Arsenal (0) 2 - 1 (0)Highbury, Saturday 10th January 1998FA Carling PremiershipA bad first half, in which Leeds could have gone 2 or 3 goals up and the ref put in the worst performance that many observers felt they'd ever seen, was followed by a superb goal from Overmars early in the second half. Arsenal looked a lot better from then on, even though Hasselbaink was gifted an equaliser. Overmars came back to score our second.FA Carling Premiership
Arsenal vs Leeds United Sat Jan 10 1998
Result : Arsenal (0) 2 Leeds (0) 1
Scorers: Overmars 60,72 Hasselbaink 69
Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon, Winterburn, Keown, Bould; Vieira, Petit,
Parlour, Overmars; Bergkamp, Wright
Subs: Anelka, Boa Morte, Grimandi, Hughes, Manninger
Booked:
Leeds: Martyn, Kelly, Haaland, Radebe, Wetherall, Maybury,
Ribeiro, Bowyer, Halle, Wallace, Kewell
Subs: Molenaar (Haaland 21), Hasselbaink (Bowyer 53),
Lilley (Wallace 88), Harte, Beeney
Booked: Halle, Maybury
Att: 38018
Ref: G R Ashby (Worcester)
A good battling performance from Arsenal during which they eventually
overcame their frustration at Leeds' overly physical approach (and the
ref's apparent willingness to condone it) to produce the moments of pure
football in the 2nd half which were enough to win the match.
The first half wasn't a pretty affair, and could have been worse from an Arsenal point of view had Wallace put away the best chance of the half when the game was barely a couple of minutes old. Radebe blocked Bergkamp's attempt to flick a pass forward for Wright, and the ball broke to Bowyer just inside his own half. He played a simple pass forward to pick out Wallace running clear with the Arsenal defence standing and watching. Fortunately he fluffed the chance, shooting straight at Seaman from the edge of the box. The rest of the half was dominated by Arsenal in terms of possession, and by the referee in terms of talking points. Bergkamp was closely marked, first by Haaland and, after he went off injured, by Radebe. His markers were helped by the ref's laissez faire attitude to most of the physical excesses in the game. More than once, from the other end of the ground you could clearly see Leeds players with two arms enveloping the Dutchman in a bear hug, and still the man in black waved play on. He also turned down what looked two decent appeals for penalties. Winterburn appeared to be clearly shoved in the back as he chased a ball into the area, and Bergkamp was left in a crumpled heap by a Radebe challenge which may have got the ball, but only after going through the Dutchman to get there. I suspect even Ashby would have given a foul had it been anywhere else on the pitch. The Gunners did create one good chance from a corner won following a good Wright run down the left. Bergkamp took the corner short to Overmars and received the return pass before slanting in an angled cross which was headed clear from inside the 6yd box. Overmars, running in from the left headed the clearance back from whence it came, beating Martyn only to see Molenaar block it on the line. From a prone position in the 6yd box Petit couldn't quite get enough on his attempt to bundle the loose ball home and Martyn eventually gratefully collected. At the other end Bowyer had the only other notable chance of the half when a cross in from the right reached him on the edge of the area, but his shot was again straight at Seaman. As the half drew to a close, both the crowd and the home players were becoming increasingly frustrated by the Ashby's reluctance to use his whistle, and probably only his equal reluctance to use the yellow card saved notably Petit, Wright and Bergkamp from bookings for retaliation. The half time whistle was accompanied by a storm of booing and a scuffle between Wright and Ribeiro. Fortunately half time seemed to calm things down somewhat and 15 minutes into the 2nd half the mood turned to jubilation as Arsenal took the lead with a cracking goal from Overmars. Petit actually got in the way of Overmars' attempt to play a cross field pass just inside his own half, but the Frenchman did well to control the ball and then turn to play a perceptive pass to pick out the winger's run into space through the middle. Overmars took the ball on at speed towards the Leeds area, Bergkamp crossed in front of him, dragging a couple of defenders out to the left, Wright made a run on his right which gave Overmars the space to continue and fire a superb right foot shot which flew into the net from about 22 yards. Soon afterwards it was almost two. Wright gained control of a Seaman punt and played a short pass to Parlour who then surged down the right before cutting in towards the area. He overran the ball somewhat but Molenaar drove his clearance against Parlour's shins and the ball rebounded back into the middle where Wetherall was panicked into a desperate attempt to clear which succeeded only in deflecting the ball into a looping lob back towards his own goal. It looked destined to clear Martyn and drop into the net before the keeper somehow arched back to tip the ball over the bar. Arsenal were now clearly on top and Leeds had barely threatened at all in the 2nd half, so it was something of a shock when they equalised a few minutes later. A throw in down the left sent Wallace away, he turned past Dixon as he reached the byline and cut back into the area to give himself an acute angle for a shot which Seaman could only beat away to the feet of Hasselbaink who was unmarked at the far post, the rest of the Arsenal defence having been dragged towards the ball by the threat posed by Wallace. From 4 yards the Dutchman couldn't miss. Fortunately it was less than 3 minutes before Arsenal regained the lead. Winterburn dispossessed Hasselbaink on the half way line and fed Bergkamp who took the ball on towards the Leeds area before touching a pass inside to Overmars making a run down the inside right channel. The winger skipped past two defenders' attempts to intercept him just outside the area and ran clear into the right side of the box before firing in a shot from about 15 yards which went through Martyn's legs and into the net. Soon afterwards he might have had a hattrick when he was sent clear into the left side of the area by a lovely return pass from Wright, but Martyn produced another good save from his angled vollied shot, and the ref had blown anyway, somewhat harshly judging that Overmars had used his arm to help control the ball. The keeper made a more telling save a few minutes later. Overmars stabbed a clever pass forward for Wright to run onto, and Wrighty produced a typically audacious vollied attempt to chip the ball over Martyn from 35 yards with his left foot. The keeper was equal to it though, again superbly stretching to tip it round the post. Leeds produced a bit of pressure in the final few minutes but didn't again seriously stretch the Arsenal defence. Overall I thought it was quite a satisfactory performance from the Gunners. They overcame the frustrations of the ref and refused to be intimidated by Leeds' tactics in the 1st half and won the game with some decent football in the 2nd. Apart from the goal I don't recall Leeds having a chance worthy of note after half time.
Seaman 7.0 A couple of good catches late in the game helped settle
the nerves, otherwise not much to do.
Winterburn 7.5 Another performance typical of his refusal to be written
off just yet.
Dixon 6.5 Looked a little rusty.
Keown 7.5 Another dependable job.
Bould 7.5 Ditto.
Petit 8.0 Again played well and battled for everything, though at
one point in the 1st half I thought he was going to take
it too far.
Vieira 7.5 Solid job again.
Parlour 7.5 Kept up his good form this season.
Overmars 8.0 Admittedly fairly quiet in the 1st half, but the license
Wenger has seemingly given him to wander into the middle
has added extra danger and purpose to Arsenal's attacks.
Wright 7.5 Another zestful and committed performance.
Bergkamp 7.0 Not quite regained the touch and form of earlier in the
season and was noticeably frustrated by the lack of
protection from the ref.
Other reports
copyright belongs to original author where credited. otherwise © Rupert Ward, ArseWeb MMV ArseWeb is NOT the official Arsenal site. The (excellent) official site is here |