(0) 1 - 0 (0) ArsenalSelhurst Park. Saturday 21st November 1998FA Carling PremiershipPreview
(0) 1 - 0 (0) ArsenalSelhurst Park. Saturday 21st November 1998FA Carling PremiershipNot our day really. Not just in terms of the (deserved) result, which meant we failed to capitalise on surprise losses by Man Utd and Villa.We lost Vieira and Bergkamp through injury, and they must be doubtful for the big game on Wednesday against Lens. Vieira pulled up at the end of a superb break in which he caried the ball deep into the Dons' half. It looked like he was about to release it to Parlour who was in a good supporting position to Paddy's right. The Frenchman hobbled straight off the pitch with what looked like it might be a hamstring problem. Bergkamp went off clutching his ankle, or possibly his calf. The 2 of them were replaced by Hughes and Wreh. Our best chabces of the match were probably a run by Anelka, featuring a great turn just inside the box which just created enough of an angle but the keepr beat the shot out, I think, with his legs. Dixon had an extraordinary shot from out side the area, which swerved and dipped onto the crossbar and out. All the more amazing for coming from his left boot! The Dons' goal was a bit dodgy. Michael Hughes did really well to beat 2 Arsenal players near the corner flag. When his cross came over it hit Marcus Gayle on the hand and fell to Ekoku who scored from close range, surrounded by our defence all pointing at their arms. Not a lot they could have done about it. Whn interviewed about it Gayle admitted it hit his hand, and didn't take the opportunity to deny he'd controlled it. But then again, why should he? As Wenger said afterwards, Wimbledon probably deserved the result. It's funny that some people see the hunt for a new striker as a threat to the emergence of Nicolas Anelka. Overmars and Bergkamp don't seem ireeplacable just at the moment!
Result : Wimbledon (0) 1 Arsenal (0) 0
Scorers: Ekoku 77
Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon, Winterburn, Adams, Keown; Vieira, Petit,
Parlour, Overmars; Bergkamp, Anelka
Subs: Hughes (Vieira 20), Wreh (Bergkamp 37),
Ljungberg (Overmars 72), Bould, Manninger
Booked: Winterburn, Adams
Wimbledon: Sullivan, Cunningham, Perry, Blackwell, Thatcher,
Earle, Gayle, Leaburn, Hughes, Euell, Ainsworth
Subs: Ardley (Ainsworth 73), Ekoku (Gayle 73), Kimble,
Roberts, Heald
Booked:Leaburn, Perry, Thatcher
Att: 26003
Ref: M Riley (Leeds)
A distinctly below par performance on Saturday by an Arsenal side whose
creative momentum was stalled by the loss of two key players in the
first half. With minds perhaps collectively distracted by Wednesday's
Champions' League game the Gunners then succumbed to a fortuitous winner
late in the second. Ironically Arsenal started the game with what is
arguably their strongest team, for the first time since early September,
but were hamstrung by the loss of Vieira 20 minutes into the game, and
Bergkamp 15 minutes later.
In fact Arsenal started quite brightly, and in the opening 20 minutes were comfortably in control of the game. Anelka in particular looked sharp, and might have opened the scoring after a couple of minutes. Bergkamp played a superb first-time pass to send the young Frenchman away down the inside right channel, and he got half a yard on the pursuing Blackwell. A brilliant turn just to the right of the 6yd box completely sold the defender and Anelka checked before striking a left foot shot from an acute angle. Sullivan was well positioned though and made a great block with his legs. Soon afterwards Anelka again broke down the right, and this time pulled the ball back into the middle, but it was just too far in front of Bergkamp. Arsenal continued to dominate, and Sullivan had to make saves, albeit relatively comfortable ones, from long range shot from Dixon, Overmars and Winterburn. The latter worked himself quite a reasonably position cutting in from the left, but had to use his right foot for the shot. I think one right foot screamer is Nutty's career ration, and as that was against Wimbledon it wasn't likely to happen again. About 20 minutes in came the incident which seemed to turn the game. A Wimbledon attack was cleared, Petit knocked a pass out to Bergkamp who produced a quite brilliant backheeled flick to release Vieira for a surging run into the Wimbledon half. With Parlour and Anelka in support to his right and left it seemed Vieira only had to draw one of the covering defenders to play Parlour in on goal, but at the crucial moment he pulled up abruptly with a torn hamstring. Arsenal seemed to lose a lot of their attacking momemtum after this, particularly with Bergkamp also going off with calf muscle strain 15 minutes later. Wimbledon started coming back into the match and had the