(1) 2 - 2 (0) ArsenalHighfield Road, Saturday 17th January 1998FA Carling PremiershipPreview
(1) 2 - 2 (0) ArsenalHighfield Road, Saturday 17th January 1998FA Carling PremiershipScorers: Dublin (pen), Whelan. Bergkamp, Anelka.Not much detail at the moment - I just heard reports on the radio. It sounds like one to watch on Match of the Day though (it's a featured match). Whelan put Coventry ahead in the first half, and Bergkamp capitalised on a defender's slip early in the second to get in and chip the keeper. Later Anelka put us ahead with a nice goal ("good control", apparently). But it all went pear-shaped a bit later when Vieira was sent off and Dublin scored the penalty to bring City level again. According to the report Paddy was sent off for arguing about the penalty rather than the incident itself. Towards the end Coventry also had a player sent off for bringing Bergkamp down. See also Ian Grant's summary in ANR. Some people will always be disppointed not to beat Coventry, but they've had some good results recently, beating Man Utd and putting LIverpool out of the Cup.
Coventry City vs Arsenal Sat Jan 17 1998
Result : Coventry (1) 2 Arsenal (0) 2
Scorers: Whelan 21, Dublin 66 pen Bergkamp 50, Anelka 57
Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon, Winterburn, Keown, Bould, Upson; Vieira,
Petit, Parlour; Bergkamp, Anelka
Subs: Grimandi (Keown 42), Boa Morte (Anelka 82)
Hughes, Wreh, Manninger
Booked: Vieira, Grimandi, Parlour
Sent off: Vieira (65th minute, foul & abusive language)
Coventry: Hedman, Burrows, Nilsson, Williams, Breen, Whelan, Telfer,
Soltvedt, Boateng, Dublin, Huckerby
Subs: Shaw, Moldovan, Salako, Strachan, Ogrizovic
Booked: Whelan, Telfer
Sent off: Williams (79th minute, professional foul)
Att: 22864
Ref: S J Lodge (Barnsley)
An extremely eventful game at Highfield Rd on Saturday, and one which
Arsenal were rather lucky to come away from with a draw. After a first
half which was probably the worst the Gunners have played this season,
they somehow found themselves in front 15 minutes into the second, but
then conceded a penalty equaliser in an incident which also saw Vieira
getting himself needlessly sent off.
With Overmars and Wright out injured, for some reason Wenger chose to change formation, and gave Matthew Upson his league debut in a 3 man defence alongside Bould and Keown. Not sure about his thinking behind this - maybe he thought the spare man would help counter Dublin's aerial threat and Huckerby's pace. Anyway, the effect seemed to be to turn the Arsenal defence into a complete shambles, though Arsenal did have the better of the opening 20 minutes without really looking dangerous. Anelka was obstructed just outside the area and the free kick from Bergkamp looked goal bound until it was deflected wide. Parlour went on a strong surging run down the right and was brought down in the area by an untidy tackle by Burrows. The full back did just about make contact with the ball in the first instance, but then appeared to impede Parlour as he tried to get up to chase the loose ball. The ref waved play on though. At the other end there was a hint of things to come when Arsenal tried to play the ball about at the back under severe pressure from the Coventry forwards, and finally Keown sliced an attempted clearance to Whelan about 25 yards out. He hit a first time volley straight at Seaman. However, the match really changed with the opening goal after which any semblance of organisation in the Arsenal defence appeared to disappear for the rest of the half. Dublin knocked a long ball forward to Soltvedt, and he held it up in the area with his back to goal and Bould up his arse before knocking it square for Whelan and Dublin who were both making unmarked runs into the box. The former won the race and knocked the ball past Seaman from about 15 yards. After that the rest of the half was a catalogue of chances for Huckerby as the Arsenal defence ushered him through for a series of one-on-ones with Seaman, though we did have a bit of variety when Soltvedt was given a free header from cross from the right. Fortunately he put it wide from about 12 yards. Luckily for Arsenal Huckerby was equally wasteful. First he turned outside Bould as he dribbled at speed into the right side of the area to leave himself with only Seaman to beat, but the England keeper brilliantly deflected his fiercely struck drive over the bar. He then missed another 3 good chances. Seaman again blocked another shot from an angle on the right, and foiled another chance this time when Huckerby tried to nutmeg him from an acute angle on the left when Dublin was waiting unmarked in the middle. Keown pulled up with a pulled hamstring when he was chasing Huckerby for the latter chance, but for some reason went back onto the pitch after some treatment which indirectly led to Huckerby's final chance of the half. The Coventry striker was again left free on the left when a clearance reached him just inside the Arsenal half, and Keown was the nearest defender. In a fit condition he probably would have been able to cover, but he could barely hobble so Huckerby ran clear into the area. Fortunately Upson had got across quickly and made a quite brilliant tackle as Huckerby ran at him in the area, and then recovered quickly enough to block another Coventry player's attempt to collect the rebound. Petit then gave the ball away just outside the area, but was saved by Seaman who was quickly off his line to deny Boateng. Arsenal were lucky not to be at least 3 goals down at half time, but the second half was a somewhat different and more eventful affair. Hedman was at last forced into a significant save early on by a well placed shot from just outside the area by Bergkamp which the keeper had to get down quickly to. And five minutes into the half Arsenal were level, thanks to some generous Coventry defending. A long punt forward was misheaded square by Nilsson, but Williams still had a fairly easy clearance to make. He chose to try and cushion a header back to his keeper, but Bergkamp had anticipated brilliantly and nipped in to nick the ball over Hedman as he dashed off his line, and it sailed into the back of the net. Amazingly, a few minutes later Arsenal went a goal up. Bergkamp cleverly knocked Vieira's forward pass back