Highbury, Sunday 1st October 2000
FA Carling Premiership
See below for report(s) by Roy, plus
our list of links
to reports on other sites.
Preview
- Arsenal team news
Vieira serves the last of his 5 match suspension.
Lauren
won't be back - and let's hope he's enjoying himself today following the
terrific Olympic Gold win, but not so much that he can't come back and
continue where he left off (and maybe putting the ball away from
the penalty spot for us, too!). Pires is still out injured.
Apart from them everyone seems to be available. Lee Dixon will
probably return to the right back position.
It'll be interesting to see if Wenger sticks with Bergkamp on the
right. With Vieira unavailable that'd leave Parlour free to partner
Grimandi in central midfield.
Probable team:
Seaman
Dixon Keown Adams Silvinho
Bergkamp Parlour Grimandi Ljungberg
Henry Kanu
- Manchester_United team news
Jaap Stam is out, he's going under the knife and will be out
for a while. Fabien Barthez may be back - he's in training
anyway - but Ferguson may decide not to risk him.
Giggs and Beckham will doubtless be back and fresh after
being rested (mostly) on Tuesday for the loss to PSV. Beckham said
he had a slight injury - what's the betting that a "slight" injury
could keep him out of the Arsenal game?
- UK TV/Radio coverage
- non-UK TV coverage
- Australia: live on Fox Sports at 1.00ESST (Monday 2nd Oct).
kick-off 2am. (thanks to Jamie)
- Asia: Astro are covering the game live in Malaysia and neighbouring countries. 11pm Malaysia time, 01/10. (thanks to Anand for the info)
- USA: live on Fox Sports World (PPV) 11am EST/8am PST. (thanks to Lawrence)
- For details, and countries not listed above, see the
non-UK TV FAQ
- See also
Highbury, Sunday 1st October 2000
FA Carling Premiership
What a difference Adams makes, again!
It would have been too good to be true to turn the English League
Champions over, as well as the Italians, in the space of just five days
- wouldn't it? Well that's just what we have done.
As with Lazio, this was initially a cagey affair in which neither side
were prepared to risk conceding the first goal - Henry's 30th minute
"wonder goal" changed that of course.
The brilliant marksman broke his very short barren spell with a magical
bit of skill in front of Irwin who was marking him as well as could be
expected. Henry received a through ball from Grimandi, but instead of
trying to round Irwin, in a split second, decided to create a shooting
chance with his back to goal. Just outside the area he used the
momentum of Grimandi's pass to flick the ball up with his right and then
again with his right lofted it over United's 2nd and 1st line of
defence. Its ascent made it look as if it would go over the bar but
Henry new how far Barthez likes to come off his line and Barthez new
where the ball was heading.
The preceding 60 minutes were characterised by significant MU possession
albeit creating few clear goal-scoring chances. With 14 shots at goal
(to our 7) Seaman surprisingly had only 2 to save all game.
A lot of this can be put down to Parlour and Grimandi who out fought
Keane and out-thought Beckham and Scholes in midfield. Whilst
dominating possession MU were thwarted time and again by tenacious
tackling and relentless tracking down. And when they did get through to
Sheringham or Cole (and later Solskjaer and Yorke) we had Keown and
Adams on hand to provide an exhibition in the art of interception,
tackling and heading. (If they can keep this up England will have
nothing to fear on Saturday against Germany).
By comparison Barthez, who has proved to be a great buy already, had to
be at his best to keep MU in touch with the game. Our fewer attempts on
goal were of higher quality and we looked particularly dangerous on the
counterattack, which is ironic considering that scoring on the break is
traditionally our opponent's stock-in-trade. The most notable were from
Bergkamp, Henry and Ljungberg in the 2nd half where Barthez had to be
brave to thwart their attempts.
This was never a classic because there was so much at stake and Barber,
the referee, did well to keep the game going and only book five players.
Adams could have been sent off after a challenge on Sheringham (who to
his credit got up without a fuss). Beckham, likewise, was rightly
booked for a tackle on Ljungberg and could have also been shown red for
a succession of petulant and churlish acts - the first of which directly
lead to Henry's goal. (Keegan, what are you doing giving this twerp the
responsibility of Vice Captaincy? He has great skill but seriously lacks
mental fortitude and leadership qualities).
Neville and Henry clashed continually for the last 40 minutes, an
example of a number of one-on-one encounters that on balance were won by
our sheer determination not to relinquish the lead. So of course as MU
began to run out of time and ideas and one stock-in-trade element of
their game did come out - the whinging and complaining. Scholes,
Beckham, Keane and Neville were all at it, "same old MU, always
moaning"!
I don't quite agree with comments that a MU win would virtually have
ended the title race - there are still too many games left to play.
However I do believe our win, in difficult circumstances, might inspire
other teams to face MU with a bit more ambition than just containment
and that's more important to us than 3 points right now.
As with Lazio, we put in one of our best team performances for well over
a year against MU. However, I believe we're going to get much better.
Unlike MU, this team is still settling down: KANU, Silvinho, Luzhny,
Ljungberg and Grimandi started on the subs bench for more than half
their games last season; and Wiltord, Pires and Lauren were just
rumours.
If we can keep our captain fit and Viera on the pitch, and the team
settles before February, we will take 3 points at Old Trafford as welland then we can talk about where the championship is heading.
Attendance - 38,146
Arsenal: Seaman, Luzhny, Keown, Adams, Silvinho, Bergkamp (Wiltord 78),
Grimandi, Parlour, Ljungberg, Henry, Kanu (Vivas 57). Subs not used:
Dixon, Lukic, and Vernazza.
Booked: Adams, Bergkamp.
Manchester United: Barthez, Irwin, G. Neville, Johnsen, Silvestre,
Beckham, Scholes, Keane, Giggs (Solskjaer 85), Cole, Sheringham (Yorke
68). Subs not used: Butt, Bosnich, and Brown.
Booked: Irwin, Beckham, and G. Neville.
report by Roy Tait
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