By Myles Palmer
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Manchester City 1 Arsenal 2
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Lauren og 9, Wiltord 47, Ljungberg 72
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You probably saw Sunday’s game on the box. You probably enjoyed it more than I did.
When I realised, after five minutes, that the French weren’t up for it, I lost interest.
Why should I be up for it, if they’re not?
It was six whole days before a France game, but the gallant musketeers didn’t wanna be out there.
Arsenal’s performance was 40% of what it had been at Middlesbrough.
Before the game, the media tiptoed round Seaman’s legend, as they always do. TV showed him shrugging and smiling and being a friendly celebrity.
Myself, I’m allergic to ancient goalkeepers.
In 1989-90 I can remember Peter Shilton being beaten by a 40 yard shot from a Luton full back. I knew then we couldn’t win the World Cup.
Pat Bonner, same thing.
In USA 94, Paul McGrath defended 15 yards deeper than he did at Aston Villa with Bosnich behind him.
Paul knew Bonner wasn’t gonna make saves. The whole Irish team knew Bonner wasn’t gonna makes saves. He was too old.
Same with Seaman in 2002. One tournament too many. They all do it. Managers, I mean.
Trevor Sinclair nudged Lauren in the back, causing him to shin an own-goal past Lehmann.
A stupid goal to concede. City centreback Distin, who was just outside his own penalty area, hoisted a 60- yard punt down the field and Lauren should have played it back to his keeper first time.
After not doing that, Lauren should have cleared the ball.
Instead he allowed Sinclair to get in a position to push him,which was hard for the ref to see.
But Lehmann, the German they said was temperamental, didn’t bawl out Lauren. He consoled him.
After 22, Arsene walked to the touchline and put his hands on his hips. He looked deeply troubled.
He looked as if he didn’t believe his eyes. As if he was thinking:Is this my team?
The stats after 36 said Man City had 59% of possession !
Then Anelka hit a rocket shot which Lehmann saved very well, diving to his left to palm round the post with both hands.
Very alert, a super-safe technique in dealing with a nasty shot.
Freddie is a box player, not a touchline player.
Freddie is as dangerous as a stick of dynamite in the box and as dangerous as stick of rhubarb on the touchline.
But, on 40, Freddie crossed well !
But Henry let the ball hit him on the stomach and bounce away.
His indecision was final.
My wife Jan shouted, “Wake up!”
And she wasn’t shouting at me.
Freddie did well, after an untidy touch, to hit a fierce angled drive towards the top corner. Seaman made a fine save, tipping it over.
After 47, Arsenal scored the best goal of the game.
A Pires throw to Cole, back to Pires, who cut inside and slid Cole behind the sleepy Shaun Wright-Phillips, a low cross, a near post stab by Wiltord as centreback Sommeil came across but, oddly, didn’t try to tackle.
So it was 1-1 and Joey Barton fouled Vieira and Lauren fouled Anelka : two yellows.
With 25 to go it didn’t look like the kind of game that would finish 1-1.
City had two chances, Anelka playing in Sibierski to shoot straight at Lehmann, who then parried a thunderbolt from Anelka which came straight at him.
After those two scares, Arsenal started to focus. But when the winning goal came it was comical, pathetic.
Henry intercepted Tarnat’s pass, found Freddie, who drew Distin out of the box and passed square to Wiltord, who obviously got a call from Pires, who was running behind him.
Wiltord flicked the ball forward into the box, so that it bounced 16 yards from goal and 10 yards from Seaman.
Chinaman Sun Jihai did Seaman no favours by attempting to hold off Pires, who almost got to the ball.
He went for a 50-50 ball with his right foot hanging back and Seaman, typically, came for it feet first, with his elbows close to his body to protect his ribs.
So the ball hit Seaman’s shin and dropped dead for Freddie to tap in from 10 yards.
Seaman had achieved the considerable feat of being more timid than Pires.
Any decent keeper would grab that ball.
It was a routine save that you see hundreds of times every week.It is his job to claim balls like that.
Keegan is well aware that Seaman has been badly at fault for 4 City goals already.
The Ayegbeni goal where he didn’t come out for a one-on-one against Portsmouth till it was too late, two headers in the following 3-2 defeat by Blackburn, where he didn’t reach two Brett Emerton corners, which were headed in by Sinclair (og) and Amoruso.
