By Myles Palmer
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PSV Eindhoven 0 Arsenal 4
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Following my tirade about ITV here, ANR reader Alan Seifert invited me to watch the PSV game at his place.
All I had to do on Wednesday, when London’s 600 tube drivers were on strike, was to get a bus to Marble Arch, and walk along to his cousin Alexis’s law office in Mayfair.
Alexis is my lawyer. Bought our house in 1976, successfully sued my first book publisher circa 1980, a lifelong Gooner.
Between Marble Arch and Oxford Circus I went into two book shops.
In Books Etc the lad apologised for having only two copies of The Professor in paperback, which I signed. He said they had more on order. At Borders they only had two copies left. But the assistant dug out two copies of the hardback, so I signed those as well.
We cruise down to Chelsea, Alexis parks his Jag on the pavement, leaps out to buy two bottles of vino, and we reach Alan’s flat before 7 p.m.
Alan says, “I’ve been nervous all day.”
Alexis is sure Arsenal will win.
Before the game I say,”This game is a door which you go through into another room, another space,another level. If we can win tonight we go through a door which will take all meaning out of the past.”
I almost believed that when I was saying it.
The game kicks off and Gilberto scores after 20 seconds and these diehard Gooners jump to their feet, punching the air.
The last time I jumped out of my chair while watching football on TV was when Micky Thomas scored at Anfield in 1989.
The first half is fast, intense, like a Premiership game.
The second half is like a Champions League game, much slower.
After 5 minutes KEZMAN proves to be a plonker, heading wide from four yards after a fine cross by Rommedahl.
After 10, Kezman is two yards offside but still abuses the linesman.
KEOWN pulls his left hamstring and CYGAN comes on and plays with huge authority. He’s only been here ten minutes but he is very composed.
Did GUUS HUDDINK tell his team : kick Arsenal until the ref makes you stop?
That’s what PSV did.
Van Bommel’s ferocious late tackle flattens Vieira after only 11 minutes.
But I love Van Bommel. A Dutch Graeme Souness with pace. Like Souness, he raises clogging to an art form.
A minute later No 2, Ooijer, fouls Vieira again, then he kicks Bergkamp, then he kicks Vieira again and gets booked.
After 22, CYGAN makes a superb block to prevent a left wing cross reaching Kezman.
When Van Bommel splits the Arsenal defence with a through ball which finds Kezman onside, Seaman makes a cool,commanding one-on-one save.
After 27, Guus gets radical, bringing on Leandro for Vogel, who lost the ball to Freddie before the goal.
Leandro is 18, a dainty dribbler who flicks the ball over Freddie’s head, just to remind us that he’s Brazilian, and zooms away.
Bergkamp fouls Van Bommel, Kezman sends a diving headerwide, Freddie gets goalside of Ooijer, who shoves him down.
It’s a hectic game and the ball is in Arsenal’s box far too much for my liking.
Both teams have been shocked and rocked by the early goal, and Arsenal sit back too much and ride their luck. The early goal has eliminated all sense of two teams sparring with each other.Both are throwing haymakers !
When HOFLAND lunges, trying to get in front of Bergkamp, he injures himself just before half time.
Hofland doesn’t reappear, Van Bommel drops back into defence, plays like Beckenbauer,a fine strategic intelligence.
He could play in any team. He should be at Milan, Barca, some mega-club, not wasting his life away in a team of donkeys like this.
After 66, LAUREN does brilliantly to win the ball and play a sublime 30 yarder through for flying Freddie, who scores from a narrow angle.
It’s now 9 goals in his last 11 games for Arsenal.
At 2-0, it’s over.Freddie’s movement has been crucial in both goals.
Henry’s first goal : he takes a pass from Kanu, holds off his man, bangs it in with his right foot.
As Arsenal have become stronger and more confident, Henry has become more irrepressible, more unplayable. His coup de grace is a one-two with Wiltord, a turbo-charged spurt into the box, a killer finish, left foot.
PSV have conceded only one goal in five league games. But Arsenal have gone there and hammered them out of sight.
LETHAL FINISHING !
Vieira is phenomenal. And give Gilberto credit for sprinting so far forward so early in the game, and for finishing neatly when some players might have let the ball hit them and bobble wide.
Two games, two wins, six goals, two clean sheets, Auxerre away next week.
But remember: it was dodgy for a long spell in that first half.
The chances that Kezman wasted, Raul would have buried blindfolded. Crespo would have scored them, Luis Enrique would certainly have scored them, also Saviola and Di Vaio (who stayed too long at Parma).
BERGKAMP didn’t do much. Will Arsene will rest him at Leeds, save him for Auxerre?
Disgusting racial abuse from some thugs as Henry was taking those corners.
In the 21st century it’s hard to believe that poeple still behave like this, especially in a liberal country like Holland.
One of UEFA’s main sponsors is Philips, who used to finance PSV, once their works team.
UEFA at last have the appetite to address racism in grounds.So let’s see what they do. They should fine PSV and hunt down the guilty thugs.
Arsenal are now in the top six with Milan, Juventus, Valencia,Barcelona and Real Madrid.
The Champions League is between those six-forget about Man United and Bayern !
It’s been an incredible week of football.
What a hat-trick by Yakubu Ayegbeni, the 19 year old Nigerian kid for Maccabi Haifa against Olympiakos.
Ayegbeni will be playing in the CL for years, but not for an Israeli club.
Today I went to the AGM and will write something here in at the weekend.
That’s enough for tonight, folks.
Oh, one little story from Alan.
Round the corner from his flat is a newsagent’s shop which sells foreign papers, so many customers are Italian, French, Dutch. Ruud Gullit was a customer.
Fulham manager Jean Tigana lives nearby and Alan always sees him there in the morning. Yes, always with a toothpick.
Two weeks ago Tigana is in the shop when Hugh Grant, a Fulham supporter, comes in.
The movie star shakes Tigana’s hand, tells him he’s doing a smashing job.
Unfortunately,Tigana doesn’t know him from Adam.
After Hugh has gone out, Tigana asks the newsagent,”Who is that guy?”
26th September 2002.