Highbury, Saturday March 31st 2001
FA Carling Premiership
See also Newsreel report and list of links to reports on other sites, below.
The actual game was massively overshadowed by events off the pitch.
The press thought the big story was the arrival of yet another messiah
for Spurs (and we'll believe in that when we see it), but for those
at Highbury the flags at half mast showed what mattered most.
The minutes silence for Rocky was observed brilliantly: and I think
the Spurs fans are owed credit for the respect they showed. Thank you.
After the silence the chants of "Rocky rocky rocky Rocastle" went
round the ground. Rocky will be missed, and we needed to win for him.
(Apparently the silence was pretty well observed even at White Hart Lane,
where they were watching the game on the big screen, ed.)
The first half was pretty anonymous. The Spurs team looked badly out of
shape and clearly playing for a 0-0 draw. The only events I can remember
of note are a couple of good saves by Sullivan from Henry -- one on the
turn after a ball from Vieira -- and a brave parry and save at the feet of
Pires -- when a cross to Wiltord would surely have been 1-0. Henry also
hit the post with a shot that had to bounce in off the post, but refused
to. At the other end Davies got lucky and nearly had his shot deflected by
Dixon into the goal. Apart from that both teams had a speculative long
range efforts. Ours looked marginally more convincing, but neither team
worried the opposition goalie much.
Spurs were very poor. They lacked much passion, you'd have expected
a team with so many young players strongly attached to the club to
have really fought for this, but they didn't. Arsenal were content to
take the sting out of the game, we were so much better than them that
we really didn't want the game to be played at anything other than a
pace we dictated. The most passion showed was from Freund when he
got booked for attempting to kill Pires. He didn't look too
happy about it.
The second half was marginally better, though yet again we had to wait
until the last 15-20 minutes to get going. They have a little graph
in the programme showing the times of our goals in 15 minute bands,
and the size of the 75+ minute band compared to the rest is getting
silly. Almost to the extent that you could stay in the pub until
half past four most Saturdays. Arsenal were patient, played
excellent possession football and tried to wear down Spurs. Then
Arsenal would be useless for five minutes as no-one would perform. Then
we'd dominate again. We worked several good efforts, but I can't
recall many details of them owing to post match celebration.
The key moment was the introduction of Kanu for Lauren in the 67th
minute. Kanu was brilliant -- he kept the ball well, played it round,
had fun, made the defenders look like idiots, and provoked Sullivan
into several fine saves; and importantly as the
extra attacker he meant that the others had a bit more space (Wiltord
switched to the wing and pushed forward more than Parlour had been).
In the 70th minute Pires scored a cracker. Almost a carbon copy of
his goal against Chelsea. He drifted in from the left, and from just
outside the area curved an amazing shot past Sullivan who had no
chance. I think Pires enjoyed it -- certainly pays back Freund for his
"tackle" and the idiots at WHL who threw the ball at him.
Near the end we got our second. Keown (I am assured) (no, it was
Kanu, ed) played a superb
ball through to Henry, who made Freund (wasn't it Parry? ed)
look like a fool before rolling
the ball past Sullivan cooly. Excellent finish. Spurs seemed to
think there had been a foul on the halfway line. It certainly could
have been given, but I think it was the right decision.
Spurs best player was Sullivan. He pulled off several fine saves
and kept the score respectable. He is no Walker, and next week we
are going to have to beat him again, which will not be easy. His
opposite number Seaman had virtually nothing to do all day. My man of
the match was Vieira who was outstanding and untouchable in midfield.
The Spurs team had no answer to him. Luzhny coming on for Dixon late
on makes me worry that Dixon may have been hurt, but that will come
out during the week, and Luzhny is an able subsitute for Lee.
So we won the game for Rocky, and although neither side were really
fired up (Arsenal had one eye on Valencia, and a large part of our
thoughts with Rocastle; they were concentrating on next week) we did
what we had to do very well. That the game lacked passion can be
seen in that there was only 1 booking, and the only fighting I saw
was exclusively amongst Spurs fans. However beating this lot is still
fun, however much it matters less to us than them...
So roll on next week: "Two Nil! We beat the scum Two Nil!"
report by Mike Pitt
Preview
- Arsenal team news
Gilles Grimandi is out of the match through illess
(see his diary at Icons.com
The big question is will Martin Keown be ready in time?
