By Myles Palmer
I prefer Arsenal as a second half team. Because most matches are decided in the last half hour.
Man United, they came from 1-0 down to win 3-1.
Aston Villa, they came from 2-0 down to win 3-2.
On Wednesday Chelsea was the classic 1-0 down and 2-1 up.
Mostly we have seen, for five years or more, Arsenal playing smooth rapier foootball in the first half hour of home games.
They hit the ground running and shooting – and sometimes they stab frequently and fatally in those 30 minutes.
But over the years, and more often these days, visiting teams ride the storm,concede only one goal or none, and come back to score themselves.
Leeds scored the winner after 52 minutes, Viduka, and you could tell after 75 minutes that Arsenal were not going to save the game. That was in August, a long, long time ago.
The 3-3 v Blackburn was in September.
The 4-2 defeat by Charlton was in October and that was when the season bottomed out. That was as bad as it will get, I think.
Basically, if Arsenal are only going to play well in one half of the game,I prefer them to play in the second half.
They started lethargically against Chelsea.
Why? Because of playing at Liverpool last Sunday.They were a bit stale and flat and one-paced because they’d played an hour with ten men at Anfield.
They won the game 2-1 and with five days rest they
would have been flying.
I don’t care how much broccoli and pasta you eat, or how much mineral water you drink, with only three days rest you are NOT gonna be able to play at 100 m.p.h.
Arsenal were cream crackered on Wednesday.
So it was a tight, scrappy game against Chelsea, and Arsenal never got out of second gear in the first half.
Vieira had not played at Anfield was well off the pace, and often smothered by three players on that left side.Was he reminiscing about the old days, playing with Manu?
Compared to the perforamnce I had expected, it was dull stuff : no acceleration, no buzz, no width – a cramped narrow game in which Arsenal were being tactically outsmarted.
No wonder they fell behind : a Melchiot throw, chested by Hasselbaink, rebounded off Vieira for Lampard to smack low into the bottom corner in 32 minutes
Second half, Arsenal had to improve.Van Bronckhorst came out for Parlour.
Sol Campbell headed in a corner from four yards in 49 minutes for 1-1.
Cudicini claimed he had been obstructed by Kanu, moaned, got booked.
Replays showed Kanu standing in front of the keeper, and Melchiot standing in front of Kanu.I saw no foul, only a fine Italian keeper whose pride had been stung.
So Sol scored his first goal.Important! For him, for Arsenal.It should be the first of many, if they bother to practice corners as they should do.
Then came the melee after a mild collision between Vieira Hasselbaink.
Le Saux was so lucky not to get a red card for tanking into
Vieira while he was on the deck, leading with his foot into Patrick’s knee and then with his forearm into his head!
Since Graham Barber booked Le Saux, the FA can’t review video evidence and give him further punishment.
After 70, Van Bronckhorst took a free-kick, Melchiot headed out and Wiltord, on for Ljungberg, smashed a shot which bounced twice and went into the bottom corner.
Arsenal’s two best players were Sol Campbell and Ashley Cole. Pires was good, but not great as usual
So that’s my new thesis : I prefer them as a second half team.
You can show your speed and skills in the first half hour, or show your guts in the last half hour.
The first option is the beautiful game, which I love, while the second option is the winning game, which I love even more.
If you need to win tight, scrappy games,of which there will be many from now on, the latter approach will probably be more effective.
It’s a 96-minute game these days and the last 30 minutes are usually crucial.
Arsenal are second after 19 games and they are now realising that the next 19 will include many close games like the Chelsea game.
So they need to be strong from 66-96 minutes and I doubt if they can do that if they use up half their energy trying to score four goals in the first half hour.
That’s where their problems have often come these past two years : they don’t score the second goal often enough.
So maybe is better to save your best efforts for that part of the game where the result will be decided.
Thinking about this,thinking about Vieira not tackling as much as he once did, I started remembering Ossie Ardiles.
I watched Ardiles closely for years and it was my private, never published thesis that although Ossie was not strong enough to to play 90 minutes HE SOMEHOW MANAGED TO CONCENTRATE HIS EFFORTS INTO THAT SECTION OF THE GAME WHERE THE RESULT WAS DECIDED.
Ardiles was a World Cup winner. Vieira is a World Cup winner – and maybe he could do the same for the second half of this season. Just another of my whacky ideas?
We shall soon see about first halves and second halves. Middlesbrough are shabby right now and Arsenal might be able to blow them away in the first half.
But I doubt it. I expect a long match against Boro, not a short one.
We may soon see what rookie keeper Stuart Taylor can do.
Lately Stuart has had so few saves to make.
Chelsea, Liverpool,Newcastle even – he hasn’t had much to do, although he spilled three balls at Anfield that he should have held.
But there was an icy, squally wind – horrible conditions at Anfield that day. And a freezing gale is hard to see on TV. So let’s see what Stuart has to do against Middlesbrough.
27th December 2001.