By Myles Palmer
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Arsenal 1 Liverpool 0
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Bergkamp 27
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5th Round draw : Arsenal v Gillingham / Bristol Rovers
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Emile Heskey is a clumsy, dangerous brute whose World Cup place is in deep jeopardy unless he can start playing football soon.
This competitive FA cup tie was played in quite a good spirit but Heskey’s bulldozing belligerence tipped the contest over the edge.
He is so crude that he makes John Hartson look like Johann Cruyff.He should be playing NFL, ice hockey or rugby league!
Heskey made a two-footed lunge at Keown (5 min), stuck his knee into Van Bronckhorst’s face (24), and booted Vieira on the elbow just after banging Ashley Cole on the head with his forearm while both were in midair(31).
Then he pushed Vieira and pulled his shirt and got an overdue yellow card(43). After that he rammed his elbow into Richard Wright’s chest while he had the ball in his hands(57. A foul was given for that one.
Three players were sent off in the next 13 minutes. But Heskey was NOT one of them.
Keown impeded Owen.But the advancing Richard Wright might have got the ball, or the ball AND Owen.But ref Mike Riley consulted his linesman and sent Keown off.
Bergkamp, furious after a handball had not been given against Hyypia, was sent off by the linesman for a malicious-looking tackle.
TV replays showed that his studs just missed Carragher’s ankle.
Carragher should have realised that Liverpool’s 11 men had 20 minutes in which they could have equalised against Arsenal’s nine men.
But Carragher threw back a coin into the crowd RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE REF AND LINESMAN. BOTH OFFICIALS WERE A YARD AWAY!
In all my time in football, and watching games on TV from all over the world, I have never, never, never seen a player stupid enough to throw a coin back into the crowd.
So Carragher got a red card as well.
Overall, a game that had everything.
Monsoon rain,gusting wind, a pulsating atmosphere, some thrilling Arsenal attacks, some dogged defending, a miss or two by Owen, and a sulky cameo by Anelka, who was withdrawn at half time.
Anelka will not be signed by Liverpool and will be on loan for the rest of his career.He is such a berk.
What a fantastic Bergkamp goal after 27 minutes!
Wright kicked long, Henry controlled beautifully on his body, played a one-two with Van Bronckhorst, and crossed left-footed for Bergkamp to glance a running header beyond Dudek and into the far side of the goal from seven yards.
It was vintage Arsene Wenger football : sharp early passes, lightning sprints, a sudden thrust into the box and BANG!
An unstoppable goal. No defence could have stopped that goal. It was absolutely fabulous, brilliant,thrilling.
And entirely typical of the slick, sharp and unique style of football that Arsene has trained his boys to play for the last five years.When it works it is devastating.
In the first 20 minutes of the second half, Arsenal made Liverpool look like amateurs.
Then they had two men sent off and they were playing one up in a 4-3-1 formation.
Henry was very good and overall it was easily the best Arsenal have played since beating Juventus 3-1 on December 4th.
That’s now eight games unbeaten and the first clean sheet since Ipswich on December 1st
It was an excellent team performance.Tons of focus,resolve, concentration. Terrific concentration. Like the old days under Graham and the great days of 1998.
Richard Wright did well with two good saves, standing up well against Owen, parrying Riise’s rocket shot.
Wright kept a clean sheet because he got away with a miskick outside the box when Gerrard shot wide after the Owen-Keown tangle.
Vieira was 50% of himself, as he has been all season.The crowd never sang his name once.
But, interestingly, Vieira was immense in the last 20 minutes when Arsenal were down to nine men.
He hasn’t lost it, he’s not off-form. He’s just been distracted since that trip to Madrid,where he will be living from August onwards.
Sol Campbell MUST be captain next season – or sooner.
Sol was shouting, geeing people up, when things got hairy near the end of the game.
People forget that Sol was England’s youngest captain.
Arsenal didn’t miss Freddie too much and,incredibly, they didn’t miss Pires too much either after he went off injured in 20 minutes after being kneed in the kidney by Hyypia.
Pires had started the game with tight hamstrings.
42 red cards in six years under Mr Wenger!
BUT ARSENAL ARE NOT A DIRTY TEAM!
They are not angels but they are DEFINITELY not a dirty team.
42 reds seems a lot but you have to look at each one on its merits. And half of them were undeserved.
As I said last week,Arsenal will win the FA Cup.
A home draw against Gillingham or Bristol Rovers gives them every chance, even without Kanu,Lauren,Bergkamp and Keown.
If they play Spurs and Chelsea later they can beat them too.
In the meantime Arsenal are doing what most big teams do these days.
They know they can’t be passionate twice a week. They can’t play flat-out 100 mph pressing football every three days.
So they become minimalists, like Liverpool did for decades, like Man United often did through the Nineties.
They master the art of doing just enough.
They do just enough to win in most matches, saving their legs and lungs for the big games.
The trouble with Blackburn away is that Arsenal might need to play a full-on high-energy game to get three points.
We shall see. It won’t be easy on Wednesday night.
27th January 2002.