(1) 1 - 2 (2) ArsenalSelhurst Park, Wednesday 25th February.FA Cup 5th round REPLAYPreview
(1) 1 - 2 (2) ArsenalSelhurst Park, Wednesday 25th February.FA Cup 5th round REPLAYscorers: Dire Anelka BergkampNot much details of this yet I'm afraid, having only half seen the highlights on telly in a pub. Anelka scored really early on and then was brought downdown 20 mins or so later by Gordon. Following the letter of the law (unlike Gallagher in the Arsenal-Chelsea game) he sent Gordon off. Bergkamp scored from the free-kick with a beautiful "ricochet-shot" off the wall (well, Roy Race used to do that sort of thing deliberately and Dennis must be at least as good as him). Somehow Bruce Dire scored in the second half. Must have been gifted it. Marc Overmars flew back from the Dutch training camp in the US to sit on the bench, and came on for Bergkamp. Could have had a hattrick in the half-hour he was on. Dennis picked up another stupid yellow card and is now only one more away from another suspension.
Arsenal face West Ham at Highbury in the next round after
they narrowly beat Blackburn on penalties. John Hartson will
be suspended for the match. ITV have selected it as their
live match which means that the kick-off is 2pm on Sunday 8th
March.
Crystal Palace vs Arsenal Wed Feb 25 1998
Result : Crystal Palace (1) 1 Arsenal (2) 2
Scorers: Dyer 35 Anelka 2, Bergkamp 28
Arsenal: Manninger, Dixon, Adams, Keown, Upson; Vieira, Hughes,
Platt, Boa Morte; Bergkamp, Anelka
Subs: Overmars (Bergkamp 67), Crowe (Upson 82),
Rankin, Vernazza, Lukic
Booked: Platt, Keown, Bergkamp, Upson
Palace: Miller, Smith, Ismael, Hreidarsson, Edworthy, Gordon, Roberts,
Rodger, Fullarton, Dyer, Brolin
Subs: McKenzie (Smith 67), Linighan (Brolin 82),
Emblen (Roberts 82), Ginty, Nash
Booked: Dyer, Ismael
Sent off: Gordon (27, professional foul)
Att: 15674
Ref: M J Bodenham (East Looe)
A more recognisable team for the game last night, with Adams returning
from suspension and Bergkamp from a bout of flu. The result was a fairly
comfortable passage through to the quarter-finals, though the Gunners
made somewhat harder work of it than they should have done, after going
2-0 up and seeing Palace reduced to 10 men after only half an hour.
The tie was made easier for Arsenal by going a goal up after barely a minute. A poor clearance out of the Palace defence was picked up by Platt, and he knocked a pass square to Bergkamp on the right hand touchline. The Dutch master drifted back across towards the centre circle before chipping a pass forward down the middle. Anelka timed his run well to beat the offside trap, Hreidarsson misjudged his header and the ball flicked off the top of his head to leave Anelka in a race to the loose ball with the keeper. He just got there first and lobbed the ball over Miller, it dropped against the far post and bounced along the goal line. I think it was actually just over the line, but Anelka made sure by knocking it into the roof of the net. Arsenal seemed to be playing a sort of 4-3-3, with Platt, Vieira and Hughes as a fairly narrow midfield, and Boa Morte somewhat further forward though staying mainly wide on the left. Bergkamp also spent a lot of time deep, almost playing as a midfielder, presumably partly as a means of avoiding the attentions of his nemesis in the previous two games. To some extent that may have been unnecessary though, because I think Palace for some reason changed to a flat back four, so Hreidarsson was playing more as a zonal defender than a man-marker. Anyway, even if my tactical analysis is flawed, Arsenal enjoyed the greater share of possession in the opening 25 minutes, played some good stuff and might have added to their lead. Anelka turned nicely on Bergkamp's pass in to his feet on the edge of the box, and hit a good shot but Miller was well placed and saved comfortably. Hughes did some good work down the left to set up Boa Morte for a shot from just inside the left of the area, but he dragged it wide of the far post. Then following a good break down the left by Upson, Vieira played a cross field pass to pick out Dixon in space about 35 yards out. As the ball bounced up off his first touch the veteran fullback hit a tremendous left foot volley which at first seemed to be sailing way over, but dipped sharply and clipped off the top of the crossbar with the keeper well beaten. Soon afterwards Dixon created Arsenal's best chance since the goal, chipping a pass forward which allowed Boa Morte to beat the offside trap and break clear. Miller came out quickly though and blocked the winger's effort and eventually smothered the loose ball. At the other end Palace barely threatened, though Dyer once embarrassed Adams with a turn which left him clear just outside the area on the left. He badly overhit his cross though. The main incident of the game occurred just before the half hour. After a Palace attack had been broken up by Upson and Keown, Boa Morte played a quick pass forward down the left for Anelka to chase. He just beat Gordon to the ball but the fullback's lunging tackle took his legs away. As Anelka would have been clean through it was a fairly obvious denial of a goalscoring opportunity and the ref duly (though slightly suprisingly as it was Bodenham) produced the red card. The resulting free kick from Bergkamp was on target but probably covered by Miller before it took a wicked deflection off Edworthy in the wall and flew just inside the near post. 2-0 up and playing 10 men, perhaps Arsenal relaxed too much, but anyway Palace made more of a game of it for the remaining 15 minutes of the half, and actually pulled a goal back a few minutes later. Keown miscontrolled a misplaced Palace pass forward, and