WHICH ARSENAL-CHARLTON game do you remember best?
The one where Petit was sent off for a late tackle on Shaun Newton, when he missed the ball by a centimetre? Or the Richard Wright game where Charlton won 4-2 ?
My favourite was the 5-3 game in 2000, which I described in The Professor :
IN ROTTERDAM on 2 July Patrick Vieira played for France against Italy in the Euro 2000 final. France were within 20 seconds of losing the match when Sylvain Wiltord equalised. Then David Trezeguet scored the golden goal and Vieira added a European Championship medal to his World Cup medal from 1998.
Seven weeks later it was back to business with Arsenal, whose first Premiership game was at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland on 19 August.
The team played very well but missed eight chances and conceded the only goal of the game when former Gunner Niall Quinn headed home a cross in the 53rd minute. Seaman bottled that cross, jumping outside the huge Irishman.
Vieira had been targeted for special attention throughout, and in the closing seconds, when Darren Williams grabbed him round the waist, Vieira kept running, swung his arm and caught Williams with a back-handed slap on the neck. Williams went down pretending to be hurt and referee Steve Dunn sent Vieira off.
Most neutrals thought Williams should have gone as well, especially when the camera caught Williams winking at the Sunderland bench. After the match, fourth official Paul Taylor claimed that he had been manhandled by Arsene Wenger during an argument in the tunnel between Henry and Williams.
Far worse was in store. Three days later at Highbury they played Liverpool and referee Graham Poll had a reasonable first half, sending off Gary McAllister for a clumsy two-footed lunge which injured Vieira.
In the second half, Poll completely lost the plot for half an hour. He gave Jamie Carragher a yellow card for elbowing Vieira, then booked Vieira for reacting. Then, three minutes later, Vieira slid in for a loose ball, won it, and was himself deliberately kicked by Dietmar Hamann. Amazingly, Poll gave Vieira his second red card in four days.
That 2-0 victory was the first time Wenger had beaten Liverpool since arriving at Arsenal and it was also the club’s first win over the Merseysiders in seven seasons. Lauren had a fine home debut in Parlour’s wide position, scoring in his first game. He won a corner which really should have been a goal kick, Silvinho took it, and Lauren knocked the ball in off Adams.
Thierry Henry had scored the second goal and was named Man of the Match, but he did not care about that because he was so upset about Patrick. In a live interview on Sky Sports Henry was almost in tears because his friend was being so cruelly abused by opponents and officials. Vieira had cleared his locker and left the stadium before the match finished. He said he was quitting English football.
The next day, a Wednesday, Wenger was charged by the Football Association with `alleged threatening behaviour and physical intimidation’ after the Sunderland game. Under the new guidelines, `jostling or holding’ a match official was punishable by a twelve-match ban and a fine of four weeks’ wages. A statement from the club read, `Arsene is certainly surprised by the charge. He is looking forward to providing the FA with a detailed explanation of events.’
That Saturday, against Charlton, the sympathetic Arsenal fans sang Vieira’s name even before kick-off, and they continued to sing his name after the game started. After nineteen minutes, Vieira glided forward on to Kanu’s sublime pass and scored by baffling keeper Dean Kiely with a right-foot stepover and a left-foot flick over his body. Then Charlton’s Andy Hunt scored twice and the visitors led 2-1 at half-time, which dampened down the atmosphere considerably until Thierry Henry equalised within forty seconds of the restart. It seemed that Arsenal would surely win now, but a Graeme Stuart near-post volley made it 3-2 to Charlton. Two minutes later Vieira was set up by Kanu again and he fired a 25-yard shot into the bottom corner. Henry scored Arsenal’s fourth, then Vieira fed Silvinho, who made it 5-3.
After two traumas in four days, which had left him in the depths of despair, Patrick Vieira had come out and played like a super-gladiator. This comeback performance was majestic, a statement of intent, an expression of loyalty, an exhibition of skill and spirit that spoke louder than any words could have done.
Wenger’s teams for the last five years have always been a blend of warriors and technicians, but that day Vieira was a warrior-technician who played with passionate virtuosity. In football, as in jazz, you admire technique and you admire passion, but it is the combination of the two that is exciting – when they play brilliantly from the heart.
There is nothing more thrilling than passionate virtuosity, and that was exactly what we saw that day. In that super-motivated mood, Patrick Vieira was colossal, phenomenal, fictional, a supremely strong anchorman who played deep in his own half but cruised forward like a twenty-first-century Beckenbauer to win the game. No other player in England, no other player in the world, could have started the week with two red cards and ended it with two goals of such quality.
Naturally, Arsene Wenger was delighted. “I’m pleased that we could win this game after such a controversial week, and as well by the performance of Patrick Vieira today. Because he was outstanding and exceptional. Not only because he’s a great player, but mentally his response was great. I think he had a little bit less aggression. One of the positive effects of this whole controversial situation was that today there were less fouls on him. Charlton tried to play football against him. Some people asked me if I thought of leaving him out. And I said, ‘Never for a minute did I think of not playing him.’ Because I know how strong this guy is mentally. And he has shown that today. I never thought he would walk out on Arsenal. He’s committed to the club. He’s committed to the fans. He knows how much people love him here. And how much he has improved since he has arrived here.”
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