Arsenal (0) 0 - 1 (0)Highbury. Sunday 30th November 1997FA Carling PremiershipPreviewThere's some team news on Saturday's ANR, together with discussion of Saturday's results (Chelsea in second - we'll be slipping behind if we don't win this one) and lots more news. The ArseWeb table is updated with Saturday's results. See also AFCi and the Other Arsenal sites. Also, the Liverpool site has collected this useful collection of links to previews of Sunday's match. We presume there will be news and reports in the same place afterwards.Arsenal (0) 0 - 1 (0)Highbury. Sunday 30th November 1997FA Carling Premiership
scorer: McManaman
Arsenal:
Seaman
Dixon Adams Keown Winterburn
Overmars Platt Petit (Grimandi) Hughes (Wreh)
Bergkamp Wright
A very dispoointing Arsenal performance, particularly in
midfield where we really missed the injured Parlour and
Vieira. Bergkamp and Petit both looked a bit off the pace
coming back from their suspensions, so their return didn't
make up for the loss of Ray & Paddy.
Arsenal started brightly, and things could have been very different if we'd converted one of several good chances in the first 20 minutes or so. Overmars was causing them problems (and continued to do so through the match), and created a near goal when he got through to the goal-line on the right and just managed to loft a cross to the far side of goal. It looked a cert goal as Wright shaped to head it, but bizarely he ducked under it. Hughes was in the clear beyond him however but miscontrolled and shot over. I thought maybe Hughes had called for it, and that it was strange Wrighty leaving such a chance on the strenght of a shout! It wasn't till I saw the replay on the big screen that it became apparent that the cross had clipped a defender's head on the way over and that's why Wright missed it. Adams had a couple fo noteworthy chances. From a free-kick outside the box on our left, Bergkamp crossed it in and Keown headed it on to Adams at the far post. But his stooping header just cleared the far post and Hughes didn't react quickly enough to meet it the right side of the post. The goal was superb dipping shot that McManaman hit first time as he ran onto a Liverpool corner from our right. Arsenal were galvanized a bit by the arrival of Wreh, I thought, but Grimandi I'm afraid to say had a mare of Caesaresque proportions. Coming on for a midfielder, after we'd gone done, he showed some awful control. He gave the ball away under no pressure near the half-way line, it appeared that just as he was shaping to play the ball with one foot he touched it away from that foot with the other foot. I suppose it was a great tackle as he certainly wasn't expecting it. Then he juggled the ball back over the goal-line for a corner. But it wasn't only Grimandi that had run out of ideas. Wright had a decent game, I thought, although his first touch did let him down a few times. Hughes was anonymous and annoying, and PLatt more like his old self, unfortunately. The defence did ok, and it was nice that someone had told Michael Owen that Keown was soft touch if you piled into him, resulting in the sight of Owens flat on the floor a few times. Using Overmars on the right worked fine and he popped up all over to some effect. But there was never enouhg intelligent movement from our players for the moments of individual skill to create good chances. Liverpool weren't particularly good, but we deserved to lose. report by Rupe.
There's a list of links to press reports on the
Liverpool site.
Arsenal vs Liverpool Sun Nov 30 1997
Result : Arsenal (0) 0 Liverpool (0) 1
Scorers: McManaman 55
Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon, Winterburn, Keown, Adams; Platt, Petit,
Hughes, Overmars; Bergkamp, Wright
Subs: Wreh (Hughes 65), Grimandi (Petit 78),
Upson, Boa Morte, Manninger
Booked: Adams, Dixon
Liverpool: James, Bjornebye, Matteo, Kvarme, McAteer, Leonhardsen,
Carragher, Redknapp, McManaman, Riedle, Owen
Subs: Murphy (Owen 88), Babb, Harkness, Berger, Nielson
Booked: Matteo, Bjornebye, Owen
Att: 38094
Ref: G Poll (Tring)
Another disappointing performance as Arsenal subsided to their first
home defeat of the season following a stunning goal from Steve
McManaman. Arsenal had Bergkamp and Petit restored to the side following
suspension, but this was balanced by the loss of Vieira and Parlour
through injury, while Liverpool were also understrength, suspension
ruling out Fowler and Ince.
