Everton (0) 0 - 2 (2) ArsenalGoodison Park, Saturday 1st March 1997FA Carling Premiershipscorers: Bergkamp WrightBergkamp put us ahead after 21 minutes, after a long ball from Winterburn bounced high fooling David Unsworth. Bergkamp took the ball forward and fired low, the ball squeezing under the body of Southall. Wright broke his drought, and continued his good record against Everton with the second, a few minutes later. He showed the best of his character with great control in the box, collecting and controlling Garde's pass before shooting, all in a flash. Capital Gold made him their man of the match, and he moved a goal closer to Bastin's record, but now he must sit out a couple of games through suspension and we must all be keen to see what the new kid Anelka can do, Dixon also faces a ban after picking up a booking today, but since the deadline's gone it's only a one match loss. It sounded like we were under a bit of pressure in the second half. Stuart hit the post , Speed headed wide from a good chance, and they had a penalty shout or two. But Arsenal hung on to make it a double over Everton. Meanwhile Coventry decided that Man Utd would probably need a bit of a hand at Old Trafford and gave them 2 own goals in the first 5 minutes, going on to lose 3-1. Apart from that it wasn't a bad day with Wimbledon losing at home to Leicester, Forest (our visitors in the next match on Saturday) winning at White Hart Lane, and Newcastle losing against Matthew Le Tissier (and some other blokes). Chelsea lost at Derby. Liverpool play Villa tomorrow but we'll still be third (albeit having played more games). report by Rupe.
Result : Everton (0) 0 Arsenal (2) 2
Scorers: Bergkamp 21, Wright 27
Arsenal: Lukic, Dixon, Garde, Marshall, Keown, Winterburn, Platt,
Vieira, Hughes, Bergkamp, Wright
Subs: Morrow (Garde h-t), Selley, Shaw, Rankin, Harper
Booked: Garde, Dixon, Wright, Winterburn
Everton: Southall, Barrett, Unsworth, Watson, Phelan, Stuart,
Ferguson, Speed, Barmby, Thomsen, Parkinson
Subs: Branch (Barmby h-t), Short (Unsworth h-t),
Hottiger, Rideout, Speare
Booked: Speed, Thomsen, Phelan, Parkinson
Att: 36980
Ref: P S Danson (Leicester)
A much needed victory on Saturday against a very poor Everton will
hopefully have got the season back on track again. A team lacking
Seaman, Adams, Bould and Merson won fairly comfortably, though a
reasonably good all round performance in the 1st half was followed by a
2nd in which the Gunners declined for the most part to do any attacking.
Once again the game was played in a strong, blustery wind which had the strange effect of collecting all the loose garbage in the ground and depositing it in the penalty area at one end. It seemed fitting that it was this end that Everton were defending in the 1st half because the home defence proceeded to play like so much rubbish. The first evidence of this came when Bergkamp beautfully tricked his way past a defender wide on the right, but his cross sailed over Wright's head. Soon afterwards there was more confusion in the Everton defence. Platt chipped a cross in from the right towards Wright, and Barrett and Southall collided as they both attempted to clear the danger. The ball bounced loose to Platt about 25 yards out, and with Southall prone in the area and no-one else protecting the goal it seemed a good chance, but he lifted a left foot attempt to lob the ball into the net over the bar. 20 minutes into the half Arsenal did go in front. Winterburn hoisted a ball forward towards Bergkamp, Unsworth horribly misjudged it and let the ball bounce over his head. Bergkamp reacted quickest, collected the ball and set off towards goal with Unsworth and Watson trailing in his wake. He seemed to have taken it rather wide to the right of goal but still got in a firm shot. Southall probably still should have saved it but couldn't get a firm enough hand on the ball to prevent it going into the net. A few minutes later it was 2-0 to the Arsenal, and this time it was Wright who joyfully refound his scoring touch with a typically brilliant goal. Garde ventured forward from the back and played a perceptive ball through to WWW on the edge of the area. Wrighty took the pass and turned superbly in one movement which took out his marker and left him with a clear shot at goal. He finished the job with a clinical low strike into the far corner which left Southall with no chance. Thereafter Arsenal were generally happy to sit back and defend, and Everton eventually did manage to sustain some pressure. However, they rarely looked like breaking