He's had one game for the reserves (see here) but last week's reserve game was cancelled.
update Tuesday: today's reports are saying that Martin is definitely
ready for Saturday. There are rumours that he took part in a specially arranged friendly
against Bastia (Fr) today.
Also, it's being reported that our French stars will be
flown home on Danny Fiszman's private jet, soon after the France friendly
against Spain (coincidentally, in Valencia), in order to get maximum
recovery time for Saturday's match.
update Friday it's been confirmed that Keown played the full 90
minutes of the Bastia friendly on Tuesday and is ready for Tottenham.
But Dennis Bergkamp misses the game with an Achilles problem. He is
expected to be ok for the FA Cup semi, but possibly not the Valencia game.
Grimandi's illness is revealed to be a throat infection.
Both Vivas and Silvinho are expected to miss the game,
as they arrive back from international duty in S. America today.
- Tottenham_Hotspur team news
Tottenham will be playing their first game under Glenn Hoddle,
which many pundits will be claiming gives them an edge. B*****cks
to that. I always thought having George Graham gave them an edge
anyway.
Tottenham have a few injury problems. They must all have been
a bit nasty in a previous life.
Sol Campbell is almost certainly out after twisting a leg
against Albania (see newsreel).
He could miss the cup semi too, we await the results of a scan (which
in turn is waiting till the swelling goes down).
Sergei Rebrov is out with a hamstring strain suffered
during Ukraine's 1-1 draw in Cardiff, but they are confident he'll be
ok for the FA Cup semi.
Steffen Iversen suffered concussion during Norway's 2-1
defeat in Belarus, but is expected to be fine for Saturday. There are also slight dounts over Ledley King and Luke Young both of whom
picked up knocks in the U21 game.
Oyvind Leonhardsen is out with a chipped ankle bone. He is hoping
to be fit for the semi-final but will miss this match.
Ledley King
had to withdraw from the England U21 squad with a dead leg, but it's
unlikely that the problem will last long enough to keep him out
of the Arsenal game.
Stephen Carr has been out since December,
he had a hernia operation at the start of March. He's said to be
well on the road to recovery, but will presumably miss the Highbury
match.
Ben Thatcher is said to be regaining match fitness after
a hamstring problem.
Tim Sherwood has a groin problem but could be
back soon (like Leonhardsen, possibly in time for the semi but probably not for
this match).
Chris Armstrong is injured and won't be back for a while.
Stephen Clemence joins the injury list with a groin strain.
Darren Anderton is in plaster, naturally.
Tottenham have drafted in youngsters Ian Hillier,
John Piercy, Stevie Ferguson and John Jackson.
- non-UK TV coverage
- Norway: live on CanalPlus
(thanks to Eirik for the info)
- USA: tape-delayed on Fox Sports World and Fox Sports Espanol, starts at 12noon EST/9am PST. It will also be the main game on Fox Sports Net's highlights show (see local listings). Also the whole game will be re-shown on Fox Sports World on Wednesday 4th at 11am EST/8am PST.
(thanks to Lawrence for the info)
- For details, and countries not listed above, see the
non-UK TV FAQ
- See also
Other reports
Your reports
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Useful links for armchair fans
Useful links for swivel-chair fans
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from the opposition's website (most probably their official site).
Useful links for travelling fans
- ArseWeb's highbury pages, including ticket info, getting to the ground, etc.
- AwayFans.co.uk. Stadium reviews and info. Maps, traffic reports, pub lists, info on disabled/wheelchair provisions, etc. Conference teams as well as Premiership and Nationwide.
- London football Arsenal page from
a site focussing on info for fans from abroad wanting to get to matches (tickets,
travel, accomodation, etc).
- From the Terrace. Each team's section includes a page on their ground, with directions. Premiership, Nationwide, and Scottish.
- AwayGuide.net. Directions, maps, pub guides. All Premiership and Nationwide league teams.
- Football Ground Guide. Lovely site, loads of info, pics, diagrams, etc
- Football Grounds of England. With capacities, record gates, and pictures.
- Football Grounds frenzy. Wonderful photos of football grounds, with a little info too. Everything apart from
glitzy new grounds, and no Premiership ones. Might be handy for Cup games, and
certainly nice to look at!
- FanZone.
Information for travelling sports fans. directions, car parks, eateries,
pubs, blah-de-blah....
- Our own Highbury pages for useful info for Arsenal's home games.
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