into Dixon's path just outside the area. The fullback rather awkwardly hit a left foot shot which was deflected by a defender. Anelka was following in and just got his foot to the ball ahead of Hedman but could only hit it into the keeper's midriff. The ball squirmed from his grasp though and Anelka reacted the quicker and stabbed it into the empty net before the keeper could recover. At the other end Coventry were denied one penalty when Upson appeared to hold back Dublin as they both tried to get on the end of a cross into the area. The ref turned that appeal down but upheld a second one when Telfer's free kick from the left struck Vieira's arm as he was challenged in the area by Whelan. As Vieira went for the header with one arm above his head it wasn't any surprise that the ref gave it, though I think it probably was accidental. Arsenal did have a case for grievance though, in that the original free kick was given for a foul by Vieira on Huckerby which took place only after Huckerby had violently elbowed Grimandi off the ball. However, the young Frenchman compounded matters for his team by arguing the case against the penalty for too long with the ref, and I think was sent off directly for foul and abusive language. He still took some time to go, and eventually it was the 18 year debutant Upson who stepped in to take responsibility and push him towards the tunnel and Gary Lewin had to come on to usher him the rest of the way. Dublin kept his composure to put the penalty away, though Seaman went the right way and would have saved it had it not been right in the corner. After that Arsenal had probably the best chance to have won it when Bergkamp got away down the left and ran into the area before playing a pass square to pick out Anelka's run into the middle. The young striker was under pressure from a defender though and put his left foot shot from about 10 yards just wide of the near post. The other main talking point of the game came about 10 minutes from time when Petit played a pass forward for Bergkamp to chase clear of the Coventry defence, only to be tripped on the edge of the area by Williams as he crossed over behind the Dutchman. It looked a pretty clear sending-off at the time, and the TV cameras clearly showed that Williams made contact with Bergkamp's trailing foot. It was probably accidental and Bergkamp may have over-dramatized the fall somewhat, but I don't think there is any doubt that he was tripped. The referee confused matters when after flourishing the red card he consulted with the linesman, and when he came back Coventry appeared to think they'd been awarded a free kick, before the ref then back to talk to the linesman and confirmed his original decision. Apparently he was just checking it wasn't a penalty. After that the game was pretty open though I don't remember either side having another clear cut chance, and the only other incident of note was when Grimandi and Dixon had a minor spat over marking duties when Huckerby was again given too much space on the right. The argument ended with Dixon shoving Grimandi in the chest. An eventful and entertaining game, but overall a pretty dreadful and disorganised performance from Arsenal, particularly in the 1st half when only Seaman and to a lesser extent Upson and perhaps Anelka and Parlour were exempt from criticism. The second half was significantly better and they did well to come back to take the lead, though a large amount of luck and bad Coventry defending were partly responsible for that. I would also question why the old heads such as Bould (the captain), Seaman, Dixon, Winterburn et al didn't make any attempt to stop Vieira talking himself into a red card.
Seaman 8.5 Kept Arsenal in the game in the first half with some
great saves.
Winterburn 7.0 Was as poor as the rest in the 1st half, but played
like a man possessed in the 2nd, bombing forward like
an 18 year old at every opportunity.
Dixon 6.0 Also improved and had a couple of good breaks in the 2nd
half.
Keown 6.5 Quite why he came back onto the pitch after pulling a
hamstring I don't know.
Bould 6.0 Did reasonably well against Dublin in the air but
embarrassed by Huckerby on the floor.
Upson 7.0 Looked quite composed most of the time apart from a
couple of panicky moments under bouncing balls, and
saved one almost certain goal in the 1st half when
Keown was injured.
Grimandi 6.0 Didn't play all that badly and couldn't be blamed for
the first half defensive shambles.
Vieira 5.0 Didn't play well and wasn't tackling as effectively as
usual before the sending off, which was the height of
stupidity.
Petit 6.0 Had a dreadful first half but improved somewhat in the
second.
Parlour 6.5 In the early part of the first half was Arsenal's best
player but was as headless as the rest of them after
the first goal.
Bergkamp 6.5 Was very disappointing in the first half but looked more
dangerous as the game opened up in the 2nd.
Anelka 7.0 Again looked quite promising and made some good runs,
though a lot of the time he and Bergkamp were too far
apart.
Other reports
Postscript 20th JanReferee Steve Lodge has looked at the video evidence and stands by his decision to send Paul Williams off for a serious foul. Thus ends 3 days of recriminations against Bergkamp. Let's hope this incident does nothing to make referees (even) less inclined to give Bergkamp the benefit of the doubt. Much has been made of the time it took Bergkamp to go down but Andy Gray on SKY showed that while Bergkamp managed to take a step with the other leg, the leg that was clipped by Williams failed to recover in time to take the subsequent step and that's why Dennis fell over.We are taking the step of putting these facts here only because of the number of comments we've heard from so-called Arsenal fans claiming to be "disgusted" and "ashamed" by Dennis's "dive". Have more faith next time. Gordon Strachan's post-match comments were that the referee was a "joke" and a "disgrace". Let's hope he gets his comeuppance for that. Strachan said that the ref gave them "nothing, absolutely nothing" in this match. Strange then, that Coventry should have been awarded a penalty (for what looked like an accidental hand-ball) and were facing 10 men for a quarter of an hour.
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