By Myles Palmer
Arsenal 2 Spurs Reserves 0
Saturday was K-man day.
Keown was back and he was Arsenal’s best player, although Ashley Cole was not far behind.
Kanu came on as a sub and looked sharp, strong, positive, creative, motivated.
Tony Adams missed three or four balls he would not normally miss. But this was not a normal day : his friend David Rocastle had died in the morning.
Arsenal did not play very well because they had inferior preparation, due to the international week. And because Wiltord and Henry don’t gel. And because Spurs Reserves played a back five when Spurs had the ball and a back nine when Arsenal had it.
But Arsenal won when Man United lost at home, Bayern Munich lost 3-2 at home to Werder Bremen, and Valencia lost 1-0 at home to Espagnol.
Keown found Henry early on and he hit the post with a violent shot which rebounded along the line.
Wiltord and Henry combined to put Pires in but he hit Sullivan, a bad miss after 29 minutes.
It was, possibly the most brainless first half performance by Arsenal this season.
When Freund kicked the ball AND Pires it looked as if Pires, the only player showing some craft, might have to go off. But he ran off the knock.
Wiltord volleyed the best chance of the game two yards over the bar.
Kanu came on for Lauren and had a good shot immediately.
Pires tricked right back Iversen and blasted past Sullivan after 69 minutes.
Kanu had a booming dipper parried past the post. Then he juggled the ball into Vieira’s run but Patrick telegraphed his sidefoot and Sullivan saved easily.
Then Kanu won a 50-50 in the centre circle to put Henry through and he backed Chris Perry back into the penalty area, went round him, stumbled, recovered and stabbed the ball past Sullivan, who found it hard to read the stumble or know, at the critical moment, whether Henry could get a shot in.
“Our stubborn resistance was carrying us towards a little bit of pride,” said caretaker David Pleat.
Glenn Hoddle watched the game.Will be keep Pleat? Whose job was to liase between Sugar and Graham, who have both gone now?
Will Hoddle play 3-5-2 at Old Trafford.Yes and he will look for Rebrov to nick the only goal of the game.Kanu may be the main to take on Sol Campbell this time.
But let’s not worry about that yet.
Let’s beat Valencia and keep a clean sheet.If they can do that Arsenal will be flying and they will hammer Spurs, no problem.
Young Valencia reporter I sat with said Hector Cuper is a defensive coach.
We shall see. We know that nobody wins in Valencia in the Champions League, so Arsenal MUST win in Wednesday.
Will Bergkamp be fit? I think so. Will he play? I hope so.
Interesting game.Mendieta, for me, is a bit one-paced to damage Arsenal a lot.Great goalscorewr, great quarterback , a bit like Beckham, but I just have a feeling he is not the type, of player to bother Arsenal.
Left winger Vicente is too young. John Carew is not as mobile as Angulo, so if I was Cuper I would play Angulo.
Don’t get Angloma and Angulo mixed up.
Angloma is the steel-hard right back.
The Valencia player who worries me? Kily Gonzalez. A sharp, quick left-footed winger who can score from 25 yards.
April 2nd 2001.