Tottenham_Hotspur (2) 2 - 1 (1) ArsenalWhite Hart Lane, Sunday 7th November 1999. kick-off 4pmFA Carling Premiershipsee below for reports by: Rupe, DerekPreview
Tottenham_Hotspur (2) 2 - 1 (1) ArsenalWhite Hart Lane, Sunday 7th November 1999. kick-off 4pmFA Carling Premiership
scorers: Iversen 7 Vieira 39
Sherwood 20
Arsenal:
Seaman
Dixon Keown Adams Winterburn
Ljungberg Petit (Grimandi 77) Vieira Overmars
Kanu (Suker 72) Bergkamp
sent off: Ljungberg 53, Keown 90
booked: Petit Bergkamp Keown Vieira Dixon Suker
An ugly match with a grotesque result. Tottenham came out with
all guns blazing, playing with a pace which seemed to startle the
Arsenal, and before we knew what had hit us they'd scored with
both of what turned out to be their only 2 meaningful goal attempts of
the game.
The first was a nice low first-time finish by Iversen after a beautiful diagonal ball into the box from Leonhardsen beat the offside trap. The second came after Petit tripped Armstrong on the edge of the area and Sherwood curled the free-kick past Seaman. Arsenal failed to settle for the rest of the half, but we did get the ball in the net when a Kanu goal was ruled out for a foul on Armstrong - looked somewhat dubious as the ball appeared to already be over the line. And 5 minutes before the break we got back into it. Petit hoicked a free-kick into the box from the right wing, and Vieira rose unopposed to head home. We easily had the better of the second half, and great saves from Walker in the Tottenham goal foiled Suker and Overmars. But enough about the football..... Within 10 minutes of the restart, Freddie Ljungberg appeared to fall victim to a nasty piece of play-acting by Justin Edinburgh (although comments by the ref later on confused the issue somewhat). A nasty studs-up tackle by Edinburgh brought Freddie down. He got up and gave Edinburhg a shove to the chest - not a hard one but certainly warranting a yellow card (to go with the one Edinburgh deserved for the foul, which would have been his second if it had been shown). Edinburgh fell to the ground clutching his face, a bit of a scuffle ensued involving several players from both sides, and David Elleray showed Ljungberg the red card. So, a simple case of a player raising his arms unnecessarily and getting punished for it thanks to the unprofessional antics of a fellow professional. Unfair perhaps, but very much Freddies's own fault. Or that's what we thought until after the match when it was revealed that Elleray's reason for sending Ljungberg off, as stated to Arsène Wenger, was that he'd head-butted David Ginola in the fracas. TV footage appears to show that Ginola was hit by a missile from the crowd, and it would even appear that it came from the Spurs section (certainly it would take extremely good aim to pick out a player from a specific side at that moment in time - perhaps it was someone with a grudge against footballers in general). Anyway, what does seem clear is that Ljungberg was nowhere near Ginola at the time. To his credit, Ginola has come out and publicly stated that he was hit by an object from the crowd. Given all this, some would say that it's understandable that Freddie was upset. But upset enough to flick a v-sign back towards the ref as he left the pitch? Stupid Freddie, damn stupid. We can only hope that he realises the lesson he has to learn from this: don't retaliate it isn't worth it. Apart from anything else, it took attention away from the nasty challenge which sparked it all off (as evidenced by the fact that after sending Freddie off, Elleray awarded Tottenham the free-kick). And thanks to his reaction to the red card, Ljungberg will not get off so lightly as he normally ought to, in the light of Ginola's defence of him. As for Keown, I have to admit that I missed the first yellow card. But the second (and here I have to disagree with Simon's view) looked like it could have warranted a red on its own. Dominguez was teasing Martin on their left wing, and Keown seemed to lose it after a while, jumping in on the winger's ankles well after he'd pushed the ball forward. Wenger has been making noises about a Sherwood challenge on Petit which left the Frenchman with a bloody head. The claim from Petit was that an elbow was used, but Sherwood claims a clash of heads. I didn't see it myself. But I did see Petit throw the ball away when he was already on a booking, so let's not go overboard on the victimisation thing. See above for the list of other bookings. Note that Patrick Vieira's will earn him a further match on his suspension, as it takes him over the 5 card threshold.
Result : Tottenham (2) 2 Arsenal (1) 1
Scorers: Iversen 6, Sherwood 20 Vieira 37
Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon, Winterburn, Keown, Adams; Petit, Vieira,
Ljungberg, Overmars; Bergkamp, Kanu
Subs: Suker (Kanu 72), Grimandi (Petit 77),
Upson, Vivas, Manninger
Booked: Petit, Bergkamp, Vieira, Keown, Dixon, Suker
Sent off: Ljungberg (53 violent conduct), Keown (90 2 yellows)
Spurs: Walker, Carr, Perry, Campbell, Edinburgh, Leonhardsen, Sherwood,
Clemence, Ginola, Iversen, Armstrong
Subs: Fox (Leonhardsen 87), Dominguez (Ginola 89),
Baardsen, Vega, Young
Booked: Edinburgh, Leonhardsen, Clemence, Carr
Att: 36085
Ref: David Elleray (Harrow-on-the-Hill)
A North London derby yesterday which was somewhat more "full-blooded"
than normal, though the game might more accurately be described as full
of thud and blunder. The thuds came from a rather high count of reckless
challenges, while the blunders came principally from the referee.
Arsenal's mood following the defeat to their bitterest (and I use the
word advisedly) rivals won't have been helped by the 2 red cards they
incurred, and which will doubtless be more grist to the mill of
Arsenal's detractors.
