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Arsenal (1) 2 - 0 (0)
Wembley Stadium. Saturday 16th May 1998
FA Cup Final
Scorers: Overmars, Anelka
Arsenal:
Seaman
Dixon Adams (C) Keown Winterburn
Parlour Vieira Petit Overmars
Anelka Wreh (Platt)
Arsenal completed the double today in some style, deservedly
repeating
the two-goal margin of the recent league match with Newcastle.
We dominated most of the match, although Newcastle had some
good spells in the second half and if Shearer had made more
of his chances it could have been different.
Great performances all round. Seaman dominated his area to
cut out many of the few crosses they did put over, and the
defence were superb as usual. Keown's day was nearly soured
by a slip that put Shearer clear in the second half at 1-0,
but his left foot shot past Seaman came back off the post.
(A little earlier Dabizas had headed against the woodwork
from a free-kick in a dodgy period near the start of the
second half).
In midfield Petit and Vieira were excellent, and had to be.
With Shearer alone upfront and Ketsbaia dropping deep
Newcastle had numbers back most of the time. Wreh had a decent
first half, and came off a little while into the second for
Platt. Whatever one says about Platt, he obviously knows a
good thing when he sees one. He wanted to come back to England
to win "a" trophy here and he knew what he was doing when he
picked the Arsenal. The same has to be said of Wright, who
chose to stay partly for the same reason and who sadly did
not get to play a part. As the final whistle went it was
Grimandi who was about to come on as sub.
With no time left and 2-0 up,
it was a shame Wright didn't get to make an appearance, but
that's a tiny gripe about an otherwise perfect day, and he
and Bergkamp both deservedly shared in the celebrations
and adulation at the end.
TeamTalk have atory that Wright is set to announce that he's
leaving Arsenal. I hope not.
But it was the attacking force of Overmars Anelka and Parlour
that made the difference. The pace of Marc and Nicky was
too much for the Newcastle defence time and time again, and
Parlour's strength on the ball also took him into good shooting
positions. Ray must have staked a good claim for a late
World Cup chance, if he'd scored it'd be a certainty but as
so often happens it was his shooting that let him down and that
which will keep him from Hoddle's squad.
The first good chance came from a fantastic move that started in
defence with Adams and Vieira swapping passes waiting for the
opening, They created it between them, as Adams slotted a great
ball forward into their half, for Vieira to run onto. He gave
it to Parlour who passsed it on to Dixon. Parlour made a run
forward which Dixon saw, and Ray took it into the box and turned
a cross square into the middle of their area. It was a great
chance, but perhaps a little high for Anelka and he failed to
get over it and keep the header under the bar.
The well-deserved opening goal came from a simpler move than
much of the clever stuff we'd been putting together. A
ball was chipped over the top by
Petit. Overmars got in front of Pistone (I think), nodded
it on, and as Given came out to meet him Marcy poked the
ball down and under the keeper just before he was taken out.
A typical Overmars effort, showing his ability to finish off
a lightning burst with a clever and brave finish. To think
that people wondered about this man at the start of the
season...! If Holland do well this summer, I'm sure they'll
owe a lot of it to us! (and France, if they have the good
sense to use Petit Vieira and Anelka).
In the second they came at us much more. Shearer hit the
post and missed a sitter, hesitating as he and everyone else
expected the offside flag. Everyone
except the wonderful Nigel Winterburn who got a foot in from
behind to turn the ball behind for a corner. Anderson came]
on and created a coupel of scary moments, but the few clear
cut openings they made were wasted. Seaman made some graet
interceptions, rushing out to the dge of the area to claim
hugh balls and so on, but I don't recall a difficult save.
The seond came when Parlour turned the ball forward for
Anelka who (just) beat the offside trap. He controlled it
superbly, turned forward, and fired just past Given.
It was scorching day. I ended up with heat-stroke and I
was only in the stands. God knows how the players managed to
get up the steps to collect their medals. I think I'll have to
adopt a Wenger dietary regime for the next final.
Arsenal became only the second club to complete the double for the
the second time, the other being a club from Salford (with
supporters from everywhere but) who had recently enjoyed a brief
spell of success. Were you watching, Tottenham?
More here soon. Enjoy the summer!
Rupe.
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