Arsenal (1) 2 - 2 (0) Aston VillaHighbury. Saturday 28th December 1996FA Carling Premiership
Teams
Arsenal: Lukic, Parlour, Keown, Bould, Adams, Winterburn, Garde (Morrow),
Vieira, Merson, Wright, Bergkamp
Subs: Morrow (Garde), Bartram, Shaw, Hartson, ?
Result : Arsenal (1) 2 Aston Villa (0) 2
Scorers: Wright 13, Merson 73 Milosevic 68, Yorke 74
With the news that Wright's 3 match suspension following his sending off at the
City Ground will stand (despite media speculation that it was about to be reduceed
to a 2 point "ungentlemanly conduct" offence) and the apppearance of the uncertain
PArlour in place of the still-injured Dixon, I wasn't feeling too confident as this
match against the in-form Villa got under way. But Arsenal surprised with a superb
first-half show which had the crowd singing "taking the piss" and the Villa looking
like a complete shower.
Villa played the offside trap relentlessly though, and it worked most of the time. But a sweet through ball from Bergkamp broke the trap and Wright collected in the clear to rifle past Bosnich from the corner of the box. 13 to go. But Arsenal were unable to capitalise on their dominance, and Wright was denied a second by a goal-line clearance from Smicic (or something) after he'd collected another great pass form Bergy, rounded the keeper, and got it on target from a fairly narrow angle. Bergkamp wasn't getting much protection from the ref, as seems to be the norm, abd a couple of times was flattened by two Villa players quite blatantly in front of the ref. As we went in only one up, and knowing the quality in the Villa squad, things didn't look socomfortable going into half time. And indeed the second half was a much different story, with Villa putting us under a lot of pressure and our chances coming on the break. Both Bergkamp and Wright missed similar decent chances aftre taking the ball down the left hand side of the pitch and just clearing the right hand post with their shots past Bosnich. Villa's first equaliser was sloppy affair, Milosevic finishing with a very nice volley after some dodgy defending. Merson's goal was one of his specials, collecting the ball half way into their half, going past a couple, bringitn the ball across goal and onto his right foot and then curving the shot away from Bosnich into the right hand side of the net from the edge of the area. I have to confess that I didn't see the second equaliser. It came straight from the kick-off and I was still celebrating Merse's goal. But on the screens after it looked like we hadn't started properly yet, Yorke losing his marker with ease and finding far too much space for a finisher of his class. A very exciting game, but one which we should have made safe in the first half. Parlour in particular deserves mention at right wing-back where he played possibly his best game for the club. In the first half in particular he was getting past his man repeatedly often cutting inside and creating attacking chances and generally linking play well. Garde looked alright too, and I was surprised to see him go off for Morrow. Man Utd won at home to Leeds and go above us on GD, Wimbledon also being on the same number of points below us in 4th. Tottenham, aware of the fact that their 6-1 thrashing by Bolton earlier in the season should have been 7 after a perfectly good Bolton 7th had been disallowed, decided to put things straight by crashing 7-1 at St James Park, where Arsenal recently won with only 10 men. Yes, I'm desperately trying to cheer myself up: cos things are very tight at the top and we've got Ian Wright out for 3 (including the cup tie with Sunderland). report by Rupe.
Result : Arsenal (1) 2 Aston Villa (0) 2
Scorers: Wright 13, Merson 73 Milosevic 68, Yorke 74
Arsenal: Lukic, Parlour, Keown, Bould, Adams, Winterburn, Garde,
Vieira, Merson, Wright, Bergkamp
Subs: Morrow (Garde 67), Hartson, Linighan, Shaw, Bartram
Villa: Bosnich, Wright, Nelson, Ehiogu, Scimeca, Staunton, Townsend,
Taylor, Draper, Milosevic, Yorke
Subs: Johnson (Draper 87), Joachim, Oakes, Tiler, Curcic
Booked: Ehiogu, Yorke
Att : 38130
Referee : J T Winter (Stockton on Tees)
That old cliche, a game of two halves, has to be used to describe this
match. In the first half Villa weren't really in it and Arsenal were
comfortably in control, and produced some scintillating football in the
last 15 minutes which really should have seen them go into the break
with a 2 or 3 goal lead. Villa were a different team in the 2nd half and
put the Gunners under such pressure that a draw was a fair result in the
end.
