By Myles Palmer
I saw Matthew Upson impersonating Emile Heskey!
I decided to get away from my computer and go early to Shenley on Tuesday and watch Arsenal train at 11.30 before they did the interviews at 1 pm. I wanted to see how sharp Bergkamp looked.
How can I set the scene for fans who have never been there?
A lovely warm day, a £12 million high-tech training ground set among the gently rolling fields of Hertfordshire, a car park full of Mercs,BMWs,two Porsches, a racing green Aston Martin, a couple of SUVs. An atmosphere of high security, do what you are told, wait there until a guy in a red jacket leads you round to the left of the building, where, behind an embankment, figures in shorts, training shirts and bibs are on the nearest pitch.
A peaceful scene and, with this weather,idyllic.Groundsmen with various small tractors and lawnmowers.In the distance, beyond the pitches, some trees, a farm building, a farmer’s fire, white smoke drifting slowly up into the blue sky. On our left 150 yards away, a thirty foot perimeter fence to stop high shots.
The pitch they are using looks like one with plastic strips in the topsoil,to aid drainage and prevent divoting. The grass is cut very short and it is exceptionally flat.
Interestingly,it is marked out in zones :the 18-yard
line extends to the touchlines, there is a 25-yard white line across the pitch, and a 35-yard white line as well. The grass in each zone is mown one way and the adjacent zone is mown the opposite way, so the zones look very distinct – from the side anyway.
Ten TV cameramen and 20 photographers take pictures from behind a yellow tape which stretches the entire length of the pitch. The tape is 25 yards from the touchline! So you cannot see very well or hear very well.Anticipating this, I had brought my binoculars.
The players do three things : practice a move, go for a run, and play a six-a-side game. But Bergkamp is not there.
Neither are Wiltord and Parlour. The reserves are playing at Highbury that night against Spurs( a 4-0 win in
which Bergkamp scores the second goal).
For me, the move they rehearse is interesting because it is exactly what I had always imagined Arsenal doing in training. Their style of play is built on very specific shapes and patterns and habits, and this session simply confirms what I had always guessed. Their style is minimalist and sharp and very fast and very economical, so it could not be achieved without a lot of this type of work.
It is a defend and counter-attack routine. The Arsenal team are defending on our left against five opponents – Bora Primorac, Pat Rice, a tall lad I did not recognise, Matthew Upson and another lad.They do this routine maybe seven or eight times.It was very serious, very specific.
Bora starts the drill each time by launching a 40-yard ball diagonally down the field towards Keown, and Wenger shouts, “Put him under pressure!” So Upson jumps with Keown. And Upson is the best header of the ball at the club,they say.
The defenders then get the ball under control as quickly as they can, and pass it forward very quickly, mainly to Pires and Henry on the left side, but sometimes to Kanu or Ljungberg on the right side, and they counter-attack. It is all about concentration and shape, not about whether they can score on the breakaway, since Pat Rice obviously cannot contain Henry or Pires. Pat would have struggled against Thierry when he was 22, let alone 52.
After a while I twig it and realise that Upson is imitating Emile Heskey. This is the FA Cup Final. This is what Wenger expects in Cardiff. And it is exactly what I expect – and fear.
Gerard Houllier will organise a very tight, dull game to keep a clean sheet.If Liverpool pass the ball through midfield a lot, Arsenal can intercept, so they will not do that.
Liverpool will just hit long balls in the first half, as Alan Kennedy used to do for Ian Rush. (They did it at Fulham one night in the FA Cup when Souness scored the only goal, Steve Nicol played midfield in the winter mud, then Ronnie Whelan replaced him when the grass came back.)
One Bora Primorac long ball is won by Upson, jumping very high and knocking Keown over, and the players hesitate, to see if a foul is given, or in case Keown is injured – but Wenger shouts, “Play on!Play on!”
The running is routine stuff – running is running.They run to the far perimeter fence in pairs, jogging at first, then sprinting :Adams and Dixon, Vieira and Grimandi, and so on.Then they run back and do the same again.
The six -a-side game is green bibs against blue bibs. Keepers are Seaman and Stuart Taylor, who is a screamer, always yelling at his defenders.They play on a 40-yard section of the pitch.There is no referee as such and Wenger calls the scores from the far halfway line.
At first it is like watching a silent film, but as the play becomes animated we could hear shouts of “Tight!Tight” and, when a Thierry Henry shot deflects and flies into the bottom corner, “You lucky bastard!” It finishes about 5-3 to the greens, with two clever goals by Ljungberg and two cute ones by Henry.
It is a very short game : 13 minutes. Half-time is so quick I did not even notice them turn round.I thought the keepers had just swapped.
Once when Kanu races in on goal he is fouled and tumbles through the air in slow motion, long legs and arms going everywhichway, like a tarantula on a trampoline, and a penalty is given. But there is no penalty spot at that end. So Wenger paces out 12 yards, Kanu ambles up, scores
nonchalantly.
The players walk off into the changing rooms. Keown poses with a cannon for photographers. “Smile, Martin!” they shout. He says,“Why?We lost.” The pitch is empty now and Wenger and Rice stay out there talking for about ten minutes. Then they stroll over and pose together with the
cannon.
Overall, the session is an hour of fun. But Emile Heskey isn’t fun. He is a beast, a brute who can knock you down, dislocate your shoulder, land on you.
11 May 2001