By Myles Palmer
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A one-goal win over Spurs was what I predicted.
What was interesting was the way Arsenal played.
IT MIGHT BE A PLAN B !!!!
For seven years some of us have been saying : There’s no Plan B.
I have never seen an Arsenal team have so much play round the ball as they had on Monday night.
Against Spurs, they had more bodies in midfield, more passing options, but less dynamism.
It’s a safe way of playing. It reminded me of Venables’s England in Euro 96, when Tel played six in midfield.
England lacked pace and fitness in that tournament.
Adams was being injected before every game, Shearer and Sheringham were not quick, Gazza was gasping after an hour and running on heart, not legs
So Tel did flooded midfield and passed the ball in shallow triangles.
He played three dribblers, which England managers rarely do. (Bobby Robson played Waddle, Barnes and Beardsley, and that worked when Lineker and Hodge made bright runs off the ball.)
Tel picked Gazza, McManaman and Anderton together.It was quite radical, quite clever.
But against Switzerland, England were so unfit they were hanging on after an hour, making defensive substitutions to squeeze through the game.
England had six in midfield. : Gary Neville, Paul Ince, Gazza, Macca, Dazza and Sheringham.
Le Saux was injured – it might have been seven in midfield.
Clearly, England were not as fit as Arsenal
Malcolm Allison, Tel’s mate, said fitness was Venables’s blind spot. He didn’t believe in using a fitness coach. A nightclub owner wouldn’t, would he ?
Shearer took minutes to chug into the penalty area, so England passed the ball sideways till he could get there.
It makes sense to have six in midfield. You always have options and if you lose the ball you always have plenty of players near the ball to win it back.
Also, the England players were not as good as Arsenal players now.Nobody was as fast as Reyes.
McManaman had stamina and tricks but he merely pretended to do the things that Pires actually does : create goals, score goals.
NORMALLY, ARSENE WENGER does not play like Venables.
Venables’s thing was : Let’s not be outnumbered in midfield.
Wenger’s thing is : Let’s pass it quickly to fast, skilful athletes.
His thing is power and dynamism.
His thing is pace and the ability to release pace. His thing has always been releasing Overmars, releasing Wrighty, releasing Anelka, releasing Henry, releasing Ljungberg
AGAINST SPURS, Arsene was without Henry and Ljungberg. And he decided to bench Bergkamp.
For a decade, Bergkamp has been releasing the five players I’ve just named.
For Arsene, this was a must-win game, so he decided it wasn’t gonna be like most of his games.
The team he selected was not gonna create as many chances as Arsenal usually create.
There would be a goal, but we might have to wait for it.
Then Arsenal almost scored in 47 seconds.
Fabregas gave the ball to van Persie, who released Reyes, who skipped round keeper Robinson more neatly than Ljungberg could have done, but hit the side-netting from five yards.
Oh dear, I thought, is it gonna be one of those nights for the lad ?
His girlfriend went back to Spain and she’s apparently said he’s completely dominated by his mother. How much more humiliation can the boy survive ?
After 21, Fabregas intercepted and took the ball towards Vieira, whose cool touch put Fabregas over the halfway line and he released the pace of Reyes, who took one touch and scored with a scorching shot into the far corner.
A second goal refused to come. Defoe had one shot well saved by Lehmann, who was excellent again.
Kanoute is not good enough to play for Spurs. One of my Spurs pals says the club shouldn’t sell him, they should give him away.
Sub Robbie Keane missed a header from six yards (87) after Senderos missed an easier header from eight yards (68)
Edu came on, looked good, had a snapshot that clipped the post.
ARSENAL had won a must-win game convincingly.
And found a new style, a Plan B they might have to use against Manchester United in Cardiff if Thierry is not fit.
But I’m reliably informed that TH14 WILL be fit by then.
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PSV EINDHOVEN don’t deserve to be 2-0 down from the San Siro last night.
It was one of the best efforts I’ve ever seen by a losing team in the Champions League.
A fabulous game, very close, great tactics by Guus Hiddink, dropping big Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, going with little Farfan and mobility, Cocu man-marking Kaka into invisibility early on.
PSV gave Milan a far better game than Manchester United did.
PSV were able to do everything but shoot and Van Bommel bossed midfield against pocket battleships Seedorf & Gattuso.
South Korean winger Ji-Sung Park was fantastic. A real warrior, indefatigable, sparky, popping up everywhere.
I’d love to see his Pro-Zone stats. Park must have run 20 kilometres last night.
Since Sacchi, the high priest of pressing, AC Milan have had a dynamism that I’ve always loved : they press and hit long passes and have world class players working their socks off.
Pressing is attacking when you don’t have the ball.
It’s a great thing to do if you are fit enough to sustain it for long periods
Milan put the ball up for grabs, testing out your centrebacks.
Just as Liverpool used to hit long passes for Rush, to see what happened. If they scored, great. If they lost the ball in that part of the field, so what ?
IN 42, KAKA opened up PSV with a killer straight pass, releasing Shevchenko’s pace.
His finish was deadly, as usual.
34 goals in 65 Champions League games !!!!!!!!!!
Shev is still the guv’nor. His full-tilt explosive effort and concentration is like an Olympic pole-vault champion. If he hung up his boots, he could fly high for a gold in that.
1-0 down, PSV went for it in the second half, taking risks at the back, creating good chances, but could not shoot for toffee.
They scuffed every shot, or hit it straight at Dida, who fumbled a couple and looked oddly vulnerable.
CRUELLY, Kaka’s shot in the 90th minute broke off Cocu’s toe for sub Tomasson and he snapped up an opportunist goal.
Guus Hiddink deserved better luck that that.
In his interview on Tuesday mornings TV news he looked and sounded very deflated and weary. Gutted, but defiant.
PSV had done enough to draw or even win. I was disappointed, although I had Milan to win by two goals. They were jammy and so was I.
YES, AC MILAN are the best team in Europe. But they are not unbeatable.
Their midfield was utterly average last night.
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CHELSEA v Liverpool is tonight, first leg at the Bridge.
Let’s hope Liverpool create as many chances as PSV did.
Mourinho says, “I’ve never lost a semi-final in my life”.
I don’t expect him to lose this one. But Benitez is a good tactician and Luis Garcia might pop one in.
Xabi Alonso is back facing Lampard, who broke his ankle with a reckless tackle on New Year’s Day, a challenge I remember vividly. Lampard smashed his trailing leg into Alonso’s shin.
The Sun is irresponsibly stirring it by saying that French ref Alain Sars in Frisk’s mate.
A 1-1 draw would make Anfield an interesting night for The Special One.
April 27th 2005.