best chance of the half. Hughes played a curious pass back towards his own goal which didn't reach it's intended target. Gayle picked up the loose ball, and then played a clever little chip which picked out Earle as he made a typical late run into the area. He got between Adams and Winterburn to get an unchallenged header, but from about 10 yards with Seaman helpless the ball landed on the roof of the net. Wimbledon might also have scored a few minutes later, but Arsenal were saved by the linesman's flag. Dixon played a sloppy pass as he chased back to deal with a typical Wimbledon pass down the channel. Without looking he played a pass inside to Adams, but Gayle was lurking and intercepted. Michael Hughes was in support, and as Adams lunged in desperately Gayle flicked the ball on for Hughes to run in unchallenged from the right. Fortunately the linesman flagged for offside, though he was clearly well onside. Shortly after half time it was Wimbledon who were counting themselves a bit fortunate. Dixon cut in from the right and with space in front of him took deliberate aim before unleashing a tremendous left foot shot from 25 yards which dipped over Sullivan but crashed against the crossbar. With no-one following in Wimbledon were able to clear. Thereafter though Arsenal struggled to raise any real threat on the Wimbledon goal, and it was the home team who looked marginally more likely to score, mainly through a series of near post corners. From one of these somebody put a header straight at Seaman. From another Stephen Hughes failed to get enough purchase on a clearing header and the ball fell to Perry in the middle of the area. He hooked a volley goalwards and Seaman reacted well to parry and then hold on to the ball. With less than 20 minutes left both sides appeared to have settled for the goalless stalemate. Possibly with Wednesday in mind Wenger replaced the admittedly ineffectual Overmars with Ljungberg. Wimbledon rather bizarrely seemed to be indulging in time wasting tactics, waiting while Arsenal's substitution took place (and it took rather a long time as the 4th official took a long time to work out how the electronic board worked), and then as Ljungberg finally trotted on decided to make their own substitions. Which took just as long because the 4th official gave up using the newfangled gadget so Wimbledon had to resort to waving at the players who were coming off. However, the Wimbledon change turned out to be the telling one as less than five minutes after he'd come on Ekoku scored the winning goal. Michael Hughes bamboozled Dixon and Parlour out near the left hand corner flag with a brilliant turn, though Parlour made it easier for him by needlessly diving in. He then ran a short distance along the byline before whipping in a cross which Seaman just managed to deflect out of Earle's path. It hit the midfielder on the arm though and dropped for Ekoku to lash into the net from 3 yards. It was a clear handball but the ref was poorly positioned out near the corner flag and signalled a goal. Arsenal huffed and puffed, Adams frequently threw himself forward in an attempt to force an equaliser but all to no avail. It was a poor game on a poor pitch, and overall a poor performance from Arsenal, though they weren't helped by the injuries to Vieira and Bergkamp. So, no Vieira & Petit on Wednesday, and probably no Bergkamp. Perversely I'm confident of a comfortable victory though. In adversity we thrive, and all that.
Seaman 7.0 Made one good save, and I don't think he could really
be blamed for the goal.
Dixon 6.5 Bit of a mixed game. Completely done by Hughes for the
goal and another blunder that could have cost a goal,
but otherwise I thought he had quite a good game.
Winterburn 6.5 Relatively unremarkable performance apart from a rather
harsh booking which is his 5th, so he becomes the first
Arsenal player to pick up an automatic 1 match ban.
Keown 7.0 Reasonably solid game though fairly frequently lost out
to Gayle in the air.
Adams 7.0 Also reasonably solid in defence, though he was getting
uncharacteristically wound up towards the end.
Vieira We seemed to lose a bit of spirit when he went off.
Hughes 6.0 Didn't really take his chance to impress.
Petit 6.5 Probably the least effective game I've seen him have.
Parlour 6.0 Unusually ineffective again.
Ljungberg Only on for 15 minutes but somewhat anonymous out of
position on the left wing.
Overmars 6.0 Also pretty ineffectual again.
Anelka 7.0 Looked pretty good early on, and for the rest of the
match looked like the only one likely to do anything,
though he probably tried to do too much on his own.
Wreh A couple of poor first touches but otherwise I didn't
think he did all that badly.
Other reports
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