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Arsenal (0) 1 - 2 (2) Manchester United

Highbury, Wednesday 19th February 1997

FA Carling Premiership

scorers:
	Bergkamp              Cole,   Solskjaer

Arsenal:
	Lukic 
    Dixon Adams (Hughes h/t) Keown Bould Winterburn
    Merson Vieira Parlour
    Bergkamp Wright
Arsenal rallied in the second half after an appalling first half in which Arsenal's lack of penetration and constantly giving the ball away was matched by some superb counter-attacking football by the visitors.

It was an extremely bad night for football as the weather had been pretty extreme, the rain coming down as hard as you've ever seen for a spell before kick-off, and the swirling wind continued to affect the game. This wasn't helped by our faulure to keep the ball down. Long balls up to the front don't work any better now that Hartson's gone!

We had some good chances though, and some promising wing play set up an early chance for Wright, whose firt-time shot under pressure from a Parlour cross just missed the post.

Cole put them ahead after beating Adams for pace and rounding Lukic who came out to meet him. Their second came from an Arsenal corner! It was beaten out of the box and Vieira's poor header was easily intercepted. In a couple of passes the ball was with Cole again and our outstretched defence failed to pick up Solskjaer's run on the left. He took the pass form Cole and beat Lukic at his far post.

Adams didn't seem himself at all, and the arrval of Hughes in his place made an impact in the second half. He was very composed and showed good skill with his dribbling and shooting, and also a nice back-heel on the edge of the penalty area which Merson didn't capitalise on. Hughes had a great shot come back off the right hand post with Sxchmeichel beaten, and (I think) Wright turned in the rebound. It was called for offside but being up the other end I couldn't make out what had happened never mind whether it was offside. [Matt Moore reports that both WWW and Bergkamp were both offside when Hughes struck his shot]

This was in a very good spell for us in the middle of the second half. Later on Man Utd came back into it more but never threatened seriously again.

Bergkamp's goal was very well taken, turning a cross from the right wing in from the right hand side of the penalty area. A little later we had a good (according to the radio) appeal for a penalty after Bergkamp was pulled down from behind in the box, clear on Schmeichel. But we got nothing, and generally, despite the very poor first half, I think we were a bit unlucky not to come away with more.

The big talking point will be the ongoing Schmeichel-Wright feud. They came to blows in the second half after they both went for a through ball and Wright caught the keeper's ankle. It wasn't clear whether Wright was trying to play the ball and commentators on the radio had wildly differing opinions, but they agreed that Schmeichel went in a bit feet-first, as is his wont. I'd have to see it in replay to judge though.

Schmeichel went down for awhile and I think the foul was given but Wright, having been booked already, was possibly lucky not to see yellow again. He did manage to stay away from the ensuing crowd around the apparently stricken Schmeichel. [Matt also reports that the free kick given was for the offside which preceded the incident. So we don't know whether the ref deemed it a foul].

But after the whistle there was an incident in which, as far as I can tell, Schmeichel ran some distance to confront Wright. He said somehting which made Wright boil over, and he had to be restrained by Gary Lewin and possibly some policemen.

Other notable events - Keown somehow dribbling through most of the Man Utd midfield on one run. Adams and Bould being booked mysteriously when there was no free-kick. I couldn't work either of them out. [Apparently (Matt again) they were both for fouls committed and in both cases the ref played advantage then booked the player at a convenient moment later].

Full report to follow. 

Result : Arsenal               (0) 1   Manchester United       (2) 2

Arsenal: Lukic, Dixon, Adams, Keown, Bould, Winterburn, Parlour,
         Vieira, Merson, Bergkamp, Wright
         Subs: Hughes (Adams h-t), Selley, Morrow, Shaw, Harper
         Booked: Adams, Bould, Wright, Bergkamp

Man Utd: Schmeichel, G. Neville, Irwin, Pallister, Cole, Beckham, Giggs,
         Poborsky, Keane, Johnsen, Solskjaer, Butt
         Subs: Butt (Poborsky 71), McClair  (Butt 86)
               P. Neville, Cruyff, Van Der Gouw 
         Booked: Keane, Butt

Att: 38172
Ref: M J Bodenham (Cornwall)
Thoroughly pissed off with life would be comfortably understating my state of mind after this match. Couldn't find my season ticket, got completely soaked as I queued for a duplicate and then had to watch Arsenal turn in one of their worst performances in the most important game of the season. So I hope you'll be indulge me and allow a rather less considered and objective report than normal.

Arsenal actually started quite brightly, in total contravention of the carefully written FA laws, and would have been two goals up in the first 10 minutes had Ian Wright not decided he ought to be a good boy after all. First he carefully aimed a shot from a Parlour cross so that it deflected off a defender and narrowly wide of the near post. Then, following a lovely Bergkamp flick which put him through one-on-one with Schmeichel, he played his shot deliberately against the big Dane's legs.