If the bare facts are looked at, Arsenal lost this game in the opening 20 minutes, and there was some truth in that because the Gunners didn't start playing until they were 2 goals down. Spurs were much the sharper and more aggressive in the early stages, and dominated the first 20 minutes. The first goal came when a chip forward by Leonhardsen found Iversen beating the offside trap and neatly tucking a half-volley past Seaman from 12 yards. Dixon stood and watched when he might have cleared the ball had he followed it in, though he did have a case in that Armstrong in the middle who also chased the lob did appear to be offside. Arsenal had more cause to feel aggrieved for the 2nd goal. Clemence clearly fouled Vieira a few yards outside the Arsenal area, and the ball ran on for Armstrong to collect and chase into the area. Petit tripped him just outside the box to earn the first booking of the day, and after Spurs had farted about for ages apparently deciding who would take the free kick, it was Sherwood who eventually hit the telling blow, curling a superb shot round the wall and just inside the far post. Arsenal at last decided it was time to start playing, and pushed Spurs back for much of the rest of the half. Adams headed over from one Petit corner, and then got his head to another just ahead of Walker at the near post. The ball spun up and dropped right on the goal line, Kanu challenged for it and the ball crossed the line. The ref however blew up for a foul which only he could see, and ruled out what seemed to me a perfectly good goal. A few minutes later though he couldn't deny Arsenal a goal. Bergkamp was fouled out on the right, Petit clipped in the free kick and found Vieira who had got free of his marker in the middle of the area. His header left Walker helpless as it hit the inside of his right hand post and bounced across just inside the side netting at the opposite post. From thereon in, Arsenal looked the more likely winners. Early in the 2nd half a superb run by Vieira opened up the Spurs defence, and Bergkamp's flick seemed to have put Ljungberg through, but his touch allowed Campbell to get goal side and crowd him out. The fun and games really started a few minutes later. Campbell fouled Bergkamp on the halfway line, the ref blew for a foul but Edinburgh carried on and went in studs up on Ljungberg. Not surprisingly the Swede took some exception to this and shoved Edinburgh in the chest, which caused the Spurs fullback to collapse dramatically to the ground clutching his face. Clemence and Armstrong then barged in to confront Ljungberg who was being restrained by Dixon. Meanwhile Keown was having words with Edinburgh who reacted by throwing a flurry of ineffectual (and somewhat effete) punches. The ref meanwhile was standing back, apparently observing from a distance. His powers of observation however left a little to be desired because when the fracas died down he showed Ljungberg the red card, apparently telling other Arsenal players that it was for a head butt on Ginola. The Frenchman was apparently hit by an object thrown by a Spurs fan in the crowd during the melee, but he was several yards away from Ljungberg at the time. Edinburgh meanwhile got off scot free, and at the end of it all the ref bizarrely restarted the game by giving Spurs a throw-in. Credit the 10 men of Arsenal then for completely dominating the rest of the game. They struggled to find clear paths through the Tottenham defence though, and on the one occasion they did, Walker denied them with a magnificent double save. Overmars burst through onto a loose ball in the area and fired in a shot which Walker beat out, and the keeper then somehow regained his feet to fling himself at Suker's attempt to force the rebound home. It looked a bad miss by the Croatian at the time, but after looking at the TV replay I think he was surprised by the ball gathering pace as it spun back off Walker, and he ended up having to dig it out from under his feet. Suker forced another save from Walker some time later when he hooked a well struck shot goalwards from the 18 yard line, but it was straight at the keeper. Don't remember much else in the way of near things, possibly because of all the other things going on. Keown became the 2nd Arsenal player sent off, when he fouled the substitute Dominguez in injury time. Not much question about that one being a yellow card, but his first booking was for a perfectly good tackle on Ginola, which the ref interpreted as a tackle from behind. Earlier Petit had been substituted after being dazed by a Sherwood elbow in the head which was clear from a hundred yards away at the back of the South stand. Needless to say the ref saw nothing wrong, though he did on several other occasions and ended up with 11 names in his book. I think he dug a hole for himself by letting several things go early on, and suddenly realising he was losing control of the game. At one point early on Leonhardsen shoved him in the chest (in a similar but more aggressive manner than the "push" on Durkin which earned Petit a red card a couple of years ago), without being punished. Overall it was a bad day for the Gunners. Apart from the loss of 3 points to local rivals, the fallout from discipline problems seems likely to continue. Apart from the first 20 minutes, Arsenal controlled the match and played well enough, if lacking in real penetration, to have won on another day in different circumstances. The crucial thing is going to be the reaction over the next few weeks, particularly in the Vieira-less league games.
Seaman 6.5 Hard to judge him as Spurs only had 2 shots on target
all game. Unfortunately they both went in.
Dixon 7.5 Had a fairly good game overall, though he might be
held culpable for the 1st goal.
Winterburn 7.5 Typically Nutty performance.
Adams 8.0 Superb as ever.
Keown 7.5 As beligerently committed as ever. Might benefit from
a more considered approach at times though.
Petit 7.5 Still looked a little short of match fitness at times
though still had a good game, apart from being too
easily wound up.
Vieira 8.5 Another great game from the midfield maestro, the only
blemish being the yellow card for saying too much to
the ref which is his 5th and means an extra match to
add to his ban. Apart from that he seemed the coolest
head on the pitch.
Ljungberg 7.5 Did a reasonably good and busy job as usual, but then
reacted to the provocation.
Overmars 6.0 As poor as normal this season.
Bergkamp 6.5 Still not playing as smoothly as normal and getting
overly frustrated as a result.
Kanu 7.0 Struggled to cope with Campbell's marking for much of
the game, though ironically I thought he was coming
more into it just before he was subbed.
Suker Put himself about a bit, and a bit unlucky with 2
efforts.
Grimandi Did pretty well again in the short time he was on.
Derek
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