West Ham (0) - (1) ArsenalBoleyn Ground, Wednesday 29th January 1997FA Carling Premiership
Scorers:
Rose o.g. Parlour Wright
Teams:
Arsenal:
Seaman
Winterburn Bould Adams Rose (Marshall 77) Dixon
Vieira Hughes (Morrow 85) Parlour
Wright (Hartson 78) Merson
subs: Morrow Lukic Hartson Marshall ?
West Ham:
Miklosko
Williamson Moncur (Lampard 28) Dicks Bilic
Porforio Hughes Rieper Rowland (Jones 85)
Newell ?
subs: Lampard Lazaridis Ferdninand Jones ?
From Capital Gold:(details and grammar to be added later! and full reports to follow as usual)First Half Arsenal took the lead after 7 minutes through Ray Rarlour! Danny Williamson lost the ball to the strength of Vieira near the centre line. Vieira fed Merson who found Parlour running into the right hand-side of the box (Dixon-fashion) with a sweet pass off th outside of his right foot. Parlour put it past the keeper low into the far corner. Shortly after, Parlour was booked for a late challenge. (Everton are ahead at St James's Park) Merson clipped the crossbar after doing something to Julian Dicks which was similar to what Gascoigne did to Hendry at Wembley last summer :-) It was glorious, but the move started further towards the centre of the goal so the flick took him further away from goal - not as easy (!) as Gaxxa's. Merson's had a few shots including one which forced a good save from Miklosko. If he does score it'll be his 100th Arsenal goal. Seaman saved from Newell with his face (he didn't know much about it!). Adams booked. Half-time summary: West Ham have played with "spirit" but Arsenal, apparently, with "swagger", at least at times. Vieira's been doing really well feeding Merson and Wright up front. West Ham have had a few corners but the closest they've got was a Bilic header which was a good few feet off-target. The youngsters are doing alright too, and it's encouraging to see Wenger go with them: many of us thought he'd put Hartson alongside Wright in order to have Merson's experience in midfield. Tottenham are ahead against Blackburn. Man Utd have been dominating the Dons at Old Trafford, but it's 0-0 at half time. If these results stand, we go top. Second Half: Hendry has equalised for Blackburn. On 64 minutes West Ham got an equaliser through a headed Rose own goal. As a corner came over, Bilic rose to head towards goal. Seaman appeared to have it covered as the ball came through the crowded goalmouth but then Rose stooped and dived to head it in off the post. Bloody hell Ian Wright has just put us ahead again on 66 minutes!! Merson fed him from the halfway line and Wright was clear on Miklosko, coming in from the left. His first chance and he stuck it away, possibly with a little luck - the ball going under Miklosko's body. Wright said on Sportsnight later that he was getting some stick from the others because it was the only time he saw the ball all night!. (11 to go for the record) And in the Coca-Cola cup Stockport have come back from being 1-0 down at the Dell and are leading Soton 2-1. Seaman just saved from a long-range Bilic effort. Wimbledon have gone ahead at Old Trafford! And Stockport have won! In the dying minutes... Steve Jones came on and almost immediately hit the post after beating Seaman from a narrow angle. Man U have equalised through Ryan Giggs.. about 15 minutes to go in that one. A close call with what might have been an Arsenal handball in our area, Adams being hit by the ball with arms raised like Pearce vs Switzerland last year. But not given this time. But it's all over and we're top for the moment (pending the result from Old Trafford...). Capital's men of the match: Parlour then Merson (who set up both goals), but it sounds like a lot of them had good games. Some nice defending by the usual suspects, and Vieira and Marshall were both cool at the back, heading back to Seaman to calmly relieve pressure. Tottenham have beaten Blackburn. There's a passive protest going on at West Ham now. Man Utd have gone ahead through Cole so sadly they could be going top. Newcastle came back to win 4-1. All over at Old Trafford. Here's the table The protest continued at West Ham, our players' departure being delayed by nearly an hour.
Result : West Ham (0) 1 Arsenal (1) 2
Scorers: Rose 63 og Parlour 8, Wright 67
Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon, Adams, Rose, Bould, Winterburn, Parlour,
Hughes, Vieira, Merson, Wright
Subs: Hartson (Wright 77), Marshall (Rose 78),
Morrow (Hughes 84), Shaw, Lukic
Booked: Parlour, Adams, Vieira
West Ham: Miklosko, Breacker, Dicks, Bilic, Rieper, Williamson,
Moncur, Hughes, Rowland, Newell, Porfirio
Subs: Lampard (Moncur 28), Jones (Rowland 83),
Lazarides, Ferdinand, Sealey
Booked: Breacker, Bilic
Att: 24382
Ref: M Bodenham (East Looe)
In the end Arsenal collected the 3 points they needed to keep up the
challenge at the top of the league, and the win was deserved. However,
after a first half which the Gunners comfortably controlled, West Ham
were allowed back into it after the break and came uncomfortably close
to snatching a point.
