Arsenal (1) 2 - 1 (1)Highbury, Saturday February 13th 1999FA Cup 5th roundsee below for reports by: Rupe, DerekAlso, see Re-match page. preview
Arsenal (1) 2 - 1 (1)Highbury, Saturday February 13th 1999FA Cup 5th round
Arsenal:
Seaman
Vivas Bould Grimandi Winterburn
Parlour Vieira Garde (Hughes) Overmars
Bergkamp Diawara (Kanu)
Match report follows initial reaction. The FA have agreed to calls from David Dein, Arsène Wenger, and United manager Steve Bruce for the game to be replayed. There'll be details of that here as we get them (the FA haven't announced them yet and I don't know what venue is more likely in these exceptional circumstances) This follows extraordinary scenes following Arsenal's winning goal, scored by Overmars with about 10 minutes to go. A United striker had gone down after a Grimandi challenge in our penalty area, and we broke. The ball came through towards the United keeper and, as Bergkamp chased him down, he cleared into touch. There followed a break while the United man got treatment, and was substituted. When it came to our throw, the United players clearly thought we were giving it back to them, and subsequent events show that at least some of our players thought that too. I have to say that it had never occurred to me that we'd give the ball back to them, because despite what they're saying on the radio, the keeper did not appear to me to put the ball out in order that his teammate could receive treatment. Rather, he put it out in order that Bergkamp didn't score. And in those circumstances there didn't appear any cause to give them the ball back. I'm all for respecting the so-called "unwritten rule" but this incident just shows the problem with an unwritten rule: you can't be sure that everyone's playing to the same rule! It seemed to me that United were playing to the rule that because their player was receiving treatment and it was our throw in, we should give it back to them. Pretty pathetic, as was their reaction. Loads of complaints and even Steve Bruce appeared to be beckoning them off the pitch for a while. Parlour took the throw, and I guess the important thing is whether he thought he was giving the ball back to United, and whether he'd communicated that to them. If so, then Kanu's error in picking the ball up and crossing it for Overmars to slot home does constitute a kind of "accidental cheating". Even so, the fact that United had no right to expect us to give the ball back to them makes Arsenal's offer to replay the game an exceptionally generous one, and it's nice to hear that the FA have commented to this effect. It remains to be seen if the nations press will portray it as such, or just as the only thing we could do having been "caught cheating". Having just seen Match of the Day... Well it looks like I may have been too harsh in that last paragraph. Desmond Lynam made Wenger the "Man of the Day" for his attitude to all this. Steve Bruce's interview made me think no better of him though, as he failed to acknowledge the gesture saying that he'd do the same and he expected nothing else from Arsenal. I hope no United fans feel tempted to say "how would you feel if it happened to you?" We've been there twice in all too recent and painful memories. They showed the Blackburn incident from 2 years ago, and made the comment that today's case was more cut and dried. The argument appears to ve that because we scored while United's defence stood and watched, whereas when Sutton did his business down by the croner flag we actually defended, and played to the whistle, the case for correcting our error today is greater than the case of the Blackburn match. For me, it's hard to see how United's failure to respond to the situation shows anyhing in their favour. A more telling comparison, just to drum the point home one final time, is in what happened before these two incidents. In the Blackburn match, Hughes was writhing in agony on the ground and Vieira, in full control of the ball, clearly and deliberately played it off the pitch for Hughes to be attended to (and, as it happened, stretchered off). There could be no question that the gentleman's agreement applied. To be fair to United though, any other comparison with that match is unfair. Blackburn appeared to have come to cause trouble (read the reports, Sherwood was as much the villain that day). By contrast today's game wasn't bad-tempered until the "winner" went in, United's 5 yellow cards notwithstanding. Anyway, a replay it is. And so should it be, clearly. We can't let the memory of past injustices stop us doing the right thing. And hopefully there won't be any more Arsenal fans calling radio shows saying how ashamed they are. Reports suggest that the replay'll be at Highbury on Tues 23rd Feb. You might be interested to read about what happened in the two other matches I've mentioned. Here are links to ArseWeb reports for AFC vs Tottenham on 24/11/96 and AFC vs Blackburn on 19/04/97. One more comment: I wonder if there will be any headlines now, talking about the beneficial effect that these polite and generous foreigners are having on our national game. Anyone care to bet on how many English managers would be so ready to forego the chance to be