By Myles Palmer
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THE Professor surprised us at St Andrews.
His new captain was Bergkamp, who turned the clock back five years with a mageristerial display.
He started Gael Clichy wide left and played Pires-Edu in central midfield
He recalled Cygan and put Toure to right back.
Clearly, he did not wanna play reserve right back Justin Hoyte in the San Siro against Recoba or Martins or Van Der Meyde.
Hoyte may be ready for Stan Lazardis , but not for those guys.
So maybe St Andrews was always gonna be a rehearsal for the San Siro.
BERGKAMP was strong, skilful, creative and unselfish.
And he scored a world class goal.
Thierry is improving and maturing.
His all-round game now has more focus. He is relaxing more,but also thinking more.
He has been playing off the top of his head all his life, but it now looks as if he is able to choose the right option.
So he is more of a playmaker than he has ever been.
Thierry was a kid and then he was a winger and then he was a goalscorer and now he is becoming a creative half-striker like Dalglish, Baggio and Zola.
I was groping for a comparison a few weeks back when I said he could be as good as Ruud Gullit.
In some games he reminds me of Gullit. To be a playmaker,Henry, like Gullit, need players making runs for him. The run serves the pass and the pass serves the run.
The goals in Arsenal’s 3-0 win at Birmingham came in 4 and 80 and 88, so there was a long time between the first and second.
First goal, Dennis blocks a clearance, feeds Henry, and he juggles a short pass into Freddie’s run for 1-0.
Against Spurs, Freddie scored from 20 yards with a shot that deflected off Steve Carr’s foot.
Freddie, as we know, is more of a 10-yard scorer than a 20-yard scorer.
Scooting into this position, for this kind of pass, is the Swede’s game. It’s what Freddie does best : timing the run,beating the keeper.
Second goal came when Arsenal were defending a corner.
Bizarrely, Arsenal bring 11 men back for corners, rather than leaving football’s No.1 greyhound on the halfway line.
That seems naive, unconventional, even paranoid.
But it may be genius. It just might be genius.
In this case, it looked like genius.
As Arsenal cleared the Birmingham corner, Kanu’s pass went astray and broke to Henry, who was coming up to centre circle when he released Bergkamp for an arrow-straight sprint down the middle.
Like most Bergkamp goals, it was a two-touch goal.
He had to sprint 50 yards into the keeper’s face to score it, but it was only two touches.
One touch to place the ball precisely ahead of himself into the box, and then the shot after the keeper went down, knocking the ball over his hip and into the net.
As I said, magisterial.
We didn’t know Dennis could still do that. Maybe he can only do it when he is wearing the armband.
Third goal, Pires was waiting for the pass infield from Henry on the left and when it comes he scoots into the box and jabs the ball just hard enough to roll over the line.
Three excellent goals. Three marvellous assists from an improviser who can play people in all day long. But only if he has quick, fit, mentally bright players making runs into scoring positions.
I THINK bits of Bergkamp have rubbed off on Henry.
Just as I think Bergkamp keeps Vieira honest, I think
Bergkamp has helped Henry to mature.
It’s taken four years, but some things have rubbed off. A half-striker needs a consistently unselfish focus, a willingness to try killer passes from various angles, and the composure to wait for the runner.
Of course, Henry has ALWAYS been able to do this stuff because he has a freakish level of skill.
The way he played Silvinho in for the first goal against Moscow Spartak was surreal, a centimetre-perfect pass through the fullback’s legs.
That was an amazing pass and an amazing goal.One of thegreatest of the 710 goals Wenger’s Arsenal have scored.
In the past Henry has often hit shots from silly positions.
He does that less now, it seems to me.
He got 24 Premiership goals and 20 assists last season.
During 2003, Thierry Henry has evolved from an improvisational genius who creates goals for himself into an player who can consistently create goals for others as well.
On days like Saturday, when Henry does not score, he can become a one-man army.
He shoots and doesn’t score, but he creates three goals for other players.
INTER MILAN IS a mighty challenge, a night for heroes,once more Inter the breach, dear friends.
It wasn’t TH14 who said that. It was Henry V.
Need time to think about an Inter preview.
I might bottle it and not write one.I’ve got some wrong lately.
But enough of these mad midnight ramblings. A guttering candle tells me it’s one o’clock.
24th November 2003.