Arsenal (1) 3 - 1 (0)Highbury. Saturday 11th April 1998FA Carling Premiership
Arsenal (1) 3 - 1 (0)Highbury. Saturday 11th April 1998FA Carling Premiership
scorers: Anelka 2, Vieira Barton
Arsenal:
Seaman
Garde Bould Adams Winterburn
Parlour Vieira Petit Overmars (Hughes)
Wreh (Platt) Anelka (Boa Morte)
This was an Arsenal performance that really
made us look like Champions in waiting. Unfortuntaely
there's a lot more than waiting to be done in the
next few weeks, but with players like Bergkamp, Keown,
and our first two choices at right back still
to come back, and maybe even Wright, there must be
plenty of Arsenal fans who, like me, are now starting
to believe. The fact that it was against Newcastle
bodes well for the Cup too.
Newcastle didn't threaten much. Unsurprisingly, given that Bould and Adams both lasted the 90 minutes, we didn't miss Keown. Largely because of their efforts, and partly because of the terrible service from his team, Shearer resorted mainly to moaning shirt-tugging and falling over. Still we had a bit of a scare after 20 minutes or so, when Seaman gave away a free-kick in the box for handling a back-pass. It was hard to see from the other end, but it did look at tricky position for him. The ball came across his area at pace from a defender under pressure, and he appeared to have to stretch to get at it with his foot. He fell over and dived onto the ball as it spun free away from him. Maybe he could have punched it away, and maybe he could have done better in the first place, but until I see a replay I'll be giving him the benefit of the doubt. As Arsenal players lined up for the free-kick, inside the goal, one of the Newcastle players (Pearce or Batty I think) went and stood directly in front of Seaman. Because of the players packing the goalmouth to either side, there wasn't much the keeper could do about it. But when the free-kick was taken, there seemed to be an age befor Shearer hit it, which gave the Arsenal time to rush him and the shot was blocked. The scoreboard in the stadium put up Arsenal 1 Newcastle 0 ! Meanwhile, Arsenal were looking great. Adams found himself up front and stayed there for a while. A Petit pass picked him out on the edeg of the area, he controlled it, and then with plenty of time hit the shot with outside of his left foot and past the far post. Anelka had a good chance from a Seaman clearance which he chased into the Newcastle box. He just got a touch before Given but the ball was rolling past the left hand post. Anelka sped after it all alone, and might have been able to tread on the ball and put it in. But to be fair to him, that wouldn't have been easy at the pace he was running so he tried to slip it past the post first time. It hit the woodwork. On 40 minutes or so, Anelka got the breakthrough. Petit and Vieira were battling away just outside their box, and the ball came to Anelka on the right hand side. He brought it inside a defender and fired past Given inside the far post from just inside the area. The other incident that stands out from the first half was a dive by Barton which resulted in the ref calling him over. As he was talking to him something happened between Albert and Petit which I didn't see. Petit chased Albert over to the cluster of players by the ref and various people stepped in to pull people away from each other. After it had calmed down Barton got his yellow card. Then the linesman called to the ref, spoke to him, and Albert got his card too. During the second half Platt came on for Wreh, who had another good game. Platt did well, a typical battling performance, and soon after he came on he won the ball and supplied it to Parlour on the right. He powered past Pearce and (I think) Batty, then put the ball on a plate for Anelka on the 6-yard line for 2-0. The third goal was an extraordinary dipping shot from miles out which Vieira torpedoed into the top left corner. Absolutely unstoppable. Newcastle brought on Ketsbaia in the second half and for a spell looked almost dangerous. Barton beat the offside trap and hit a high shot past Seaman for a consolation goal. But they never looked like pulling it off again. In fact we seemed to have scored in the dying seconds when Boa Morte finished off a one-two with Petit. He was celebrating in fron of the North Bank for some time before realising it had been disallowed. I didn't see what happened. It didn't look offside but Boa Morte might have fouled as he took the return ball. Some great songs today...
"We all agree, Anelka is better than Shearer" Our position in the table's looking good at 3 games in hand, 4 points behind. Each game is a title decider now, but a win over Blackburn on Monday and we have to be strong favourites. At the other end of the table, plucky Spurs held Chelsea to a 2-0 win, but their relegation rivals Bolton Barnsley Wimbledon and Everton all won. Other reports
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