Arsenal vs Sheffield United 6th January 1996

Arsenal (0) 1 - 1 (0) Sheffield United

Highbury, Wednesday 29th November 1995

FA Cup 3rd round (two reports)

Second leg 17th January

Teams
Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon, Adams, Keown, Winterburn, Jensen, Clarke, 
         Helder, Merson, Hartson, Wright
         Subs: Dickov, Linighan, Bartram 

Sheff Utd: Kelly, Short, Ward, Gannon, Vonk, Nilsen, White, Cowans, 
           Starbuck, Hodges, Whitehouse
          Subs: Heath (Starbuck 59), Hodgson (Gannon 81), Tracey

Result  : Arsenal               (0) 1    Sheffield United      (0) 1
Scorers:  Wright 70                      Whitehouse 78

Bookings: Adams, Keown, Winterburn       Short, White
                                     
Att     : 33453
Referee : P Durkin (Portland)

Another disappointing result on Saturday, with what was a somewhat makeshift team labouring away to be rewarded in the end with only a replay against Sheffield United. Deprived of Bergkamp, Platt and Parlour through injury, Rioch was forced to play the left-footed Adrian Clarke on the right side of midfield, with Helder on the left and Merson moving into the middle to try and fill the playmaker's role. Steve Bould was also injured, so Martin Keown moved back into defence to replace him.

On the whole it was fairly uninspiring stuff, particularly in the first half. Indeed, early on it was the Blades who had the sharper cutting edge, at least until the ball reached David White. A few minutes into the game he almost gave United the lead, turning on a knockdown from a corner, but under challenge from Adams and on his weaker foot he mishit it. This had the effect of wrong footing Seaman, but fortunately he was able to stick out a leg to stop the ball dribbling in, and then grabbed it gratefully.

White later had another reasonable chance, running onto a ball down the left after it ricochoted through, but blasted it well over the bar. Meanwhile Arsenal were dominating territorially, but struggling to create any worthwhile chances. Adams headed over at the far post from a corner, before about 25 minutes into the half, Arsenal at last began to get going, inspired mainly by Paul Merson.

First he had a good effort from 25 yards which Kelly did well to hang on to, then a minute later broke down the middle before finding Wright's run into the area with a lovely chip forward with the outside of his foot. On the run, Wrighty took it on the volley, but mishit hit it somewhat, and his shot bounced into the ground and wide of the far post.

A few minutes before half time, Adrian Clarke missed the best chance of the match so far. Jensen played a short ball forward into the edge of the area, and Clarke, making a run in from the right, took it in his stride to leave himself free just inside the area level with the left hand post. However, his inexperience perhaps showed and he hurried the shot and sliced it well wide.

Arsenal did improve slightly after the break, and apart from their goal and a couple of worrying moments at free kicks soon after, I can't recall United posing much of a threat, though admittedly it was one of those days when I consumed slightly too much beer in the pub before the match so my memory may not be entirely reliable.

Anyway, for much of the early part of the half, the game was looking rather like a nil-nil draw. Arsenal had plenty of pressure and quite a few shots at goal, but rarely threatened to actually score. Helder was looking a bit more interested than in recent games he's played, but still without producing much in the way of a decent final ball. Early in the half he had a good run, cutting in from the left to make space for a shot, but as usual it went well wide.

A mixup in the Sheff Utd defence allowed Wright to break into the area on the left, but forced wide, his shot went across the face of the goal and wide of the far post. Keown also came forward, and made a bit of space for himself on the edge of the area with a nice jink, but with his swinger left foot, that too went high over the bar.

Eventually though, a goal did arrive, again mostly courtesy of the Merse. Jensen played a ball in from the halfway line which Wright let run through to Merson. From about 35 yards out he set off on an arcing run into the right side of the area, past a couple of defenders before playing back into the middle a short little cross along the ground. Wrighty had continued his run and was in the right place at the right time and slid in to just get in front of the defence and poke it home from about 8 yards.

For a while after that it looked as though Arsenal would comfortably hold on, and even increase their lead. Helder for once got a shot on target, but though very well hit from the edge of the area, it was straight at the keeper. So it was a bit of a shock when the Blades equalised.