Arsenal took the lead when Vieira made a good interception in midfield which released Bergkamp. He spotted Wright's run and released a perfectly timed pass into the goalmaster's path. WWW didn't even need to take a touch and hit a first time shot from just inside the area which was perfectly placed just inside the far post. The next few minutes were fairly quiet and characterised mainly by Villa playing the offside trap with monotonous regularity and the asst ref waving his flag equally regularly even when the trap had patently not worked. However, eventually inspired by Bergkamp, Arsenal began to buzz and the last 15-20 minutes of the half could have brought a couple more goals. It should really have been 2-0 when the Dutch maestro produced a lovely bit of skill in midfield to evade a challenge and then played another beautiful pass forward for Wrighty to run onto, clean through on the keeper. He took it round Bosnich on the left and seemed to need only to stroke it into the empty net. He was perhaps slightly too deliberate with his left foot shot though and Scimeca was able to lunge desperately back and somehow managed to clear off the line. A brilliant clearance rather than a miss I think. Soon afterwards Bergkamp was again causing panic in the Villa defence. He ghosted past Staunton on the left and whipped in a near post shot which Bosnich saved brilliantly with his legs. Adams appeared to be held down by Draper as he tried to head the rebound goalwards, Keown hooked the clearance back into the middle and Bould twisted to head the ball just over the bar onto the roof of the net. The 2nd half was in the main dominated by Villa though Arsenal looked equally dangerous on the break, but were frequently frustrated by the ref's apparent personal grudge against Bergkamp. Despite being frequently climbed all over by Ehiogu and Scimeca, the man with the whistle persistently refused to give Arsenal a free kick, often adding insult to injury by penalising Bergkamp, presumably for backing in. The visitors came close to equalising when Yorke crossed from the left and Taylor challenged Lukic as he attempted to gather. The ball squirmed free and rolled slowly along the line before Bould kicked it clear. The other early chance was Arsenal's and came when Vieira made an important interception in his own area and broke forward, touched the ball to Merson who hit a first time long ball in the direction of Wright. He ran on to get free of Staunton and into the area down the left, but from an acute angle his left foot shot beat Bosnich but fizzed just wide of the far post. Midway through the half the equaliser, which to be fair had looked likely, came when Morrow came on for Garde as Villa were about to take a throw on the right deep in the Arsenal half. Nelson lofted in a cross which Parlour mistimed his jump to and allowed Draper to nod back into the middle. Milosevic was running in unmarked at the far post and lashed a left foot volley just inside the opposite post. However, five minutes later Arsenal were in front again. Another Villa attack broke down and Morrow broke away from his own area. He ran on into the Villa half before passing inside to Merson. Merse took it on brilliantly to the edge of the area, beating a couple of men before cracking a swerving 20 yarder out of Bosnich's reach and just inside the post. Highbury was still celebrating when Villa scored their second equaliser virtually straight from the kickoff. Adams tried to lunge in with and intercept a few yards outside the area, but miscontrolled the ball which allowed Milosevic to play a pass forward to Yorke who had got free of Keown. He took it on into the left side of the area and lashed in a shot which Lukic got a hand to but couldn't keep out. Arsenal then regrouped and dominated the final 5 or 10 minutes. They almost got the winner when Lukic released Bergkamp with a throw which allowed the Dutchman to make a strong run from inside his own area. He left Draper trailing in his wake appealing vainly for handball, and then ran past Staunton and into the area on the left. Clear on the keeper he tried to sidefoot past Bosnich from an angle but the ball drifted agonisingly wide of the far post.
Lukic 6.5 One or two dodgy moments, though little chance with
either goal.
Parlour 7.0 A pretty good game, particularly going forward in the
1st half, though I can't help feeling that Dixon wouldn't
have let the ball go over his head for Villa's 1st goal.
Winterburn 6.5 Typical performace, though he seems to me to have lost
a bit of confidence going forward.
Adams 6.5 Maybe a bit harsh, but partly to blame for Villa's 2nd
goal. One storming run forward in 2nd half ended when he
didn't know what to do with the ball.
Bould 6.5 Perhaps also partially to blame for 1st goal, leaving
Milosevic unmarked.
Keown 6.5 Perhaps also partially to blame for 2nd goal, leaving
Yorke unmarked.
Garde 6.5 Not as effective as in the Forest game, but still looks
reasonably solid.
Vieira 7.0 Showed in the 1st half how much we'd missed him in the
previous 2 games. Struggled with the rest to get to
grips with Villa in 2nd half though.
Merson 7.5 Another pretty confident game from Merse, and another
great goal to get Arsenal going again in 2nd half.
Wright 7.0 Looking more like his usual self. Superb finish for the
1st goal and a bit unlucky not to have had a couple more.
Bergkamp 8.0 Some brilliant moments in the 1st half particularly,
though with Villa dominating the 2nd less was seen from
him after the break.
Morrow 6.5 Takes some credit for the 2nd goal, though I assume he
only came on because Garde was injured or tired?
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