical.
Lauren’s fatal moment of ball-watching is what happens when an attacking coach uses a midfielder at right back because he is a reliable passer.
That’s part of the equation.That’s a risk Arsene takes in every game.
Not that Spurs right back Stevie Carr was any better at Liverpool.
It’s 1-1 with five minutes left and Carr makes a sucker tackle on Owen to gift him the winning penalty. Carr, more than Lauren, should know better. He was mugged.
Right now the biggest difference between Liverpool and Arsenal is Michael Owen, although Dudek is also important.
Henry is far more skilful, far more creative than Owen. But Owen is stronger mentally, more focused.
So Owen will always score more goals in big games. He will win big games for you because he has a winner’s mindset.
Henry has not scored in Arsenal’s last five games. Wiltord has not scored in the last nine games.
Going to Dortmund off three defeats,Henry is not a striker I would put money on.
After firing blanks for five games,and playing in a team that’s has just lost three, I don’t fancy him on Wednesday night.
I’ve predicted wins in a lot of games that Arsenal have not won.I’ve had flak for that.And for other mistakes and misjudgements.
I don’t normally fancy Henry in away games in Europe and I definitely don’t fancy him in Dortmund.
To be brutally honest, I didn’t really fancy Arsenal in Dortmund when they were looking invincible.
Borussia Dortmund are one of the tightest, most technical defensive units in the Champions League.
They knock the ball around very well in their own half.
There is a tough,organised accuracy about the way they play.That’s why it took Bergkamp an hour to score the first goal at Highbury, where Arsenal won 2-0 on September 17.
Dortmund didn’t have Rosicky and Amoroso in that game, their two most creative forwards.
On Saturday their Brazilians Ewerthon and Dede starred in a 4-1 away win at Werder Bremen.They are seond in the Bundesliga.
Bergkamp’s not travelling, we are told.So if Arsenal win it will be their best European result ever.
Gooners fear November, so often a black month.
My pal Stewart Joseph phoned last night and said,”October is the new November!”And I said, “That’s my headline!”
SATURDAY NIGHT we went to the Soho Theatre to see Playing Fields, a play written by Neela, a friend of Caroline’s.
Neela goes to a young writer’s workshop, the actors do readings of new work, and they decided to put on Bright, a play by Polly,24, and one by Neela, 17.
Michael came down from Sheffield to join us. It’s intense,fast-moving,ingenious, serious – and 75 minutes seem to fly by in 45.
The five actors are excellent and Phoebe Thomas, the redhead who plays Thyme, is magical.
In the bar afterwards director Lisa tells me Phoebe is 19. I know that Lisa auditioned 40 girls before choosing her.
A bit later I chat to Phoebe and ask if she’s done any telly. She says she’s been in Teachers and Night And Day, a raunchy soap that goes out at 12.30 a.m. She says it was very helpful to have Neela there at rehearsals.
I tell her that Neela and her pals are a very bright, idealistic bunch who want to save the planet, that Rowena spent £1,700 of her own money printing pretty environmental posters with slogans on them.
Then the gang went out and pasted them up all over London.
Two were arrested in Fleet Street.
One said to the police,”Please don’t fine me – I haven’t got any money!” The other said,”Please don’t tell my Mum and Dad!”
I tell her that Caroline’s screensaver is a picture of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the Johannesburg Earth Summit with one of Rowena’s posters behind him on the platform.
Phoebe Thomas is an electric young actress who not only shines onstage, but is also gracious offstage, for she seems fascinated to hear all this stuff from a scruffy middle-aged parent.
The two plays are on till Saturday and senior management from Hampstead School is going down. Hope they have been been briefed to expect an explosion of idealism, angst, sex, lesbianism and swearing.
EIGHT of us get the tube home and the playwright gives us all a kiss before she gets off at West Hampstead.
An entertaining night out, great fun. Thanks, Neela!
Last thing I do before going to bed at 1.15 a.m is check The Sunday Times online. I know that Rob Hughes was at Chelsea v West Brom.
Rob notes that the little genius is older than the mother of last week’s headline-maker.He writes :
In Gianfranco Zola — who at 36 is older than Wayne Rooney’s mum — Chelsea still possess one of the most impish delights in English football.
Zola is older than Rooney’s Mum.I love it!
27th October 2002.