By Myles Palmer
I’M WORRIED that Arsenal have become a 60-minute team
They score all their goals in the first hour.
In the last 10 games they have not scored after 53 minutes.
Feb 1st, Pires scored against Fulham in 17 and 90.
In 3 of the 10 games since then they have not needed to score again.
BUT IN 7 THEY DID.AND THEY COULDN’T.
That worries me.It worries me, big time. It worries me today especially.
Because it is something new.Something I had not realised until now.
The season is almost over, it’s been going 8 months, and everything I’ve seen so far is something I’ve seen before and expected.
EXCEPT THIS.
March is a bad month to become a 60-minute team.
It’s been a strange,slow evolution, an odd paralysis which I cannot explain.
Maybe it’s because Freddie is not scoring.When he was scoring he won games for Arsenal.
When Freddie is not scoring it becomes the Thierry team.
A team capable of brilliance and sparkling fast moves, a spurt team.
Arsenal can still beat teams with 20-minute spurts, still blow them away in half an hour.
THEY MIGHT BLOW EVERTON AWAY IN HALF AN HOUR.
Except that Everton will be expecting an early assault through the middle with first-time passes creating one-on-ones against Richard Wright.
Radzinski is a spurt player himself.
The Polish-Canadian is a zippy,waspish striker who arrows into scoring positions as well as anybody in the Premiership.
Rooney is a wonderkid, the best young striker since Defoe,maybe the best since Fowler.
SO EVERTON IS THE BIGGEST GAME OF THE SEASON.
If Arsenal win, they go top, above Man United, who beat Fulham 3-0.
Just as Arsenal’s goals have dried up, their rivals have become prolific.
Newcastle hammered Blackburn 5-1.
Blackburn, the team that beat Arsenal twice.
Any team that can put 5 past Brad Friedel has my respect.
Everton can help Newcastle to win the league.
So it’s a beautful sunny Sunday morning in London and the fourth moment of truth in 12 days since Roma finished 1-1.
Football, as I always say, is a game of sequences.
Everton ended Arsenal’s 30-game unbeaten run in October and started their own 7-match unbeaten run.
In terms of skill, flair, confidence, experience, Everton are inferior to Arsenal.
But they have spirit,tenacity, a hard-grafting style, an impressive discipline.
Manager David Moyes has created a team that is greater than the sum of its parts.
And if Everton draw 1-1 today, Newcastle might win the title.
Clearly, Everton is bigger than Chelsea.And this game is Arsene’s priority.He says the best way to beat Chelsea is to go there on Tuesday off a win today.
Arsenal need a win.They need two wins, three wins.
Have a good day !
23rd March 2003