Arsenal (2) 2 - 1 (0)Highbury. Tuesday 23rd February 1999. kick-off 7.45FA Cup 5th round Re-matchsee below for reports by: Rupe, Derek, Paulpreview
Arsenal (2) 2 - 1 (0)Highbury. Tuesday 23rd February 1999. kick-off 7.45FA Cup 5th round Re-match
scorers: Overmars, Bergkamp Morris
Arsenal:
Seaman
Vivas Adams Bould Winterburn
Parlour Hughes Vieira Overmars (Garde)
Anelka (Kanu) Bergkamp (Diawara)
Chant of the day has to be "Do you want to start again?", which
went up as soon as we scored the first goal, and came back
periodically for the rest of the match. But a special mention also has
to go to the slightly more subtle "we're gonna score in a minute"
which went up during the first minute of the game, while a United
player was receiving treatment on the pitch.
Is was one of those matches where we cream the opposition in the first half, then take the foot off the pedal. The manner of Arsenal's problems towards the end made me wonder if some of them had got the wrong idea and thought for some "fair-play" reason they were supposed to make the game finish with the same scoreline as it did at the first attempt! Anyway, so it was. The first goal came on the break, with Bergkamp feeding Hughes with a short pass in the centre of the pitch. Hughes slipped, but just managed to slip the ball through to Overmars on the left as he went down. Marcy took it forward and shot low and true from the edge of the box. But t was the second goal that was really special and which we'll be seeing again and again. Again breaking quickly, Overmars drilled a pass to Parlour across the pitch, and Ray carried it down close to the goal-line on the right before cutting it back to Bergkamp on the edge of the box. Seeing Kelly slightly off his line, Dennis clipped it first-time, over the keeper and into the far corner. It was one of those sublimely effortless strikes that only he can pull off (time and time again). I don't remember Seaman having to make a save in the first half. Marcello up front for United turned out to be that rare breed - a Brasilian carthorse. He had one particularly glaring miss, skying a free volley from close range. H had a bit more to do in the second half, diving to his left to make a save from a well-struck long-range effort, and having to close a man down to block for a corner. Our approach play was still good but Arsenal didn't look totally motivated to inflict a thrashing. With less than 10 minutes to go United got a scrappy goal back, Seaman spilling a shot and the ball falling to Morris on the goal-line where he could hardly miss. We took Bergkamp Anelka and Overmars off, which if anything only made matters worse as we consistently failed to hang onto the ball in the dying minutes. Kanu looked particularly undermotivated when he came on. So, the right result in the end, again, and we wait with trepidation the visit of either Derby or Huddersfield Town in the quarter-final.
Result : Arsenal (2) 2 Sheffield United (0) 1
Scorers: Overmars 15, Bergkamp 37 Morris 86
Arsenal: Seaman, Vivas, Winterburn, Bould, Adams; Vieira, Hughes,
Parlour, Overmars; Bergkamp, Anelka
Subs: Kanu (Anelka 70), Garde (Overmars 74),
Diawara (Bergkamp 79), Grimandi, Manninger
Booked: Adams
Sheff Utd: Kelly, Derry, Holdsworth, Sandford, Quinn, Devlin,
Stuart, Woodhouse, Hamilton, Morris, Marcelo
Subs: Ford (Stuart 5), Twiss (Devlin 66),
Tracey, Henry, Jacobsen
Booked: Devlin, Derry, Sandford
Att: 37161
Ref: Peter Jones (Loughborough)
After the fuss that followed the first game, the outcome of the second
was probably rather predictable, as was the scorer of the opening goal.
It was almost as though Arsenal deliberately engineered the scoreline to
echo the previous one, as they farted about aimlessly in the 2nd half
after comfortably controlling the first. No cries of cheat this time
though, save from the blathering Blades behind the Clockend goal.
Arsenal made 3 changes from the side that started the original match (Adams for Grimandi, Hughes for Garde and Anelka for Diawara), while Sheffield United were unchanged. The visitors played Marcelo on his own up front, probably with Devlin and Stuart in support though if that was the plan it soon went awry after the latter went off injured 5 minutes into the game following a collision with Parlour. However, it was the first division side who made the first chance of the game when Hughes and Vieira allowed Derry to slalom past them and chip over a short cross which found Marcelo completely unmarked about 8 yards out. Fortunately he sidefooted a volley horribly high. Arsenal took their time getting going, but 15 minutes into the game they did and took the lead with a lovely goal. Bergkamp played a pass from the centre circle which was intended for Overmars breaking down the left, but Hughes half-inadvertently intercepted it. He did well though to take it in his stride and then stretched to knock it on towards Overmars on his outside. The flying Dutchman raced clear into the area and clinically fired a left foot shot wide of Kelly and inside the far post. His celebrations were notably muted, and he resisted Nutty's attempts to get him to lord it over the Sheffield United fans gathered behind the goal he'd just scored in. Arsenal proceeded to take comfortable control of the rest of the half, and another lovely move soon afterwards almost increased their lead. Adams cleverly chipped forward to find Hughes who in turn slipped the ball on towards Bergkamp. The Dutch master turned on the ball with his first touch and with his second played the perfect pass into Vieira's path as the Frenchman charged forward. He got clear into the area, seemed to get the ball slightly stuck under his feet but still managed to stab in a shot from an acute angle. Kelly however had come out quickly and made a good block. Bergkamp then tested Kelly from a free kick, his 25 yard shot dipping and bouncing nastily just in front of the keeper to force him to palm the ball uncertainly aside. Overmars was also looking dangerous with a couple of runs down the left and crosses which were cleared with difficulty by the Blades defence. Anelka also had a couple of good runs, cutting in from the left to work himself some space on the edge of the area, but on his left foot he blazed the first wide and though his second was on target it lacked the power to seriously trouble Kelly. At the other end I don't recall Sheffield United really threatening again, apart from when Hughes dallied too long and was dispossessed, but he recovered his own error with a good saving tackle. A few minutes before half time Arsenal went two up with after