By Myles Palmer
Wednesday night’s thriller at Anfield showed how much Arsenal have improved-and how they still have the same flaws.
They are champions and league leaders – and they have more class.
So I reckoned they would win. I fancied them all week.
When I switched on my TV and found Ray Parlour was playing, not Wiltord, I was SURE they would win.Parlour was the right call.
Liverpool’s best hope of winning, their only hope, for me, was to score first and hang on.
And Houllier’s scrappers started as if they believed that.
For the first seven minutes they gave it everything and pinned Arsenal back.
Then, suddenly, it was : Parlour to Bergkamp to Henry, rebound, Pires, 1-0.
Hyypia was out of position.
Hyppia was upfield for a long throw by Riise, which was cleared, and he never got back, so Bergkamp was able to bend his killer pass round Henchoz,so that Henry raced across into the D, controlling the ball perfectly on the second bounce.
Dudek did well to wait and see where Henry’s touch put the ball, then advanced in textbook fashion to block the shot, which squirted across the penalty area for the unmarked Pires to knock in.
Thierry had a busy half,doing his own thing.
His thing nearly created a goal five times.
He swerved into the box from the left and Dudek blocked his shot for a corner(12 minutes), he switched into turbo and left Henchoz and Carragher trailing, but his cross went at an awkward height to Bergkamp, whose touch was poor(27), he got in a left foot shot and Dudek again saved for a corner(29),which Henry took and Cygan’s header was cleared off the line by Cheyrou.
And then, when Pires released him on the right, Henry went round Dudek and rolled it into the side-netting(33).
Same old story:the dribble is better than the finish.
Henry does many exciting things, unique things, but not enough goals come from that.
After 40, he hit one of his most ridiculous free-kicks into Row Q.
At such moments you think he just plays off the cuff, that he makes it up as he goes along.
Second half, Lauren would have been wiser to concede a corner after 52.
Instead, he tackled Owen cleverly, but Heskey got the ball and set up RIISE for a scorching shot into the far corner.
A terrific equaliser by a fine player.Seaman had no chance.
Then Sol Campbell lost the plot on 59, barging Owen near the goalline when both of them were six feet from the ball.
Any ref would have given a free-kick for that obvious foul,in any league.Sol panicked.He should know better.
Then Bergkamp finished off an eight-pass move by chasing his own pass, which had eluded Ashley Cole, picking up the ball again and working a shooting position.
A goal looked unlikely but Bergkamp’s shot deflected off the heel of Henchoz, wrong-footing Dudek.
That was after 63 and a minute later Henry had a break which should have made it 3-1.
Gilberto hit the ball hard to Pires on the wing,on the halfway line. It was not a great pass because it came to him very sharply and it was behind Pires – and at waist height.
But the brilliant Bob just reached back with his right heel and, with a preposterous Brazilian flick, propelled the ball into the path of Henry, who had been two yards behind him, but now arrowed onto the ball and raced straight at the heart of an exposed Liverpool defence.
But TH14 blew it. The last defender was Riise, who had to come across to him, leaving Bergkamp unmarked.
But instead of going straight for goal, or drawing Riise and then playing Bergkamp in, he passed…. to Riise.
A marvellous chance for 3-1 went down the drain in that moment.
STILL, ARSENAL WERE THE CLASSIER SIDE, even though Liverpool had chances throughout the game.
Seaman played well without having a lot to do. What he did he did cleanly and expertly.
After 70 minutes Bergkamp beat Henchoz on the right and cut the ball back for Henry, who sidefooted firmly – and Dudek blocked with his leg.I thought he should have blasted that one, gone for power, rather than placement.
Arsenal were still without a fox in the box.
Jeffers was on the bench, Ljungberg still in rehab with his achilles.
With a fox, the game would have been over long ago.
Then, after 86, Arsene took Bergkamp off and brought on Luzhny.
He does that quite a lot.
Most managers do it. Under pressure in the last five minutes,they succumb to saucy doubts and fears.
Barros had just come on, so Arsene went to three centrebacks.
When he took Dennis off I said,”I wish he wouldn’t do that.”
I never like taking off a striker for a defender so late, when you are leading by one goal.
Dennis was playing well, he was not tired, Arsenal had played some excellent keep-ball, there were about six minutes left,maximum, and if they could have kept the ball for four of those minutes they were home and dry.
By taking Dennis off, Arsene was saying to Liverpool: you have the ball for the next six minutes.
When Dennis went off they lost shape, stability, a brain, an outlet, a playmaker who is the hub of an attacking team managed by an attacking coach.
Barros chased a long ball with Luzhny, the ball looked over the line before either player touched it, a corner was given, taken, cleared.
But Diao crossed beautifully to the far post and Heskey, unmarked, sent a booming header across Seaman from eight yards.
It was 2-2 after 91 minutes and a battling team had dug out a point against the technically superior champions.
So Heskey got an assist and a goal.
Clearly, a 2-2 draw was a great disappointment for Arsene.
His team were the better side. They should have won.They played far better football and made more chances.
Anfield on 29th January 2003 was a failure which might be important. Probably not, but it might be.
If Arsenal lose the title by one point they always remember how two were thrown away at Liverpool last night.
HOW CAN I SUM UP?
Arsenal have improved in that they can now play with a collective confidence, shape and purpose that is more impressive that any team the club has ever had.
They can still score goals from incisive moves of three passes, and they can now knock it around better than ever, retaining possession for longer periods, gathering their energies for the next devastating thrust.
When they are motoring,Arsenal are awesome – and no team in England can live with them.
But the defence is vulnerable.The back four look shaky against long balls and crosses.
And Sol made a few boobs last night.Missing one ball from Diouf in 39, he let it go to Owen, who shot weakly.
Cygan played well and it was good to see the effervescent Ashley Cole back.
Overall, the defence lacks an organiser.
In attack, Thierry is Thierry.
What you see is what you get and, I reckon, what you will always get from him.
A phenomenally gifted winger whose eye-catching bursts do not produce enough end product.
Back in 2000 I use to wonder how his ability to beat defenders down that flank could be turned into more goals.
He could annihilate defences with those supercharged slaloms, but he outpaced his teammates and found himself coming in towards the near post and hitting the keeper and hitting the sidenetting.
This game, in 2003, was 2000-2001 all over again.
It was in May 2001 that the frustrated,loquacious Thierry first said, after Michael Owen turned Arsenal upside down in Cardiff, that Arsenal needed a fox in the box.
I got excited when I thought Jeffers was that fox, thought Jeffers was left-footed and could score dozens of goals at the near post from Henry’s assists.
THAT WAS MY PIPE DREAM.
It didn’t happen.
But who is there? Who could play with Henry? Who could partner him?
It’s a conundrum.
If the right player existed, and could score goals as easily as Henry wrecks defences, then the two of them together would be worth three players and Arsenal would be alarmingly penetrative, close to omnipotent.
Or am I overthinking it?
Will it all be fine when Freddie comes back with his diagonal runs and his gutsy one-on-one finishes?
The Swede is a key player.Much missed. What he does, nobody else in the squad can do.
If Freddie had played last night Arsenal would have won.
Any mistake by the linesman or ref in the last minute would have been irrelevant.
January 30th 2003.