scroll the header off the screen
scroll the header off the screen
scroll the header off the screen
scroll the header off the screen
scroll the header off the screen
 		  logo scroll the header off the screen
scroll the header off the screen
scroll the header off the screen
scroll the header off the screen
scroll the header off the screen
 

Arsenal (1) 3 - 1 (0) Southampton

Highbury, Wednesday 5th December 1996

FA Carlign Premiership

Teams
Arsenal: Lukic, Dixon, Linighan, Bould, Adams, Winterburn, Platt, 
         Vieira, Merson, Wright, Hartson
         Subs: Shaw (Hartson 77), Parlour (Platt 79), 
               Morrow, Rose, Bartram

So'ton: Beasant, Dodd, Magilton, Maddison, Charlton, Oakley, Dryden, 
        Lundekvam, Berkovic, Ostenstad, Van Gobbel
        Subs: Watson (Oakley 64), Slater (Maddison 74),
               Monkou (Dodds 83), Moss, Robinson

Result : Arsenal               (1) 3   Southampton             (0) 1
Scorers: Merson 43, Wright 57p,        Berkovic 81
         Shaw 89

Bookings: Vieira                       Lundekvam, Charlton

Att     : 38033
Referee : P Jones (Loughborough)
Not surprisingly, following the excitement of recent games, a slightly off key performance last night from an Arsenal side which still eventually comfortably overcame an unambitious Southampton. Saints fans and perhaps some unbiassed observers might claim it was with the help of Lady Luck in the shape of the referee, but that would be ignoring the fact that Arsenal were easily the better side. Despite not being at their best the Gunners still managed to create enough good chances to have won even more comfortably.

Lacking Bergkamp, Keown and Seamam, Arsenal seemed somewhat lackadaisical during the opening 20 minutes or so, and struggled against Southampton who were without Le Tissier and flooded the midfield. However, chances still arrived fairly regularly during the first half. Early on a superb break almost saw the Gunners take the lead. Vieira broke from the edge of his own area and passed to Hartson on the halfway line. Gasps from the crowd as the Welshman played a brilliant first time ball to pick out Wright's run down the right channel. WWW took it into the area and turned Van Gobbel, but Beasant was out quickly to block and Wrighty's attempt to take it round him was foiled. He tried to touch it back to Merson running in but ended up knocking it against his shins and out for a goal kick.

At the other end Lukic caused a few heart flutters by trying a bit of dribbling in his own area. Beating the first man was ok, but then he got cocky and tried to go round another and had to be rescued by Linighan. Southampton also threatened with a couple of free kicks from just outside the box. Neither troubled Lukic but weren't too far wide. They also had a limited amount of success with some long crossfield balls which Dodd outjumped Winterburn at the far post to get his head to, but there were never any of his colleagues following up.

Meanwhile Arsenal were still creating chances. Hartson headed a Dixon cross just wide, Linighan did likewise with a better chance following a Bould flick-on of a Winterburn corner. On another occasion Dixon reacted quickly, fastening on to Charlton's messed up clearance, to take the ball to the byline in the area. His cut back fell perhaps slightly behind the inrushing Platt and his shot ballooned over the bar.

Wright was then obstructed by his shadow Van Gobbel out on the left, and accompanied by some complicated choreography in the area, Merson swung the free kick in to the far post to pick out the unmarked Hartson. Beasant made an excellent save to claw his header out from beneath the bar.

Arsenal again went agonisingly close following an excellent combination down the left between Winterburn and Wright. Nutty was put clear and his cross was only half cleared to Vieira on the edge of the box. His shot seemed goalbound but I think in fact hit Merson, fell at his feet and his stabbed shot from about 8 yards trickled inches wide of the post with Beasant wrong footed. The ref gave a corner so presumably the shot was half blocked.

Towards half time Southampton nearly got the first goal themselves. Some slack play allowed Berkovic to break down the middle. As both Linighan and Adams converged on him just outside the area he laid the ball off to his right into the path of Magilton as he ran unmarked into the area. Lukic came out reasonably quickly to confront him, he chipped the ball over the keeper but fortunately Dixon was there to head off the line.

A couple of minutes later Arsenal were in front. Vieira broke dangerously but ran into Lundekvam on the edge of the area. From the other end it looked to me a definite obstruction, though unnecessary because Vieira had pushed the ball too far ahead of him. The ref apparently agreed, and booked the defender as well as awarding the free kick. Vieira touched it to Platt who stopped it for Merson. He made to hit it first time but instead nudged it wide of the defender who broke from the wall to block, and unleashed a lovely shot, perfectly placed into the bottom right corner of the net.

With a goal lead, Arsenal were somewhat brighter in the second half. Early on Hartson took a pass forward and turned his defender beautfully in one movement before running on and firing in a fierce shot which blazed a couple of feet wide of the far post.