a piece of sheer Bergkamp brilliance. The build up was rather good too, as Overmars drilled a 50 yard cross field ball to the feet of Parlour as he lurked in space on the right. Parlour got to the byline before cutting the ball back to Bergkamp, and from a few feet inside the area the maestro hit a first time chip which was both delicate and devastatingly accurate, and curled over the stranded Kelly into the far corner of the net. Overmars might have increased the lead just before half time when he tricked his way through into the left side of the area, but after turning past a defender he had to knock an instant volley goalwards as Kelly came out to challenge him, and didn't get enough on it to trouble the keeper. The second half was somewhat tedious as Arsenal seemed content with what they'd got and didn't make too many strenous efforts at getting more. Early on Marcelo finally called Seaman into action with a well struck volley from outside the area, but the keeper made a good catch falling to his left. The only moment of real excitement at the other end came when Parlour fired in a superb 25 yard shot. Kelly made a great save, pushing it aside, and Anelka did well getting ahead of a defender to collect the rebound wide on the right. The ball eventually reached Bergkamp who whipped in a short cross which Anelka again did well to control, chesting it forward to leave himself with only the keeper to beat, albeit from a tight angle. This time though he dragged his right foot shot wide of the far post, and Adams charging in was just too late arriving to turn it in. The game looked comfortably won though, and Wenger replaced Anelka, Overmars and Bergkamp at regular intervals between about 20 and 10 minutes from time, Kanu, Garde and Diawara coming on. The visitors didn't really look like pulling anything back until the final 15 minutes or so when they managed to exert a bit of sustained pressure. Morris bustled his way past Adams on the edge of the area to leave himself with only Seaman to beat, but Winterburn was across quickly and his challenge did enough to put the youngster off, and his hurried shot was high and wide. Three minutes from time Sheffield United did manage to score a consolation goal. Some sloppy defending allowed the ball to reach Hamilton in the right side of the area, and he fired in a shot which Seaman couldn't hold. Marcelo challenged the keeper for the rebound, and the ball ricocheted to Morris in what looked a blatantly offside position in the 6yd box, and he hooked it into the empty net. That promised a nervous last few minutes, but fortunately Arsenal woke up again and there weren't really any fraught moments. I guess in the circumstances it's not surprising that it was a rather disappointing game overall. Arsenal did enough to win, though Bergkamp's goal would have been worth the full admission price on it's own.
Seaman 7.0 I think he only had two saves to make, one competent and
one more difficult which he spilled.
Winterburn 7.0 Some rather wayward passing early on, but enlivened the
2nd half with same typical Nutty cameo charging around.
Vivas 7.0 Another reasonably competent game.
Adams 7.0 Sound as ever for the most part though both he and
Bould were beaten in the air on occasion by Marcelo.
Bould 6.5 Ditto, though he looked a little uncertain at times.
Vieira 7.5 In control of midfield again.
Hughes 6.5 Not overly impressive though he did make the goal.
Parlour 7.0 Worked and ran as hard as ever, though his touch has
been as good recently.
Overmars 7.5 Had quite a lively first half, and it was lovely to see
him get the first goal.
Bergkamp 7.5 Looked in great touch again during the first half,
though he seemed to lose it slightly in the second.
Anelka 7.0 Wasn't given the space to run into, but had a couple of
good runs in the first half.
Derek
Groundhog Day ! Well, Sheffield had their second chance and they got beaten again by the same score, but this time by fair means and not foul. After all the stick he had been taking (rightly or wrongly) in the press over the past few days since the original match, it was always likely that Overmars would open the scoring. That this actually happened must have upset the visitors even more considering that Marcello the Brazilian impersonator missed an absolute sitter at the North Bank end only five minutes before the goal. In a virtual re-run of the first Sheffield match and the Leicester exhibition - without the scoreline unfortunately, the goal loosened up the reds after an uncertain start to the match and we began to move the ball quickly and accurately. One or two chances went begging before we all witnessed a candidate for 'Goal Of The Season'. This superlative piece of skill has been described elsewhere so all I will say is that words just cannot do it justice, it was that good. There was a moment of stunned silence in the stadium as Dennis executed the most perfect chip/shot/flick up and over Kelly into the corner of the net. This moment was worth a full Season ticket credit, never mind half of one ! At this point we settled for 2-0 until half time and took it very easy. We took it even easier in the second period and we paid the price as Morris tucked in the rebound from a very offside looking position. Who cares, we negotiated the last few minutes without any real problems and booked our place in the QF. Contrary to what some respected commentators believe, I fully agreed with the decision to have replayed the match, as did all the people I have been sitting with for the past four seasons. Messrs Dein and Wenger deserve all the praise they may receive for their gesture, and the FA should be commended on allowing the game to take place. FIFA, on the other hand, should sort themselves out for being so slow to rubber stamp the fixture and causing unnecessary confusion as a result. Some of the Press were worried that a 'precedent' would be created. What absolute rubbish. They must remember that Arsenal made the offer of a reply, even though they were the party benefiting from the incident - would Steve Bruce have made the offer if it had been the other way around ? Arsenal have come out of this affair with their reputation enhanced, and even the anti-Arsenal press (i.e. all of it !) have been forced to admit that. We have been on the receiving end of several 'incidents' over the past few years (Spurs, Blackburn,Fowler's pen..) so we know how it feels, we owed the Blades another crack. Anyway, here's to our next encounter with the Toon Army. Come on you reds ! Other reports
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