By Myles Palmer
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ARSENE wants Patrick to start 2005 playing like a hero, and has admitted that PV4 has not been himself since August.
About two years ago I wrote a piece for ANR, which I never put up, called The Five Vieiras.
There have been several more Vieiras since then.
Today we read that Vieira was, in the manager’s words, “disturbed and disrupted for the first half of the season.”
Vieira wanted to go to Real Madrid, even though they had treated his good friend Makelele very badly.
Perez did not value him on a Beckham level, wages-wise.
Vieira could not see what Keith Burkinshsaw saw at Spurs, when he said, “There used to be a football club over there.”
He could not see that he was better off at Arsenal.
Vieira reckoned he needed a new challenge, as if being captain of Arsenal in a new stadium was not enough of a challenge, so he wanted to go.
But he changed his mind at the last minute.
WHY?
With 24 hours to go, I’m told, with the deal done, Thierry had a talk with Pat and persuaded him to stay.
FREDDIE had two assists against Fulham.
And Henry and Pires scored classy goals in 12 and 71.
A 2-0 home win kicked off a testing spell of 4 games in 10 days.
Arsenal are good enough to win all 4. But it could go pear-shaped could if they lose at Newcastle.
In a one-sided game, Fulham tackled well, defended well, but could not pass.
Henry was very good again, using his strength to hold off defenders, which he rarely does in that way.
Clichy has been shaky in the last two games. Impetuous in the tackle, first touch dodgy. He has not played much lately, maybe that’s the problem.
Fans were shocked by how bad Bergkamp was for the first hour, before he had a decent 10 minutes.
Vieira had a good first half. Made three tackles, got a yellow card on the fourth.
He is coming back into form.
Fabregas was marvellous, as usual.
Van Persie is starting to worry me.
He has very good feet, but there is no end product.
He always gets the ball in tight situations, with three men on him. He does not find space.
That means he isn’t reading the way the team wants to play. He is chasing the ball, not playing with his brain.
Bottom line? A kid who needs time to adapt. His potential is huge, but it’s a steep learning curve
TITLE RACE ?
Chelsea are playing at the top of their game. The way Robben created that opening for Duff’s goal was superb, but they only beat Villa 1-0.
And they were a bit lucky to win 2-0 at Portsmouth.
Arsenal, by contrast, are NOT at the top of their game. They can play better and they know the course and they know the pressure, which Chelsea don’t, since they have never been down this road before.
FULL DISCLOSURE : To me, the 5-4 at Spurs felt like a failure, but the 2-2 against Chelsea felt like a success. That’s why I said : Arsenal are back.
Sure, Arsenal were 5 points behind Chelsea after 19 games.
If Terry or Robben get injured, Chelski could hit a brick wall.
BY THE WAY, ARSENAL are seriously in for Cudicini.
They have been driving Chelsea mad for the last month, asking for him.
I’m told Cudicini wants to join Arsenal for first team football and that David Moyes wants Scott Parker.
HOPE YOU are enjoying the festivities.
To me the last week is a blur, a period that has passed very quickly, where I needed to find a balance between socialising and reading a book, between eating Belgian chocolates and having a walk and going to see QPR lose 2-1 to Crewe.
We had the usual Xmas Day routine, which the kids insist on. Open presents at 11 am, go for a walk in the park, start with melon about 2.30 pm.
I didn’t do anything, just put on Sinatra, popped the champagne, carved the turkey.
Oh yeah, one thing was different : The kids gave us a mobile teacher.
This is a teacher who goes to rural areas where they don’t have schools. So we sponsor a teacher, but we haven’t had the card from Oxfam yet, telling us what country our teacher is in.We assume it’s somewhere in Africa.
After January 10th, when both kids will be back at uni, I hope to get back to normal or “normal”.
29th December 2004