Adams then joined the Mutual Moaners Beneficial Society, and ducked deliberately under an aimless high ball down the Arsenal left flank. Cole also missed his attempt to push the Arsenal captain in the back which gave him enough momentum to retrieve the ball before it reached the outrushing Lukic. Having evaded the keeper, Cole tried to pull the ball back into the middle for his strike partner Solskjaer, so was somewhat bemused when it sliced off the outside of his boot and was blown further off course and into the back of the net by the wind.

Parlour then did his best to spoil things by making a good run down the right and whipping in a cross which Wright flung himself horizontally at in an attempt to stop it reaching Neville who was lurking just behind him. Neville hadn't read the script either and his attempt to turn the ball into his own net went narrowly wide.

However, it wasn't long before things were back on track as Arsenal left everybody in the United half following a corner to allow the visitors to break with a 4 on 2 advantage. Cole tried to rebel by playing the ball to the right-footed Solskjaer on the left when he had better options to the right. However, Dixon made sure, jumping over the Norwegian comedian's scuffed shot and Lukic completed the job by ushering the ball inside the far post. In the stands Seaman laughed uproariously, "Ho, ho, Ole, that's a rib-breaker, that is!"

Arsenal now really got into their roles as headless chickens and for the rest of the half made a fine job of allowing the opposition space to play, and when they messed up their lines (for instance when Cole and Keane both missed reasonable chances), the Gunners considerately passed the ball straight back to them.

The first few minutes of the second half followed along similar lines, but then the story took a new twist which added a bit of excitement for the punters. Adams had decided that hopping about on one leg made the plot a bit too obvious so was substituted at half time by Stephen Hughes. The youngster provided a brilliant cameo midway through the half. His 20 yard shot was perfectly placed against the junction of post and crossbar, but unfortunately Wright's attempt to blast the rebound over the crossbar went underneath it and the ref's assistant was forced to step in with his automatic flag and redeem things.

There was little he could do just after that when Merson and Parlour combined superbly down the right. The latter's pass into the area for Bergkamp was almost perfectly played to allow the Dutch master to hit it into the side netting, but Neville spoiled the move by getting a touch on the cross and Bergkamp thus mishit his shot and it whizzed between Schmeichel and his near post. You'd have thought the keeper would have learnt his Ostenstadt (also known as the Zola/Walker) lesson.

Fortunately the contingency plan of having already given Merchandise United a two goal cushion meant this wasn't a total disaster. In fact it made the script more believable, though late in the game Wright came close to overdoing the near misses when he completely mistimed a header from a Bergkamp cross, and the ball was in danger of bouncing into the ground and over Schmeichel before the keeper stretched up to tip it over the bar.

At the other end Giggs and Cole decided to follow the high drama storyline by spurning easy chances, and Beckham, Keane, Wright and Schmeichel did their bit to add a bit of blood and guts. Wonderboy kicked Keown in the back of the legs when the ball was the other end of the pitch and Keane narrowly missed a creditable attempt to decapitate Parlour. Wright and Schmeichel both continued playing after the whistle had gone, but Wright disgracefully mistimed his challenge as they contested a loose ball. He completely missed the keepers legs and instead got the ball. Fortunately, Schmeichel cleverly feigned injury which allowed all the players in the drama to regroup and, with the help of a prompter called Taggart, most thereafter remembered their lines.

The referee drew down the curtain after the alloted 90 minutes, and with the crowd still cheering, Wright and Schmeichel peformed a brief curtain call as they exitted stage left. The keeper dashed from his goal to the tunnel and shouted and waved his finger under Wright's nose which allowed the striker to show off his carefully rehearsed mock fight scene. I'm told he's been taking lessons from Wolf of Gladiators.

More seriously, a desperately disappointing performance from Arsenal, made all the more galling by the fact that though they didn't deserve it, with a bit more luck they could have had at least a draw. The following marks are thus probably a bit harsher than normal. 

Lukic      6.0  Not really a great deal he could have done about the 
                goals.

Dixon      5.5  One of the poorest games he's had recently.

Winterburn 6.0  At least kept going forward in the second half.
            
Adams      5.0  Perhaps restricted by the injury, but at his most 
                hesitant which contributed to the general disorganised
                state of the defence.

Bould      6.0  Looked the most composed of the back 3.

Keown      5.5  As beligerent as ever, but his passing seems to have 
                deteriorated recently.

Parlour    6.5  One of the few to play not too far below his normal
                standards, though he also passed poorly. Made some 
                important runs.

Vieira     5.5  Also one of his worst games in an Arsenal shirt. Made 
                some good tackles but his passing was mostly terrible.

Merson     5.5  Again much quieter than normal. If I was Arsenal manager 
                I'd ban Arsenal players from playing for England.

Bergkamp   6.0  Also had a quiet game, though still the occasional flash
                of class.

Wright     5.5  Should have had a hattrick. Silly foul for the booking 
                and even sillier one on Schmeichel.
report by Derek Brownjohn

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