Arsenal vs Coventry City. 19/10/96

Arsenal (0) 0 - 0 (0) Coventry City

Highbury, Saturday 19th October 1996

FA Carling Premiership

Arsenal:
    Seaman, Dixon, Adams, Bould, Keown, Winterburn,
    Platt, Vieira, Merson, Hartson (Bergkamp 65ish), Wright.

[Full Match Report follows these immediate post-match comments]

A frustrating match as Arsenal were comfortably in control for almost all of it but failed to make a breakthrough. Most of the crowd seemed pretty p!ssed off at the end and there was no singing of "We are top of the league" despite finding ourselves in that position (albeit, almost certainly, only till the end of tomorrow's games involving Liverpool, Newcastle, and Moan Utd) for the first time in a few seasons.

Having said that, I htought we were pretty unlucky. Ogrizovic made a couple of outstanmding saves, and there was one incident when Merson founf himself wiht the ball at his feet only inches away from a clear goal, and seemed to be pulled over from behind by the Coventry goalkeeper as he played the ball, which resulted in it trickling agonisingly towards the line only to be cleared at the last millisecond.

Plus points wree the return of Bergkamp, who showed a couple of touches at least of his genius and looked like he would have been a lor more effective for the full 90 than Hartson who he replaced in the second half. Also Tony Adams, who while having a couple of defensive slips, was at his very best going forward, and showed the rest of the team what a defence-splitting pass looks like several times. Bould also made some surprising runs forward, one ending in a powerful shot which would have had the keeper beat if it had been a yard or two closer to the target.

The biggest down side for me was the incindet involving Wright and Ogrizic which resulted in the latter being stretchered off amid much blood. I didn't really see the incident so I don't want to condemn the guy, but some people who did get a good look at it said that it seemed that Wright really lost his rag (after Ogrizovic had possibly taken a swipe at Wright) and stamped on the prone keeper. If that's what happened, and if the cameras caught it, Wright could be in serious trouble.

Platt didn't have a good game, and was the main focus of the crowd's "concern". Vieira also was a bit quiet. But Merse was excellent when he had the ball (a bit distracted at other times, possibly), and some of the signs of understanding between Bergy and Wright were encouraging.

And we are indeed top of the table, Wimbledon only manageing to beat Chelsea by 2 goals (!) Here's a triv question for you: when was the last time that the top two places in the league were occupied by London clubs? Answers to the usual address.

Teams
Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon, Keown, Bould, Adams, Winterburn, Platt, 
         Vieira, Merson, Wright, Hartson
         Subs: Bergkamp (Hartson 67), Garde, Morrow, Parlour, Lukic 

Coventry: Ogrizovic, Shaw, Williams, Daish, Richardson, Jess, Whelan, 
          Dublin, McAllister, Salako, Telfer 
          Subs: Ndlovu (Williams 47), Borrows (Jess 79),
                Filan (Ogrizovic 84), Hall, Strachan
          
Result : Arsenal               (0) 0   Coventry                (0) 0
Scorers:

Bookings: Hartson, Wright, Keown       Telfer
      
Att     : 38140
Referee : P Jones (Loughborough)

A nil-nil draw against a team in the bottom three will ultimately be viewed as failure, but that would be to ignore the view that Coventry were well organised defensively (with 3/5 at the back) and had a goalkeeper in outstanding form. Arsenal had the chances to have won the match but were foiled by a combination of poor finishing and some good saves and blocks. The match as a whole was overshadowed by the Ogrizovic/Wright incident and the general ill-temper in which it was played.

It all started brightly enough and Arsenal could have been at least a couple of goals to the good within the first 15 minutes. First a quick Dixon throw released Wrighty down the right. His vollied cross was headed out but went straight to Winterburn who unleashed volley from 20 yards which was dipping just beneath the crossbar before Ogrizovic fingertipped it over. The resulting corner was again headed clear, this time to Vieira, and he lashed in a goalbound shot which I think actually hit Adams before rebounding to Wrighty wide to the left of goal. His left foot shot from a fairly acute angle sliced wide of the upright.

Soon after that WWW was again heavily involved, breaking from the half way line and making a diagonal run across the pitch. He then overran the ball but recovered to make a good tackle which allowed Winterburn in. His cross from the left went just behind Hartson but Vieira retrieved it and played it back to Merson. He chipped in a cross which picked out Hartson completely unmarked and looking offside at the far post. No flag though and his downward header from about 10 yards was pushed out by the keeper, but only towards Wright who seemed certain to score. Somehow, though, from a prone position Ogrizovic stuck up a foot and blocked Wrighty's attempt to chip it into the net.

At the other end Coventry were occasionally making the odd attacking foray with Salako in particular looking dangerous down the left. One run and cut inside ended which a shot which flashed not too far high and wide, and another cross was headed wide by Dublin.

Meanwhile tempers were starting to get frayed. Williams went down clutching his face after blocking Hartson and coming off worse in the resulting flailing arms as Hartson tried to get past him. Don't think there was any explicit intent but McAllister had a whinge at Hartson and the ref, Wright also had his say and Hartson eventually went in the book. Wright, Keown and Telfer followed him soon afterwards, all for fouls, none of them particularly bad from where I sat.

