By Myles Palmer
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CAN Arsenal win in Kiev?
If they keep scoring lucky goals, yes.
Gilberto’s header hit his shoulder and went in. Edu’s header hit Hyypia’s foot and went in.
Edu’s free-kick hit Parlour in the wall and deflected past Cudicini.
And when it was 1-1 against Chesea and 75 minutes, Pires crossed and Cudicini leaned down to scoop the ball up and, incredibly, the ball went through his legs and hit Henry on the knee and bobbled in for the winner.
But give Bergkamp credit for quick thinking.
Dennis lacks pace now, but he has vision and skill.And he puts himself about.
He was fouled, the ref had the whistle in his mouth for a Chelsea substitution and put his arm in the air, but Dennis took it quickly, found Pires and he crossed into the danger area.
ARSENE is more pragmatic this season. He has a thin squad, so he has to be.
He is looking to win the last 20 minutes of every game, not blow teams away with three goals in the first 20.
Still, his team usually starts well and here they scored after 4 minutes.
CRESPO should have had two yellow cards.
Leaving the pitch without the referee’s permission is a yellow card, and so is coming on without permisssion.
To go off and sneak back on, when the defence don’t know you have been off the field, is fiendish Latin cunning.
I have never seen that before.
It was the second strangest goal I’ve ever seen, after Gary Crosby for Forest against Man City in 1990, a game I reported.
Keeper Andy Dibble was holding the ball in one hand, about to kick it, when Crosby nipped in from behind him and headed the ball out of his hand and stuck it into the net.
AND THE REF ALLOWED IT!
Major uproar !
And that was the only goal of the game !
I knew I would never see that incident again – and I never have.
Sure, Crespo hit a stunning shot that no keeper could have saved.
Ultimately, his sneaky manoeuvre did not matter because Arsenal scored again.
THE FIRST HALF was quite even, but the second half was one-way traffic.
Arsenal’s back three look rock-solid now. I’m big on spinal players.
With keeper and centrebacks in commanding form, Arsenal can beat Kiev by one goal, just as they beat Liverpool and Chelsea by one goal.
When Kolo raced forward and hit a wild shot, he ran back sheepishly. But Sol and Lauren laughed and applauded the impetuousity of youth.
Arsene brought Bergkamp and Kanu on two minutes earlier than usual. And it worked superbly.
The game was transformed – Parlour and Wiltord had lacked the craft to deliver a final ball.
PARLOUR did an interview in the club programme saying : I’m injured, I won’t be playing in this game.
He was captain. Whether he was fit enough to play is another matter.
Chelsea lack steel. They lost a lot of 60-40 balls.
Teenage centreback Huth looked nervous in the first 20, but he was only marking Wiltord, so that was not exploited.
ARSENAL played calmly, confidently, believed they were going to win. Amazingly, they did not miss Vieira.
And Plan B worked: the two subs changed what had been quite a technical game.
The arrival of Bergkamp and Kanu gave the midfield an injection of confidence.
Bergkamp’s vision is as good as ever. He made three passes that nobody else on the field would have seen. Nobody else would have seen those runs.
After those two came on, Arsenal played some great football.
And Henry showed the extent of their new pragmatism by walking the ball to the corner flag to run down the clock.
In seven years of Arsene, when have you seen his teams do that?
Now, when they are winning 2-1, they don’t need to score again to be sure. They are not neurotic. They have a great goalkeeper again.
Arsenal have grit now.They can defend a lead now. So they can dig out results, home and away.
They had one imbecilic night against Inter Milan when it all went wrong. And they crashed 3-0.
If Arsenal win in Kiev, Inter was a blip.
After losing 2-1, Ranieri admitted what I had pointed out on Saturday morning.
He said, “At Arsenal when Ashley Cole has the ball, Robert Pires or Sylvain Wiltord or Thierry Henry knows what he is going to do with it. For us, if Damien Duff has the ball, Adrian Mutu, or Hernan Crespo, do not know yet.”
JENS LEHMANN has been fantastic so far.
He is brave, experienced, a leader who takes responsibility. He organises. He shouts at his defenders. Which they need.
You must have shouters in defence. It’s vital. Without a shouter, you will NOT win a trophy.
When Lehmann let in a fierce Inter shot he could have saved, he admitted it.
Unlike Seaman, who has been in denial for six years, always saying : I feel fit, I’m as good as I ever was.
Rubbish ! That was always absolute garbage!
Lehmann got a hand to a rocket shot by Andy van der Meyhde but could not keep it out.
He admitted his mistake!
He said : I should have stopped it.
After the game Lehmann said, “I know it is down to the team to defend, but it is my job to keep out the goals. I am very disappointed and know I can perform better than that. Therefore I will have to work a bit more.”
Lehmann did not brood or sulk or make excuses.
HE OWNED UP!
That was when I was 100% sure that JL is a great signing.
The big man doubled in size when he said that.
Lehmann is a big man and you need big men when you are in the tunnel and about to walk out knowing a defeat will put you out of the Champions League as early as October 21st.
Arsenal can’t let that happen.
You can’t have winter in your heart while the leaves are still on the trees.
IN MOSCOW, Arsenal looked too quick for Lokomotiv in the first five minutes and Edu shone with some raking passes.
But Thierry could not beat the Russians on his own.
ARE KIEV better than Lokomotiv Moscow?
Yes, a lot better.
That is why Arsenal should have won in Moscow when they had the chance.
Kiev held Inter to 1-1 into injury time in the San Siro before Vieri headed the winner while they were pulling the shirt off his back.
LEKO hits some thunderous shots, shots of such alarming velocity that you just hope they flash wide.You don’t think a keeper can save them.
The lanky, dangerous SHATSKIKH can be a handful but he is NOT in great form at the moment.
Sol and Kolo will subdue him.
Shatskikh is an explosive power player, but Arsenal will muscle him out of it.
INTER COACH Hector Cuper was sacked yesterday.
That is crazy. You don’t axe a coach who finished second last year and only lost the semi to AC Milan on away goals !
But Inter is a badly run club, not a serious club like Juve or Man United or Milan, so you expect Moratti to do stupid things every year.
20th October 2003.