Riverside Stadium, Saturday November 4th 2000
FA Carling Premiership
See below for list of reports on other sites.
Preview
- non-UK TV coverage
- USA: tape-delayed on Fox Sports World at 12noon EST/9am PST.
Also the main game on Fox Sports Net's 2 hour highlights show (check local listings). (thanks to Lawrence for this)
- For details, and countries not listed above, see the
non-UK TV FAQ
- See also
Result : Middlesbrough (0) 0 Arsenal (1) 1
Scorers: Henry 25 pen
Arsenal: Lukic; Dixon, Keown, Adams, Silvinho; Grimandi,
Vieira, Parlour, Ljungberg; Bergkamp, Henry
Subs: Lauren (Bergkamp 86),
Kanu, Vivas, Wiltord, Taylor
'Boro': Crossley, Fleming, Vickers, Pallister, Cooper,
Summerbell, Stamp, Whelan, Deane, Campbell, Ricard
Subs: Beresford (Ricard 24), Festa (Campbell 74),
Gordon, Karembeu, Job
Booked: Summerbell, Cooper
Sent off: Crossley (23, professional foul)
Att: 29,541
Ref: Andy D'Urso (Billericay)
A somewhat frustrating afternoon on Teeside on Saturday, though a 5th
successive league win and another 3 points meant there wasn't really
much to be dissatisfied about. It was a comfortable victory made almost
inevitable by the sending off of Boro's keeper midway through the first
half, but Arsenal made unnecessarily hard work of it.
With Middlesbrough struggling near the foot of the table after 3 defeats
in a row and a number of injuries, Robson further rehashed his side by
leaving out foreign signings Karembeu & Job, and replacing them with a
couple of what might euphemistically be called British midfield terriers
in Summberbell and Stamp. The less generous might call them spoiling and
spiteful.
Anyway, Robson also abandoned his normal 5-3-2 formation and switched to
4 at the back with Cooper moving to left back. Initially the changes
seemed to work because Boro started off at furious pace, forcing Arsenal
back and having much the better of the opening 10 minutes. Pallister
rose highest at an early corner and his header had Lukic beaten but
fortunately Dixon was guarding the near post and headed off the line.
Then another corner was only half cleared and Lukic failed to hold
Stamp's 20 yard shot but recovered in time to knock the loose ball away
from a couple of inrushing red shirts.
However, the early storm soon blew itself out and Arsenal had taken firm
control of the match by the time the penalty incident occurred, and
created a couple of good chances themselves. Some good work by Parlour
on the halfway line sent Bergkamp off on a scintillating run towards the
area, before he was stopped by a combination of 2 or 3 defenders. The
ball broke back to him though and he jinked outside a defender and fired
in a left foot shot from just inside the area which drifted narrowly
wide of the far post.
Then Henry streaked round the outside of Pallister and cut the ball back
from the byline into Parlour's path. It may have come to him a bit
quickly and may also have bobbled slightly, but nonetheless it was a
good chance which he skied over the bar from just outside the 6yd area.
The penalty incident arose from more Arsenal pressure. Henry cut off
Pallister's option of a back pass and Ljungberg anticipated his square
pass to Vickers. The defender was caught on the back foot and Ljungberg
nipped in, evaded the attempt to trip him and was clean through on
Crossley who brought him down as he went round him. Clear penalty and
clear red card for the denial of what was a clear goal-scoring
opportunity even if Pallister had got back to cover the goal line.
The red card and substitution took some time (initially it was Campbell
going off, but for some reason Boro changed to take Ricard off instead),
but Henry stayed cool and easily slotted home the spot kick. In a nice
touch he pointed at his black armband, in memory of George Armstrong.
Arsenal proceeded to dominate the rest of the half, and the substitute
keeper Beresford made a couple of excellent saves. First Keown's header
from Ljungberg's corner seemed to have beaten him, but he belatedly got
a hand to it and then reacted quickly to block Adams' attempt to force
the rebound home. Then from Silvinho's subsequent corner Grimandi rose
at the near post to glance a header which was goalbound until Beresford
brilliantly tipped it over.
Expectations of more of the same in the 2nd half were somewhat out. With
the crowd behind them Boro again came out fighting and took the game to
Arsenal. Early on Stamp had another half chance with a shot from 25
yards, somewhat scuffed this time and straight at Lukic, and then the
veteran keeper miskicked an awkward backpass from Dixon almost straight
at Deane I think, but the striker was surprised and couldn't direct a
shot on target.
However, the home side didn't really create any other worthwhile chances
and the only real threat came from long balls lobbed in the direction of
Deane who was giving Adams and Keown a hard time. At the other end
Arsenal were struggling to impose themselves but as the game wore on
made and missed more and more chances on the break.
Henry missed a couple of half decent opportunities with his preference
for switching the ball to his right foot and trying to bend a shot round
a defender and inside the far post, when carrying on and shooting with
his left foot might have brought higher dividends. Parlour also reprised
his miss from the first half when Henry again sped round the defence and
laid the ball back to him, this time he sliced the ball wide of goal.
Henry was then put through, I think by Ljungberg's pass, this time doing
the right thing and shooting with his left foot but Beresford was out
quickly and made a good block, and then followed up by blocking Henry's
attempt to put the rebound in from a narrow angle. Then Beresford let
Ljungberg's 20 yarder squirm under his body and the ball seemed to be
trickling into the net before the keeper recovered to hook it off the
line and again blocked Henry's attempt to put the rebound in. Finally
Grimandi's long ball found Henry clear of the defence and this time his
shot with the outside of his right foot beat Beresford but came back off
the foot of the far post, bouncing off just beyond the inrushing Lauren.
Overall a satisfactory result, but somewhat disappointing performance,
though with better finishing it could have been a much more comfortable
win. It's also hard to know just how much the players were affected by
the death of George Armstrong, so I wouldn't be too critical.
Lukic 6.5 His kicking hasn't improved from days of yore,
made one somewhat untidy save and a couple of
unconvincing punches, but otherwise wasn't
really tested.
Dixon 7.0 Fairly normal Dixon game, not bad, not
particularly good.
Silvinho 7.5 For periods of the 2nd half looked the player
most eager to do something, quite a good game
overall.
Adams 7.0 Had a few problems coping with the awkward
Deane, otherwise as expected.
Keown 7.5 Solid and determined as usual.
Vieira 7.0 Had a good first half, but I thought by his
standards wasn't as commanding as normal in
the 2nd.
Grimandi 7.5 Another pretty solid game.
Parlour 7.5 Another mostly good, couple of conspicuously
bad moments sort of game, his finishing being
the latter.
Ljungberg 7.5 Another of those busy games of his.
Bergkamp 7.0 Had quite a good first half but disappointing
in the 2nd when he never really got into it.
Henry 8.0 Easily our most dangerous player, only
downpoint being his finishing which was
slightly off key.
Derek
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