Wright then had another good chance foiled by the keeper. Shaw seemed favourite to clear a ball prodded forward, but with Wrighty breathing down his neck he slipped and left the striker free in the area. Bearing down on goal at an angle from the right he shot low and hard to the keeper's right but Ogrizovic reacted brilliantly to stick out a leg and block the shot and the rebound was headed clear.

The second half was virtually entirely dominated by the Gunners with Coventry defending almost as deep as Sunderland had two weeks previously. Within a minute of the restart Arsenal could have taken the lead. Merson broke forward and then chipped in a lovely little cross which found the head of Wright about 12 yards out. Perhaps unsighted slightly by a defender jumping in front of him he mistimed the header and the ball bounced into the ground and well wide.

Williams had come out for the 2nd half but failed to shake off an injury sustained before the break and was replaced after a couple of minutes by Ndlovu, with Dublin moving back into defence. It was the Zimbabwean who had Coventry's best chance (and only 2nd half one) soon afterwards. McAllister played a ball through to allow him to beat the offside trap from the halfway line. Running clear into the area down the left he elected to shoot instead of squaring the ball and dragged it well wide of the post with his left foot.

After that it was pretty much entirely one way traffic, with Arsenal driving forward but struggling to break down the Coventry rearguard with Dublin in particular excelling. There were still chances and close escapes though. A short pass from Vieira sent Merson into some space from the halfway line and Merse dribbled towards the edge of the area before unleashing a vicious shot which Ogrizovic again beat out superbly. Merson then dinked forward to put Vieira through in the area, but with the ball coming from behind him he didn't quite get his bearings and lashed a shot wide from the corner of the 6-yd box though I suspect a goal would have been ruled out for a tug on a defender's shirt.

Bergkamp replaced Hartson with a little over 25 minutes left, and his first significant contribution was to whip in a cross from the right which somehow eluded everyone in the area. It was another Bergkamp cross (I think) which Ogrizovic dropped beyond the far post. Merson hooked it back from him but was falling backwards (possibly helped by the keeper) and couldn't quite get enough of a further touch on the ball and Dublin was able to kick clear off the line.

There was another goal line clearance when Ogrizovic blocked a Bould header from a Merson corner and McAllister completed the clearance from in front of the line. Dixon picked up the loose ball outside the area and drove in another shot which McAllister again blocked. Uncle Bouldy went close again with a mazy run (some mistake surely) from the half way line ending with a 20 yard shot which screamed only a couple of feet past the angle of far post and upright.

Then came the clash between Wright and Ogrizovic. Platt dinked a chip forward into the area which Wrighty was running onto at an angle. He tried to nod it round the keeper with his head, Ogrizovic seemed to pull him down and the ball ran free to be cleared by another defender. From the other end of the pitch I couldn't really see what happened, but the video evidence certainly doesn't convict Wright of intent as most of the press seem to have done. The worst that can be said is the WWW was struggling a little over excitedly to free himself from Oggy's clutches. Another ref might have given a penalty.

Anyway Ogrizovic went off with a broken nose and was replaced by Filan. The Australian had time to emulate his predecessor in goal with a flying catch from another Winterburn shot from the edge of the area.

Overall somewhat disappointing that Arsenal couldn't break down the Coventry defence, though there were some patches of nice football. On another day a couple of the chances we had would have gone in and we'd all have gone home happy. I seem to recall Wrighty being similarly foiled by Ogrizovic with a similar string of chances (including a penalty) in the game last season. A bit of a bogey team for him recently.


Seaman     7.0  Can't recall him having to make a save but a couple of
                good takes from crosses.

Dixon      7.0  Salako gave him some trouble early on, but after that 
                little to do defensively and usual self charging forward

Winterburn 7.5  One of Nutty's best games in recent times, unlucky not
                to have scored. Not sure I wouldn't make him man of the
                match.

Adams      7.5  Still the odd misplaced pass and dodgy moment in defence
                but in the 2nd half particularly was his usual 
                inspirational self driving his team forward.

Bould      7.0  Another pretty solid game from Bouldy.

Keown      7.0  In common with rest of defence not much to do.

Platt      6.5  A bit quiet for most of the game I thought, though this
                may be partly to do with Wenger's "new" seemingly zonal
                tactics where Platt sticks mainly to the left side of
                midfield.

Vieira     7.0  Had a pretty good game I thought, though perhaps faded a
                bit towards the end.

Merson     7.0  Not his best game this season, though in the 2nd half
                siege looked the most likely to find the breakthrough.

Wright     6.5  Probably a bit unfair but I'm marking him down a bit for 
                the missed chances and the way he allowed himself to get
                wound up by some of the Coventry players. He was lucky 
                to stay on the pitch after a very late tackle on Shaw.

Hartson    6.5  I still think he is too untidy and reckless in his 
                tussles with defenders which is leading to the rash of
                yellow cards this season.

Bergkamp   6.5  A couple of nice touches, but the odd rusty one too. 
                Didn't really get much chance to get into the match.

report by Derek Brownjohn

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