So much for second guessing the manager's team selection. Instead of bringing Hartson back in place of Bergkamp, Wenger left the Welshman on the bench, moved Merson forward to support Wright and kept Parlour and Hughes in midfield with Vieira. He also preferred Matthew Rose to Scott Marshall as Keown's replacement in defence, which meant Arsenal started the match with 3 players aged 21 or younger (to balance the six 30+ year olds). It was one of the youngsters who nearly gave Arsenal the lead early on. Hughes picked up the ball in midfied, set off on a run towards goal, the West Ham defence parted obligingly in front of him and he fired in a shot from the edge of the box which went inches wide of Miklosko's left hand post. Five minutes later Arsenal did take the lead with a nicely worked goal. Vieira won a challenge on the halfway line which released Merson on a run towards the area. He had Vieira and Wright in support on his left but chose instead to feed a perfect pass to Parlour on his right. Pizza ran on into the area and for the 2nd time this season displayed hitherto unsuspected coolness in the finish, striking a crisp shot across Miklosko and just inside the far post. The Gunners probably should have added to their lead during the rest of the half, but were denied by some wayward finishing and a couple of good saves. Miklosko made a great stop from Merson as he tried to emulate Parlour, running clear onto a pass in the right side of the area. The keeper was left helpless soon afterwards though by a piece of delightful Merson skill. The Magic Man flicked the ball over Dicks on the edge of the area and then volleyed a lob over Miklosko which bounced off the top of the crossbar. Miklosko made another good sprawling save as Dixon crossed to find both Hughes and Wright unmarked in the middle. It was Hughes who got to the header first and forced the keeper into a good save low to his right. Merson also went close with a powerful drive from the edge of the area which went just wide, and there were some other good moves, mostly down the right, which ended with the final ball not quite falling to a red shirt. At the other end Seaman was mostly untroubled, only having to deal with a couple of long range shots which he fielded comfortably. He did make one astonishing save when Porfirio got round Rose on the right and crossed into the middle to find Newell whose shot from point blank range hit Seaman somewhere on his body and rebounded to safety. The linesman's flag was up however, so it wouldn't have counted. In fact Arsenal's main first half concern was 3 more yellow cards which the ref brandished with gay abandon. Moncur had to go off injured after half an hour following fouls by first Parlour and then Vieira for which both were booked. From my position (admittedly poor, at pitch level behind the goal), the latter looked pretty innocuous as did the challenge for which Adams got booked. Moncur then suffered a greater threat to his health when the stretcher bearers dropped him as he was being carried round the pitch, amid much hilarity from the watching Gooners. Apparently Wenger admitted after the match that concern about more bookings led him to tell the Gunners to be more careful with their tackling, which may partially explain why they allowed West Ham much more of the ball in the 2nd half. For a while after half time the Hammers managed to build up a head of steam, but didn't seriously threaten Seaman's goal apart from a couple of Newell headers which the keeper fielded comfortably. And Arsenal looked like beginning to take control again when West Ham did finally score courtesy of an own goal. Porfirio won a corner, which looked to me as though it shouldn't have been, took it himself and found the head of Bilic with the cross. The Croatian's header wasn't particularly well timed and Seaman seemed to have it comfortably covered before Rose lunged in front of him and his desperate attempt to head clear succeeded only in diverting the ball into the corner of the net. Fortunately it only took Arsenal three minutes to retake the lead, and again it was Merson who made it. He made another strong run down the middle before threading a perfect pass through to Wright as he made a typical run into the area on Merson's left. Otherwise quiet for most of the game, Wrighty did what he does best and lashed in an angled left foot shot which went through Miklosko's legs and into the net. Soon afterwards Arsenal brought on Hartson and Marshall in place of Wright and Rose, and for the most part seemed content to sit back and defend their lead. West Ham responded with some spirited attempts to equalise, but the Arsenal defence coped reasonably comfortably with a stream of crosses and Seaman didn't have a difficult save to make. The only big scare was a minute or two from time when Jones got round Marshall near the byline on the left, cut into the area along the goal line before whipping in a creditable attempt to beat Seaman at his near post. The ball cannoned against the post, behind the keeper and away to safety. At the other end Arsenal should have made it three. It was Merson again who found Hartson in yards of space in the area to the right of goal, but the Welshman dragged his shot wide of the far post. A satisfactory result if not an entirely satisfactory performance. Arsenal were comfortably in control of the first half and perhaps didn't quite do enough to press home the advantage when they had it, against a demoralised team. In the second they did hold out without too many alarms in the end, and perhaps also showed they could have (and indeed did) stepped up a gear when necessary. Somewhat difficult to get a good overall view of the game from the seat I had in the 4th row behind the goal, so the following marks are perhaps even more subjective than usual.
Seaman 7.5 Did what he needed to do competently with some good
catches from crosses.
Dixon 7.0 Reasonably competent game, though he seemed to do less
attacking than usual.
Winterburn 7.0 Also had a reasonable game, more particularly in defence
Adams 7.5 Once again commanding in defence.
Bould 7.0 On his 300th appearance for Arsenal, a typically solid
performance.
Rose 6.5 A couple of nervous moments defensively, though he can't
be blamed for the goal. Had some good runs going forward
though, particularly in the first half.
Parlour 7.5 Another pretty good game, typically energetic.
Vieira 7.0 Not the best game of his Arsenal career, gave the ball
away once or twice, but otherwise still the controlling
figure in midfield.
Hughes 6.5 Had some good moments, particularly early in the game,
but seemed to drift out of it for much of the 2nd half.
Merson 8.0 Another good game from Merse in his 100th consecutive
game. Easily the outstanding player on the pitch.
Wright 6.5 One of those games where he wasn't quite firing, apart
from yet another well taken goal.
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