Dyer took the ball off him and ran through on goal before shooting from just outside the area. Manninger dived full length to his left to pull off a good save and palm the ball aside. From the resulting corner Hreidarsson was left unmarked and thumped a header goalwards. Manninger was well placed to block it, but as the ball bounced up in front of the goal line Brolin and Dyer beat Dixon in the aerial contest and the ball crossed the line, with the last touch being credited to Dyer's head. I don't recall any other clear cut chances in the half, though Bergkamp had a shot from the edge of the box which drifted a few feet wide, and Arsenal had some late pressure with 2 or 3 corners. Rather ironic that Arsenal must have had upwards of 10 corners in all, and failed to make capital from any of them, while Palace scored from their only corner of the game. The 2nd half started in a similar vein to the last part of the first, with Palace working hard to put some pressure on Arsenal, but not really succeeding in seriously threatening the Gunners' defence. The exception was fairly early in the half when Brolin's long pass from deep in his own half caught Keown in two minds over whether to play the offside trap or to intercept the pass. In the end his off balance attempt to cut out the pass failed and the offside flag stayed down to leave Dyer to run clear. Fortunately Vieira chased back quickly and was closing Dyer down which forced the striker to try an early shot from outside the box, and his attempt to chip Manninger was easily caught by the keeper. At the other end Anelka's pace on the break was causing Palace problems. Boa Morte sent him away down the left, he checked back and then let Hughes take the ball on and get clear to the left hand by line. He tried to find Bergkamp in the 6yd box when a cut back to the unmarked Boa Morte at the near post might have been better, and a defender cut the pass out for a corner. Boa Morte did get a decent chance soon afterwards when Anelka picked him out with a cross from the left, but instead of heading at goal, Boa Morte tried to bring the ball down on his chest and the ball ran away from him. Midway through the half Bergkamp was replaced by Overmars after taking a kick on the leg from Ismael while he was on the ground, which earned the young French defender a booking. And as Palace pressed vainly forward in search of an equaliser, Arsenal exploited the gaps they left behind and might have had 2 or 3 more goals in the final twenty minutes. Overmars and Anelka in particular missed a couple of decent chances each. First Boa Morte got the better of Edworthy on the halfway line, broke quickly down the inside left channel and spotted Overmars in acres of space on the right. The pass allowed Overmars to advance on Miller, but the keeper was equal to his fiercely struck shot from the edge of the box, beating it away. The ball spun away to Anelka whose first touch set himself up for an instant right foot volley, but with only one defender on the line he dragged it wide. Then following a quick long pass forward by Platt, Overmars produced a clever turn to make himself some space on the edge of the box, but this time didn't really get hold of his shot and Miller saved fairly comfortably. Jason Crowe replaced Upson for the last 10 minutes or so, and showed some good pace and control down the left. From one of his breaks, the ball was transferred quickly along the edge of the Palace area, via Boa Morte and Platt, finally to Anelka in some space in the right of the area. His shot from an angle was well hit, but Miller made another great save, spreading himself to deflect the ball for a corner. The final real action of the game came in injury time. Following a short corner on the right, Hughes spotted Overmars' run in space at the far post and lofted a lovely pass over the defence to pick him out. Overmars took the ball down and hit a left foot shot from an acute angle which the keeper again did brilliantly to deflect onto the outside of the post for another corner. Given that we were still missing several first choices, it was a reasonably comfortable and satisfactory performance, though I think it should have been an even easier win than it was.
Manninger 7.0 Again one good save but otherwise not a great deal to do
apart from dealing with some dodgy back passes.
Upson 7.0 Again did well, and got forward quite well in the 1st
half, but was booked for a very rash lunge late in the 2nd
Dixon 7.0 Another solid game.
Adams 7.0 Pretty typical performance, though he had a bit of
trouble coping with the way Dyer kept backing in.
Keown 7.0 Also typically solid and resolute, apart from a couple
of untypical mistakes which led to Palace's two best
chances.
Vieira 8.0 Again the dominant figure in midfield, pretty much back
to his best I'd say.
Hughes 7.5 Did pretty well, creating a fair bit and put in some
good crosses from the left.
Platt 7.0 Steady and unspectacular.
Boa Morte 6.5 Another rather Jekyll and Hyde peformance. Did very well
on a couple of occasions making two of Arsenal's best
chances, but was comically woeful at other times.
Anelka 8.0 Possibly the best game I've seen him have. His pace
consistently worried Palace, and there was a bit more
aggression about his game. Only real failing was his
finishing.
Bergkamp 7.5 Didn't look entirely fit, and things still are still
sometimes not quite coming off, but a class apart often
enough to make the difference.
Overmars 7.0 Looked pretty lively considering he'd made a transatlantic
flight only a few hours previously.
Crowe Only on for a few minutes, but I was quite impressed
with what I did see.
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