in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup? How many English players would be as appalled at what they themselves had done, as poor maligned Kanu was? Our shining example of the English attitude in such a situation: Chris Sutton. As for the match itself... It got off a to a slightly dodgy start, with a couple of United corners each giving them a header on goal, but each time it went a yard or so over. Despite this there were promising signs, especially from the defensive deputies Grimandi and Vivas, now playing on his better right side. Kaba Diawara started for the rested Anelka, who was on the bench but whose only action was to warm up for a while. He continues to deny the rumours about his wanting to leave, and ir was nice to see him apparently very much appreciating the warm welcome given him by the crowd. Diawara showed great promise. He likes to run at people with the ball, and can get past them too. On top of this he showed good awareness at times, and although his strike rate remains to be calculated, he appears to have a bit of an eye for a chance. Our first goal came after an over-enthusiastic shoulder-charge on Kaba, just outside their box on our left. Bergkamp, despite appearing to be blinded by the low sun, put over a perfect cross for Vieira to climb high and glance into the net from the middle of the box. Parlour played a 1-2 with Bergkamp to get into the box but his cross was blocked for a corner. When that was cleared to Overmars just outside the box he hit a good low shot which went just wide. Then Overmars and Bergkamp linked up on the left, and Dennis's cross found Diawara in the middle of the penalty area. He hit a nice first-time sideways scissor-type thing which the keeper parried. Parlour was following up at the near post but a defender got in to put it out for a corner. A nice spell of patient possession play from Arsenal ended with Garde being fouled (shortly after this he came off for Stephen Hughes to make his first appearance for a while), giving Bergkamp a chance of a central free-kick just outside the D. It appeared to go through the wall but the keeper did well to get down and save it. A delightful turn and shot from Diawara just outside the box looked to be curling in, but bounced out off the far post. United broke but when things looked dangerous Vivas got in to put it out for a corner. As the half ended we started putting them under more pressure. There were a couple of great moments in defence though. First a first-time Vivas back-heeled pass that relieved some pressure near our right corner flag, and then an overhead flick by Winterburn on the other side, again turning a fragile defensive position into attack. He took the ball on himself, found Bergkamp again on the left who again found Diawara in the box. And again he hit the post. There was still time for Overmars to shoot just wide again. So things were looking up at half-time. But the second half started with an equaliser, Devlin picking up a quickly taken free-kick on their right wing and lofting a cross into the centre of the box. The big Brasilian Marcello climbed and placed his header perfectly, low into the corner of the net. We didn't have it so easy after that. Seaman had to make a save after a striker was left clear on the right of his area. Our next attack ended with Overmars getting to the byeline but hitting his cross to Parlour just too low so it was intercepted. On 65 minutes Kanu came on in place of Diawara. They both got a good round, and Diawara had certainly earned his. Just as Bergkamp and Overmars had been linking up well on the left in the firts half, so Vivas and Parlour turned on some tricks on the right in the second. One Parlour cross coming from some nice interplay with the Argentine came to Kanu, who was well placed but perhaps not quite tall enough. He couldn't stop his header going well over. Nigel Winterburn, who climbed a place in the Arsenal all-time appearances table today (although I missed the details) had some great moments going forward as well at the back. But his best position, beating challenges and running with the ball across the edge of the box, came to an end when he ran into a rather static Kanu. Then there was the second goal. I don't recall much from after that, let's just say it all felt a bit weird! Kanu did have one other moment of interest though, with a shot from just outside the area which he scuffed a bit and was easy for the goalie.
Result : Arsenal (1) 2 Sheffied United (0) 1
(Result void)
Scorers: Vieira 28, Overmars 76 Marcelo 48
Arsenal: Seaman, Vivas, Winterburn, Bould, Grimandi; Vieira, Garde,
Parlour, Overmars; Bergkamp, Diawara
Subs: Hughes (Garde 43), Kanu (Diawara 66), Anelka, Upson,
Manninger
Sheff U: Kelly, Derry, Sandford, Holdsworth, Quinn, Devlin, Stuart,
Woodhouse, Hamilton, Morris, Marcelo
Subs: Ford (Morris 76), Twiss (Devlin 90), O'Connor,
Jacobsen, Tracey
Booked: Hamilton, Holdsworth, Stuart, Derry, Marcelo
Att: 38020
Ref: Peter Jones (Loughborough)
Arsenal started the game without 5 first choice players. With Petit
suspended and Adams, Keown and Dixon injured, it was perhaps slightly
surprising that Wenger chose to rest Anelka, though understandable with
the Man U game on Wednesday.