Adrian Heath was allowed too much space by Winterbun to turn at the corner of the area, and chipped in a ball to the near post where Whitehouse had got in front of Dixon and volleyed past the helpless Seaman from 8 yards. It was really down to slack defending - he was the only opposition player in the area, and I'd have thought that either Adams or Keown should also have been in a position to cut out the cross.

Anyway, even then Arsenal could have snatched the tie back. I have a vague memory of a decent chance. I think a cross from Helder was nodded back by Hartson, and Jensen's shot from just inside the area was cleared off the line, either by a defender or the keeper.

Overall a pretty disappointing performance from the Gunners. On the face of it, we face an uphill battle in the replay, though I have a feeling that with Bergkamp, Platt etc back we may just sneak it. Mind you my feelings recently have been distinctly unreliable. Certainly without Bergkamp there was really only Merson to provide any inspiration. Playing out of position Clarke didn't do as well as in his other games, though he was taking all the corners and taking them quite well.

Keown and Adams looked reasonably solid most of the time, though I thought Adams didn't have one of his better games, and there were some slack moments particularly in the first half. However, they were both booked along with Winterburn, which takes Keown to 7 for the season and I am almost sure will definitely take him above 21 points. I think it was also Adams' 6th booking which could also mean another suspension for him. We shall have to wait and see.

Rioch's post match comments seem to indicate that Bergkamp, Platt and Bould may all be fit for Wednesday. I couldn't quite decide what result I preferred in the Chelsea - Newcastle game yesterday. Hopefully the draw will mean that Newcastle won't be quite as up for it as they might have been had they lost, and their away form recently hasn't been at all good. If Arsenal approach the match in the right frame of mind I think there is hope yet.

report by Derek Brownjohn.

Yet another game where Arsenal failed to show any bite in the final third.

In the first half the only clear cut chance we created was when just before the interval Jenson fed Clarke at the edge of the box, he ran between two defenders and had a clear sight of goal. Unfortunately he missed the target, unforgivable. I was looking firward to seeing Clarke following all the rave reports I have seen on him. I'm afraid I was disappointed, perhaps all the plaudits have gone to his head but he didn't really show anything to make me want to pick him ahead of Helder. True Helder had another game along the same lines as usual, plenty of running at defenders but a poor final ball or trying to beat one man too many.

Sheff Utd came for the draw, they packed their defence and didn't mind Arsenal pratting about with it in the middle third but everytim ewe tried to enter the danger area we were crowded out. Today we seemed to be trying to use Hartson as a target man to head down for Wrigthy, unfortunately he failed to win hardly anything in the air. That was a problem in the box too. We are normally so strong on getting to crosses but I can only remember one occaision where an Arsenal head got to a cross. Adams heading over in the first half.

The most exciting moment in the first half was early on when Seaman fumbled but just held a weak close range effort on the line.

In the second half it was much the same, except that the new "singing section" seemed to forget to sing after the interval. In the first half they were quite vocal and the drum was a great success. Perhaps they will improve with practice, I thought the repertoir a little limited. The goal was down to Merse. He made a strong diagonal run into the right edge of the area and Wrighty managed to get a foot to his square ball to turn it into the net. For the next few minutes it looked like we might score more with several shot s going close. Unfortunately they scored a nice equaliser. I'm not sure who it was but with his back to goal on the left corner of our box he turned and put a ball between our two central defenders. The stiker coming from Dixons position was quicker than Lee and got ahead of him and drove it into the roof of the net from the six yard line, Seaman had no chance.

After that there was one attack where, from where I was in the family enclosure just inside Arsenals half, it looked as though we should have had a penalty. Thre wasn't a great fuss made so perhaps I was wrong but I thought the Sheff Utd defender used his hand to clear a Jenson shot off the line.

At the final whistle I don't think we could gripe that Sheff Utd got the draw, they were very well organised and I'm surprised they are so low in the First Division.

We'll have to play a lot better than this on Wednesday, let's hope Dennis and Platt are back then. My man of the match, Martin Keown, a rock alongside Adams. His only lapse was when he needlessly got booked for tapping the ankles of a sheff utd player heading at break neck pace for the corner flag. Adams and Winterburn also booked.

report by Paul Williams

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