Soon after that Arsenal did go two in front with a disputed penalty. Wright picked out Merson's run into the area with a nicely weighted pass, Lundekvam slid in with a tackle which may have just got a touch on the ball, Merson fell over his legs and the ref pointed to the spot apparently on the say-so of the linesman. I must admit my first reaction wasn't to scream for a penalty, but Platt and Wright both did, and the latter was unfazed by the Southampton protests and calmly slotted the spot kick to Beasant's left.

Merson in particular was now in near unstoppable form. One memorable run took him from inside his own half to the edge of the area. He seemed to have made space for a left foot shot but instead chose to make a short pass to WWW on his left. Wrighty dummied to let the ball roll on to Hartson, completely unmarked behind him, but he wastefully whacked it high over the bar. Adams too was enjoying himself charging forward, and spending more time in attack than defence for much of the 2nd half.

Southampton eventually realised a more adventurous attitude was needed and brought on Watson to support Ostenstad. They rarely looked like getting a goal back though, so Wenger presumably thought the game was safe when he replaced Hartson with Shaw and Platt with Parlour with just over 10 minutes left. It seemed to cause a slight loss in concentration though, because shortly afterwards the Saints did pull a goal back.

Ostenstad broke into the left of the area, and though policed by Adams, managed to get round him to the byline. Adams did recover to take the ball off him but was stretching and in fact took the ball away from Lukic as he tried to clear and ended up playing it back to the feet of Berkovic. He lashed it into the net through a crowd from about 10 yards.

There were then a few nervous moments before the two substitutes made the game safe in the final minute. In a quick break Vieira found Parlour's run, Pizza took it on into the area but, with a defender getting back quickly, stopped and turned to play it back to Shaw. He drilled the ball home at the near post with a shot from about 15 yards.

Not the best Arsenal performance of the season, but it was enough to deserve a fairly convincing victory, particularly in the second half. Apart from the first 20 and last 10 minutes, Southampton didn't really threaten. 

Lukic      7.0  Not a great deal to do, but made a couple of good 
                catches late in the game.

Dixon      7.0  Another solid game, and again did well going forward.

Winterburn 6.5  Again a reasonably performance from Nutty, though he 
                had trouble with Dodds early on.

Adams      7.5  Another great game going forward, though I thought he
                looked slightly uncertain a couple of times defensively.

Bould      7.0  Pretty solid game.

Linighan   7.0  I thought he had a very good game. I'm not sure he 
                wasn't the pick of the centre backs in defence.

Platt      6.5  Made more of his characterstic forwards runs than 
                recently. I still think he not looking very good on the
                ball, but he is being being asked to do a job on the 
                left where he is less comfortable.

Vieira     7.0  Again reasonably solid rather than spectacular, and 
                picked up a silly booking for some shirt pulling.

Merson     8.0  The obvious man of the match. Looked particularly sharp
                running with the ball and back in the form which won him
                the England call up.

Wright     7.0  Well marked by the pacey Van Gobbel most of the time, 
                but got free on occasion. Lucky not to be booked 
                following a mild flare up with the Dutchman.

Hartson    7.0  Had some outstanding moments, but also some woeful ones,
                particularly in front of goal.

Shaw       6.5  Looked a bit out if his depth on occasion but took his 
                goal well.

Parlour    6.5  Again not much time to do much, but the usual energetic 
                running.
On the matter of bookings and penalty points, it is difficult to say exactly how many points each player has, because it is not always obvious what the booking has been for. Different offences incur different points - the most common (a foul tackle, dissent) are worth 4 points, but others (eg handball, leaving the field without a ref's permission, etc) are worth less. Persistent misconduct is also worth fewer points, so that when a ref books a player following what seems an innocuous tackle he may be booking him because of a series of non-serious fouls rather than for one serious foul. The former case counts as persistent misconduct and somewhat incongruously incurs fewer penalty points. Martin Keown must have picked up at least one of the lower points bookings if he is still below 21 points from 6 bookings.

I remain somewhat confused - according to my records Vieira has only been booked 5 times in the league (the CocaCola Cup is treated seperately), which would only put him on 20 points maximum. However, every report I've seen this morning claims he will now get a 2 game suspension so I assume I must have missed one yellow card somewhere. For those still interested the following is the full list of yellow cards this season, according to my calculations: 

                   League  CC cup  UEFA Cup
John Hartson          7       1     
Martin Keown          6
Patrick Vieira        5       1
Ian Wright            5               1
Lee Dixon             4       
Steve Bould           4       
David Platt           3 
Nigel Winterburn      2       1
Andy Linighan         2
Tony Adams            1               1 
Steve Morrow          1
Paul Merson           1
Dennis Bergkamp       1
Ray Parlour                           1
report by Derek Brownjohn

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