Anyway, the Gunners started the game in a somewhat lackadaisical fashion, perhaps dazzled by the visitors' ludicrously luminous yellow strip (isn't there a law against football strip like that? If there isn't there should be). Up until the first goal I can't recall much in the way of real threat on the Sheff Utd goal, apart from a trademark Overmars cut in and near post shot, and a Bergkamp free kick which went through the wall but was covered by Kelly. The Blades were vigorously (at times over vigorously) closing Arsenal down and covering, and Arsenal were finding it hard to break through. At the other end, Arsenal's defence betrayed it's rather makeshift nature at a couple of corners which resulted in free headers for the opposition, but fortunately both went over the bar. There was also one break when I think Bould's mistake left one of the Blades attackers with a clear run down the left, but Vivas got across quickly and did extremely well to stop the attempt to dribble past him. Half an hour into the game Arsenal did take the lead. Diawara won a free kick just to the left of the penalty area when the ref perhaps harshly judged Derry to have barged him over. Bergkamp floated it in, and in the game's first unprecedented event, Vieira won a header in the opposition area and glanced the ball into the far corner. After the goal Arsenal sprang into life and probably should have had the game won by half time, with Diawara unluckily twice hitting the post. First Parlour slipped him a pass down the middle, and he produced a neat turn on the edge of the area before curling a clever left foot shot round a defender which stranded the keeper but came back off the foot of the post. Then Bergkamp's pass sent Overmars away down the left, and he reached the byline but checked back onto his right foot before lofting a cross to pick out Diawara who was completely unmarked at the back post. The Frenchman betrayed a lack of confidence in his right foot though, transferring the ball onto his left, which gave Kelly time to recover his ground and come out to challenge. Diawara still managed to slip a shot past him from an acute angle though, but the ball this time hit the outside of the post. It all thus looked reasonably comfortable at half time, but 3 minutes after the break Sheff Utd equalised. Bould was penalised (also perhaps harshly) for a push out near the right hand touchline, about 20 yards into the Arsenal half. The free kick was quickly taken which was perhaps why the Arsenal defence wasn't properly in position when the diagonal cross was floated in. Marcelo beat Grimandi in the air and though Seaman got a hand to the ball he couldn't keep out the firm downward header. Arsenal pressed persistently forward after that, though I can only recall a couple of chances when they perhaps should have scored, both times when Parlour got free on the right and ran in along the byline. On the first occasion when perhaps a cut back to unmarked players further out might have been better, he tried to find Diawara in the 6yd box where a defender just got a foot in first. On the second, he definitely should have slipped a pass to Vivas who was completely unmarked on his left shoulder, but again tried to find the man (Bergkamp I think) who was closer in, and his pass was again intercepted. Kanu had replaced Diawara about 20 minutes into the half, and 10 minutes later initiated the event which made all the headlines. I'd like to back up the point which only Rupe so far has made, which is that it was by no means obvious that Kelly deliberately kicked the ball out of play. The Sheffield United player Morris who was injured was in the other penalty area (incidentally after a tackle by Grimandi that might have been a penalty), and play had continued for a while after he went down. Other Sheffield United players had passed up opportunities to put the ball out of play and when Kelly finally did, he did so from a back pass while Bergkamp was closing him down. I'd go so far as to say a majority of the crowd believed he'd just miscued the clearance. In fact I think he did put it into touch deliberately, but with the substitution taking place during the stoppage as well, it's understandable that Kanu and Overmars weren't paying sufficient attention and didn't know the ball had been put out of play deliberately. I find it somewhat galling that they are still being called cheats, and that the goal was outrageous. It was an honest mistake, certainly in Kanu's case. Anyone who believes otherwise is very embittered and cynical about football, or a Sheffield United or Tottenham fan. Overmars I'm not as convinced about, though I'd personally give him the benefit of any doubt. I haven't heard much said in the media or by Sheffield United about the punches that were thrown at Overmars by at least 2 United players either. I also find it a little strange that all the attention has been on Kanu, while Overmars has been ignored by most. If he hadn't made the supporting run, Kanu would probably have realised something was amiss. Anyway, I was relieved to hear Wenger had offered to replay the game, though objectively I tend to think that those who say it sets a dangerous precedent may be proved right eventually. Perhaps Arsenal should try suing Blackburn and/or the FA for the loss of revenue from a Champion's League campaign Sutton's action otherwise deprived us of. It was also fortunate scores were level at the time - what the outcome would have been had either team been leading by one goal is less obvious. The rest of the game was a bit surreal. Once Steve Bruce had been dissuaded from his attempts to take his team off by the grownups on the touchline, Marcelo rather strangely took the kick-off by kicking the ball into the Arsenal half. I'm not entirely convinced the Arsenal players didn't briefly offer the chance for the visitors to take the ball on and score unchallenged, but if so they didn't take it. The only other events of note were a couple of wild tackles by United players which the ref decided to ignore, and which fortunately didn't cause any damage, and a shot from Bergkamp which curled only just wide of the far post. Would have made Wenger's decision more interesting had it gone in.
Seaman 7.0 Can't recall him having to do much.
Vivas 8.0 Pretty impressive overall, both going forward and in
defence.
Winterburn 7.5 Another solid and typically determined game. Moved past
Pat Rice into 4th place on Arsenal's all time
appearances list, with his 529th game.
Bould 7.0 Reasonably solid on the whole, though I thought he
looked a little uncertain once or twice.
Grimandi 7.0 Had a pretty good game on the whole, though I think
he could probably be blamed for the goal.
Vieira 7.5 Relatively low key game.
Garde 7.0 Looked as competent as usual before going off just
before half time.
Hughes 7.5 Played pretty well I thought, a couple of glorious
long passes, and some good tackling too.
Parlour 7.5 Typical Parlour game, plenty of good running but that
final ball still isn't quite right.
Overmars 7.0 Still looks in reasonably good form when he can be
bothered.
Diawara 7.5 Pretty promising full debut.
Bergkamp 7.0 Also still looks in reasonable touch, though at times
he didn't look terribly interested.
Kanu The incident aside, an encouraging first appearance
Other reports
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