By Myles Palmer
Drawing 2-2 after being 2-0 down proved Arsenal can battle as well as play.
Was that Thierry Henry’s best-ever goal for Arsenal?
YES!
Because I can’t remember him scoring a great goal when Arsenal were 2-0 down.
It was a true centre forward’s goal.Get the ball in the middle of the field, beat your marker and blast it in.
A Cyrille Regis goal, a Jimmy Hasselbaink cannonball.
Henry took the pass from Vieira with his back to goal, nicked the ball with the outside of his left foot so that it spun beyond Christian Dailly,powerglided past him and smashed a thunderbolt past David James, giving him no chance.
Just before the World Cup Henry scored a phenomenal goal against Scotland, hooking it in the D at high velocity. But that was in Paris and France were 4-0 up.
OK, his winner past Barthez at Highbury was a sensational shot. And he showed uncanny skill to flick that ball up to a position halfway between his foot and his knee and a yard away from his body,so that he could volley it without moving his left foot or unbalancing himself.
Without the exquisite precision of that flick-up, Henry could not have controlled the stunning shot that beat Man United that day.
BUT THE GOAL AT WEST HAM WAS SOMETHING ELSE.
This was an emergency situation. Arsenal were 2-0 down away from home with 37 minutes left.
West Ham looked like scoring again for 3-0.
We saw something from Henry that we don’t always see: urgency.
His body language said: If I don’t score now, we are gonna lose this game. I’ve gotta score now in case West Ham score again.
My apologies to FREDDI KANOUTE!
Kanoute made the first goal and scored the second, zipping in front of Keown at the near post to convert Jermain Defoe’s swift cross in 53.
Kanoute missed three other chances. AND he had a penalty saved. So he was a lot closer to match fithess than I figured.
JOE COLE did something nobody expected for the first goal.
We know Joe as a tricky dribbler and a clever passer.
But here he converted Kanoute’s cross.
KANOUTE broke on the left and pulled the ball back to the edge of the box and Joe slammed it first time and left footed, so that the ball bounced and flashed into the far bottom corner of Seaman’s net.
The young, short-haired, brilliant Seaman, who got Arsenal to two Cup Winners Cup Finals, would have stopped that shot.
Seaman saved everything in those days and we expected him to save everything.
Virtually every goal that went in against Arsenal was a strike that nobody could have stopped.
WHAT ABOUT THE PENALTY?
JOE COLE beat Ashley Cole and Edu easily and he went into the box and there was arm contact and Ashley’s left foot seemed to catch Joe’s ankle and they both went down and ref NEALE BARRY gave a penalty and Vieira protested and was booked and Kanoute shot weakly and Seaman saved.
The TV replays were quite clear.If not wholly definitive
Ashley fouled Joe first-and maybe fouled him twice.
Joe zigzagged in from the right, away from Ashley and Edu, and into the box.
Vieira realised he could not reach the ball,so he put both arms up and did NOT flick his foot out.
Ashley chased and was behind Joe, put his left arm across Joe’s chest, Joe shoved him away in retaliation as he ran, grabbing Ashley’s shirt, and then, after Ashley’s left foot appeared to clip Joe’s right ankle, he threw himself on the ground.
Ashley is a young player. It took Alan Hansen and Mark
Lawrensen years to learn how to foul strikers in the box
without giving away a penalty.
In every Charity Shield game Hansen would grab a striker round the waist at about twenty past three – and get away with it.
For me that Hansen foul always signalled the start of the season and every August I was waiting for it.
I would always smile and say,”The season has started.”
In the World Cup Ashley Cole was better than Roberto Carlos,but he still gets pulled around too much, pulled out of position.
That happens a lot with quick young defenders. Their recovery pace allows them to get away with positional errors.
Same with Sol Campbell. But these two are now playing at a high level where mistakes become goals in a split-second.
Also : Joe Cole is a small, tricky player who has spent his whole football career playing against blokes who are bigger and older than he is.
So Joe has developed tricks to survive against bigger players who push, hold and obstruct him.
It’s virtually impossible for a referee to see a small, fast-moving player grab an opponent’s shirt momentarily, especially in a crowded penalty area.
If the ref DOES see it he often thinks the defender is holding the attacker.
Seaman had made an excellent left-handed stop from Kanoute at 2-0 and he saved the same player’s feeble penalty at 2-1.
Then WILTORD scored the equaliser after 88.
Wiltord is a different player these days. We are now seeing the striker we thought he was when Arsene paid £13 million for him.
Why?
Maybe scoring the winner to clinch the title at Old Trafford did Wiltord the world of good. He feels better about himself, more confident.
It’s been a long time coming. And we don’t know how long he can keep this form going.
Wiltord pushed the ball forward to Kanu in the box and then chased his own pass as Kanu held off the dfender and smacked the static ball past James.
A big goal which it made the score 2-2 and saved Arsenal’s 23-match unbeaten record.
GOOD FIGHTBACK!
And while Alaidiere did not feature, PENNANT came on and looked good in his league debut.
Both goals were scored after Pennant replaced Parlour.
Best Premiership story last week?
Matt Holland turned down Aston Villa.
Best comment?
When Kieron Dyer missed a sitter, Bobby Robson told him,”Jimmy Greaves missed thousands.”
26th August 2002.
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P.S. You probably read Thierry’s comments.
He said,”My goal was an anger strike.I had so much anger at being two goals down.”