By Myles Palmer
A friend says fiery Freddie Ljungberg came back from the corner, after celebrating the first goal against West Ham, with tears in his eyes.
One of my lifelong Gooner pals phoned tonight and said, “When Freddie scored he broke down. But nobody saw it, nobody picked up on it. The emotion of that moment was just too much for him, it was like Gazza in 1990. But he still got himself together and made the second goal.
“Thierry Henry was terrible. He took every free-kick.Why? The free-kick thing is ridiculous now.
“After the first one I saw Patrick Vieira talking to Dennis and I thought : OK, Dennis will take the next one. But when the next one came up, Dennis walked away and Thierry put it a yard past the post.It was a good chance to score and he wasted it.”
Personally, I would not have Henry taking free-kicks. It’s been ridiculous all season, not just recently.
It’s a boring subject and having written about it once or twice already I gave up.
Because it’s something fans are always talking about. Most people think Henry’s free-kicks are appalling, a joke. And they don’t need me to tell them how bad his free-kicks are.
But I have to say that Dennis isn’t Stoichkov, isn’t Koeman, isn’t Zola, isn’t Beckham.
I’ve been watching Dennis hit the wall with 19 out of 20 free-kicks for five years.
So it’s a weak area for the team.
But maybe Arsenal can win the double without taking good free-kicks.
25th April 2002