Leeds United (0) 0 - 0 (0) Arsenal

Elland Road, Saturday 1st February 1997

FA Carling Premiership

Leeds had the ball in the net 3 times, ruled out each time for offside (including twice in two minutes by Deane in the first half). Parlour had our best chances: two saved in the first half (one a volley from some way out) and another, our best opportunity of the match, fired over the bar with 2 minutes from time.

Wright started on the bench. I think he came on at some point but don't know for sure. Presumably he's still feeling the injury that brought him off the pitch in the last match.

It sounds like Merson had another stormer, so he must have played himself into strong contention for a starting place against Italy.

In the other significant matches:

Manchester United came back from 1-0 down to beat Soton at Old Trafford by 2-1.
Liverpool beat 10 man Derby 1-0 at Derby.
Wimbledon drew at home with Middlesbrough.
and Chelsea won 2-1 at *hite *art Lane. To Tottenham's credit, their defence managed to keep it scoreless for a full 40 seconds before Sol Campbell turned the ball into his own net.

We're down to third in the table, but Graham has sorted out the Leeds defence of late, so a draw at Elland Road shouldn't be too disappointing especially with Bergkamp out and Wright unfit. We need better at Highbury on Tuesday though.

Result : Leeds                 (0) 0   Arsenal                 (0) 0

Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon, Adams, Marshall, Bould, Winterburn, Parlour,
         Hughes, Vieira, Merson, Hartson
         Subs: Wright (Hartson 73), Rose, Morrow, Shaw, Lukic
         Booked: Winterburn

Leeds: Martyn, Kelly, Dorigo, Radebe, Halle, Molenaar, 
       Bowyer, Jackson, Wallace, Rush, Deane
       Subs: Gray (Deane 89), Wetherall, Harte, Ford, Beeney
       Booked: Bowyer, Molenaar, Kelly, Rush

Att: 35502
Ref: D R Ellerary (Harrow on the Hill)

It was Arsenal who started marginally the better, and in the first 15 minutes Parlour twice forced Martyn into action. Early on Vieira intercepted well in midfield, slipped a pass forward to Parlour who in turn fed Hughes on his left. Hughes went on and crossed into the box where Parlour had continued his run. The ball was slightly behind him though so he had to check back to control it and in the end his shot was straight at the keeper.

Soon afterwards Hughes went on another good run down the left only to be hauled back by Bowyer. Merson swung in the free kick which Vieira almost got on the end of, but Parlour picked up the weak clearance and carried on to produce a well struck volley from the edge of the box which Martyn could only parry before collecting the rebound himself.

At the other end Leeds struggled to produce much of a threat though Deane did twice have the ball in the net to the accompaniment of the assistant ref's flag for offside. The first time the TV camera's showed that he was in fact just onside when Bowyer played the pass, but the flag was up instantly and the ref whistled well before Deane had even got the ball under control, so GG's suggestion that Leeds were denied a goal was somewhat disingenuous. An opportunity maybe, but both Seaman and Marshall stopped playing when the whistle went. On the second occasion Deane was clearly a good couple of yards offside.

That was pretty much it in terms of real footballing incident in the first half. Bouldy embarrassed himself by shinning a pass across his own area out for a corner kick, but was undone by a nasty bobble of the pitch. Vieira had a good run which took him clear of the defence and appeared to have been tripped on the edge of the Leeds box by Halle. The BBC commentator reckoned the replay showed the defender had got a touch on the ball, though I wasn't convinced myself. And Winterburn got himself booked rather nuttily by saying something to the ref after he'd just finished getting a lecture about something.

The second half was something of an improvement, and I thought Arsenal controlled large parts of it and looked the more likely to score up until the final 10 minutes or so. Early on Dixon combined well with Parlour down the right and produced a cross from the touchline which Hughes got his head to but could only direct tamely into Martyn's midriff.

Arsenal had a half-decent shout for a penalty when Molenaar failed to control a Winterburn long throw into the box and the ball bounced up and hit his arm. Almost certainly accidental though. Merson escaped the attentions of Radebe for once and went on a scintillating run through the Leeds half which ended when Hartson strayed offside so Merse's ball over the defence was wasted. Hartson later aroused more ire in the Gooners' end when he dallied over returning a pass to Parlour as he raced unmarked down the middle on a quick Arsenal break. By the time he did play the pass Pizza was offside, though again he wasn't helped by the bobbly pitch.

Eventually, with just over 15 minutes left Hartson was replaced by Wright, who then showed him how to do it. Another quick Arsenal break was started by Vieira when he picked up a pass out of defence and released Wright on a run into the Leeds half. Wrighty spotted Parlour making a run inside him and played a lovely first time pass round a defender into Parlour's path. Martyn came rushing out of goal to meet him just outside the box so Parlour's attempt to lift the ball over him was hurried and the ball sailed a foot or two over the empty net.

Late on in the half Winterburn had a couple of good breaks down the left but was let down by his lack of pace and overhauled by Kelly. On one occasion though he did get in a shot from the edge of the box which was straight at Martyn. The keeper though almost made a hash of it as the ball squirmed through his legs so he was grateful to turn and drop on it before it crossed the line. Leeds also lived a bit dangerously when Halle played a back pass a bit short and Martyn was again lucky the ball bounced kindly for him as Merson challenged for it.

In the final few minutes though, it was Arsenal who were perhaps grateful to come away with a point. First Deane sent Wallace clear into the box on the right and Seaman had to push his fiercely struck shot round the near post for a corner. Then about 5 minutes from time Wallace played the ball on for Deane to break clear into the box down the left. His cross into the six yard box was stabbed into the net at the near post by Rush, only for the celebrations to be cut short by the offside flag again. The TV replay suggested that Rush was marginally ahead of Deane when the pass was played but it was pretty close.

Then in injury time (caused by the lengthy treatment after a clash of heads between Marshall and Deane who was stretchered off), following a bit of a scramble on the edge of the Arsenal area, Kelly crossed from the right and picked out Wallace unmarked in the middle. From about eight yards though his header was mistimed and Seaman was able to gratefully and comfortably collect.

Rather a disappointing result in the end, particularly given the way the other results went. However, not too surprising because Graham is nothing if not a master of organising defences and even this reshuffled Leeds one looked pretty solid. The pitch was also pretty bad and cut up suprisingly quickly. Hopefully we'll see a different story on Tuesday on Highbury's snooker table with Wrighty back in the side, though CarlingNet today suggests he's not a definite starter with "a touch of flu" to add to the hamstring problem.

Seaman     7.0  Again not much to do, but made an important save from 
                Wallace late on.

Dixon      6.0  Not one of his better games this season with a couple of
                defensive miscues.  

Winterburn 6.5  Had quite a good game for the most part, but let down by
                his lack of pace going forward and a silly booking.

Adams      7.5  Strong performance again.

Bould      7.0  Also did little wrong, and let little get past him.

Marshall   7.0  Played pretty well I thought in his first full game of 
                the season.

Parlour    7.5  Another good game, man of the match if I was pushed to 
                name one.
               
Vieira     7.0  Steady again.

Hughes     7.0  I thought he did pretty well again, and was consistent 
                the full 90 minutes.  
                
Merson     7.0  A little bit quieter than of late, perhaps due to the 
                close marking of Radebe who did a good job on him.

Hartson    5.0  Not sure whether it was because of his attempts to stay  
                out of the ref's book but one of the worse games I've 
                seen him have.

Wright     7.0  Not really on for long enough to judge, but worth a 7 
                the pass with which he set up Parlour.

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