Then this bottle job against Pires, an artiste who wouldn’t kick the flower off a buttercup.
So it was 2-1 and four wins in four games, Arsenal’s best start for 56 years.
Lehmann was worried recently when he turned up late on match day due to heavy traffic.
He said that if a German player does that he is treated like a criminal. But the Arsenal boys said : Forget it, don’t worry about it.
So Lehmann loves it over here. It’s a good environment for training, very supportive, and a good atmosphere to play in.
He is new but the other players all know each other very well, so they can adjust to him.
Toure is playing in a new position, but he is not new. He knows everybody, so they can handle that change week by week.
PORTSMOUTH are due at Highbury on Saturday September 13.
The weekend’s football was quite interesting.
Did Everton let Liverpool win 3-0 so that Houllier will keep his job and be there for years?
No ! Such talk is pure mischief.
Houllier’s new scheme is 4-1-3-1 with Owen up front.
Gerrard hates the holding role because he has been feeding Owen since they were both 12 years old.
Gerrard is a powerhouse playmaker, not an anchorman.
It’s an odd system, with Smicer and Kewell interchanging, and the tenacious Diouf on the right.
Houllier is still determined to show us that Smicer is a player.
If it works it will take 6 weeks to work. But, of course, Houllier will never keep the same team for six weeks running.
Still, Kewell made the first and scored the third, so he is starting to produce.
Kewell is a special player, so I’m watching his progress closely.
Juan Pablo Angel’s comments implied that former Villa boss Graham Taylor does not play football, which we all knew anyway.
After Aston Villa beat Leicester 3-1 the Colombian striker said, “We’ve been doing things right this season. We’ve been playing football.”
Graham Taylor writes for The Telegraph. Why?
Didn’t read any reports of Southampton 1 Man United 0.
Didnt see it on PPV.
Thought I’d catch highlights on ITV last night, as billed.
But no highlights, just their cuddly pundits Big Ron, McCoist, Andy T and Robbie Earle jaw-jaw-jawing to each other.
That is radio ! Show us ten minutes of the game, you idiots!
ITV is shrinking. It could vanish altogether in 2004 or 2005.
Most people will not notice it has gone.
DAVID BECKHAM has become a commodity owned by Rupert Murdoch.
His book is with Murdoch, his American book is with Murdoch, his Sun serialisation is with Murdoch – and so is his News of the World serialisation.
And Murdoch shows us the Spanish League on Sky Sports.
Villareal host Real Madrid at 7.30 tonight on SS1.
Monday’s Sun front page was : I WIPED THE BLOOD FROM MY EYE..THEN I WENT FOR THE GAFFER. My boot brawl with Fergie.
Tuesday’s front page is a pic of Posh and Becks with the headline 2 BULLETS IN OUR POST – A scrawled note said that there was one for each of us.
Transfer window?
I never gave up hope that Jeffers would be sold. I never gave up hope that Jeffers would go on loan.
On the last day, he went back to Everton on a year’s loan.
Confirming what we already knew. Jeffers is not an Arsenal player. And AW has known for two years that Jeffers is not an Arsenal player and never would be.
Everton manager David Moyes has bought Nigel Martyn for £500,00 and winger Kevin Kilbane for £1m.
LAST NIGHT’S Evening Standard headline was Wenger : break will hurt us.
Too true. That was one of the key points about last season, which I emphasised in the update chapter of The Professor.
I sent Arsene a copy of the new paperback with a short letter.
But I won’t repeat what I said in the letter. That’s private.
International breaks damage Arsenal more than other Prem teams, I think.
Why?
Because Arsenal’s style of play is audacious. It’s highly original.
It’s very sophisticated compared to other Premiership teams.
But it needs a lot of fine-tuning. It’s is a high-maintenance style which requires constant rehearsals and fine-tuning.
I see Arsene as an auteur, a choreographer who conducts meticulous rehearsals.
On days like today he can gaze out over his empty training pitch and see a game going on, see a thrilling goal being scored.
He can enjoy that imaginary goal. He can smile. But he can’t applaud.
For Arsene, international weeks are like the sound of one hand clapping.
Right now I’m gonna find yesterday’s Guardian and read their Southampton match report.
September 2nd 2003.