down the makeshift but solid defence, and the only time I can recall any danger was when Lukic nearly misjudged a through ball which bounced over him and was dangerously close to dropping under the crossbar. The other main excitement of the half was when an Everton fan ran onto the pitch and had a verbal go at the ref. Winterburn restrained him and attempted to usher him off the pitch in a direction which would have evaded the stewards, but they caught the poor fellow and he was eventually escorted round the pitch to a standing ovation from both sets of supporters. In the second half Everton attempted to turn things round by replacing Barmby (who'd been playing anonymously in midfield) with Branch, and the hapless Unsworth with Short. They were helped by the fact that Arsenal (with Morrow on in place of Garde) seemed content to sit on their lead and defend, so the half was characterised by Everton dominating possession and Arsenal defending doggedly. The home side only threatened a goal on a couple of occasions though. First Speed was left unmarked at the far post following a free kick, but his downward header bounced wide of the post. Then another ball was slanted in from the left, Winterburn slipped as he turned to cover Stuart at the far post which left the striker free for a shot from an angle which thudded against the foot of the post. The home fans were also shouting for a penalty when Lukic raced from his goal and collided with Branch as they reached a through ball at the same time. The ball appeared to spin through untouched by either player but fortunately the ref saw nothing wrong with the challenge. At the other end Arsenal probably had the best chance of the half. Bergkamp picked up a clearance in his own half and played a nice diagonal long pass forward into the space in front of Wright as he chased down the right. WWW reached the byline, held the ball up and got round a defender before playing it in towards the near post where Platt was charging in. He got there first but lifted his shot from just outside the 6yd box over the bar. Can't recall a great deal else in the way of other incident, probably due to over-zealous pre-match beer consumption and not remembering to record MOTD or the Sky highlights program. The ref was inconsistently appalling - most of the eight bookings were for relatively innocuous fouls, whereas Parkinson, having already been booked, should have got a 2nd yellow for a dreadful lunge at Bergkamp. A good result but any satisfaction should be tempered by the fact that it was against a very inept team lacking any confidence. I'd say it wasn't a terribly good performance overall, though to be fair in the first half hour Arsenal played reasonably well, and the defence performed well throughout. I just found it frustrating in the second half the way the Gunners never really showed much real intention of adding to their score. Wenger's post-match comments suggested that it was the players who decided to protect the victory, and I suppose it's harsh to blame them for doing so, following recent results.
Lukic 6.5 Reasonably solid again, don't think he had a difficult
save to make.
Dixon 6.5 Good game defensively, but rarely seen going forward.
Winterburn 6.5 Also a reasonably good game.
Garde 7.0 Had quite a good game while he was on, I thought. Don't
know why he was replaced at half time. I assumed he was
injured but it could have been because Morrow was better
at coping with the expected aerial bombardment.
Keown 7.5 Typically solid and belligerent. Led the defence well in
Bould and Adams' absence.
Marshall 7.0 Again had a good game and did little wrong.
Platt 6.0 Despite Arsenal's poor record while he was out, I've yet
to convince myself that the team is any better with him
in it.
Vieira 6.5 Again ok, though not up to his earlier standards.
Hughes 6.0 One or two nice runs, but generally quiet. Maybe not
surprising considering the defensive mode Arsenal
adopted after half time. I didn't see his spat with
Platt.
Bergkamp 6.5 Again looked the best footballer on the pitch, but
hardly saw the ball in the 2nd half.
Wright 6.5 Looked rather more like his normal self. Hopefully his
new red boots and the really sharp goal will set him off
on another scoring run.
Morrow 7.5 Along with his defensive partners, never really put a
foot wrong. In fact I might even say he stood out in
defence in the 2nd half.
copyright belongs to original author where credited. otherwise © Rupert Ward, ArseWeb MMV ArseWeb is NOT the official Arsenal site. The (excellent) official site is here |