For a game between two supposed title contenders it was rather a poor match, as both sides displayed a lack of confidence, sapped by recent results. Liverpool did perk up after scoring a goal out of the blue, while Arsenal started quite brightly but got gradually worse the longer the game went on. The Gunners probably should have been at least a goal up at half time, having squandered 3 or 4 decent chances. Early on Winterburn flighted in a cross from the left which just cleared a defender's head in the middle. Behind him Adams took the ball down brilliantly on his chest to leave himself space for a shot from about 13 yards. He seemed to hurry it slightly though, and ended up volleying the ball straight at James. Bergkamp then sent Overmars into the area with a lovely pass. The winger feinted a shot as a defender came across to cover and slightly luckily got past him to the byline to chip back a cross. It was about to land on Wright's head, unmarked in the middle, until a defender just got the faintest of touches to take away from the striker. The ball still dropped to Hughes a few yards behind Wright, and he struck a fierce angled volley from about 12 yards a foot or so over the bar. At the other end Liverpool were only really threatening via Owen. First he got away from Keown down the left and cut towards the byline in the area. He clipped the ball back from a few yards beyond the near post, but only Riedle had kept up with him and the ball eluded everybody and ran away to safety on the other side of the pitch. Owen later got away from Adams, this time down the right, but with plenty of time to measure his cross he wildly overhit it. Towards the end of the half he threatened again when he intercepted a loose pass from Platt a few yards outside the Arsenal area, but put a tame shot straight at Seaman. Meanwhile Arsenal were looking promising on occasion without really making a clear cut chance. Overmars broke down the middle with Wright and Bergkamp on either side of him and only two defenders covering. He chose to put in his Dutch colleague on the right but overhit the pass slightly. Bergkamp was forced a bit wide and tried to turn his defender as he went into the area but slipped and James eventually grabbed the ball at Dixon's feet. Petit then almost set up a chance for Wright with a lovely ball chipped over the top for Wright to run onto. It was just to far in front though and WWW missed his attempt at a first time volley as it dropped over his shoulder. A few minutes before half time though Arsenal probably should have scored. Bergkamp slanted in a free kick from the left, Keown flicked it on and Adams running in at the far post had a free header from the corner of the six yard box. He mistimed it though and the ball bounced wide of the far post where Hughes arrived just to late to pull it back. Platt also squandered a good opportunity just before the half time whistle when he was put free into the area by a nice touch from Wright, but from a very acute angle he tried to beat James at the near post and put the ball into the side netting when a pull back into the middle might have paid greater dividends. The second half started off in a similar fashion. Early on Hughes went agonisingly close to opening the scoring when the ball broke to him in the box and he dug the ball out from under his feet, but with James beaten his shot from about 15 yards went inches wide of the post. The game really turned 10 minutes into the 2nd half. Bjornebye took a throw in level with the 18yd line in the Arsenal half, McManaman was given too much space to run onto the ball and hit a fantastic volley as the ball bounced which flew into the far top corner of the net from the opposite corner of the area. After that Liverpool grew in confidence while what little Arsenal had gradually drained away. Overmars did have a reasonable chance shortly after the goal, but snatched at his shot from about 16 yards and pulled it wide of James' right hand post. There were other occasions when there were scrambles in the Liverpool area (including one handball that might have been given on another day) as the visitors defended desperately against Arsenal's increasingly desperate and unimaginative attempts to get back into the game, but thereafter James wasn't seriously troubled. At the other end Liverpool were looking more likely to score on the break. Riedle mistimed a free header about a 10 yards out to give Seaman an easy save, and then Leonhardsen forced the England keeper into more serious action with a piledriver from the edge of the area. Seaman reacted brilliantly though, pushing the ball wide with an instinctive parry with his right hand. Wreh came on and threatened once or twice with some tricky runs but couldn't find a decent shot at the end of them. Wenger's rather bizarre final throw was to replace Petit with Grimandi and push Adams up front alongside Wright and Wreh, but it was all to no avail. All in all very frustrating and disheartening, although I thought that Arsenal were marginally the better team up until the goal, and had the game gone on the same way I probably wouldn't be so gloomy now. However, what was really disappointing was the way Arsenal played once they'd gone behind. One of the things that really frustrated me in the 2nd half was lack of support from midfield for the forwards.
Seaman 7.5 One great save and another good block in the 2nd half,
but otherwise not overworked.
Winterburn 6.5 Not bad, not great.
Dixon 6.5 Ditto.
Keown 7.0 Didn't play badly apart from the one time Owen went past
him.
Adams 7.0 Also had a reasonable game apart from also being
embarrassed a couple of time by Owen, but probably
should have scored.
Petit 6.0 Looked a bit rusty and gave the ball away rather a lot.
Platt 6.5 An ok sort of game, did make some good forward runs at
least but also almost gave a goal away.
Hughes 6.5 Did look like he was trying in the first half at least,
and didn't do that badly overall. Should have scored.
Overmars 6.5 He did look quite threatening on occasion, playing for
the first time on the right, though once or twice it
seemed to me he stopped a run when had he gone on he
might have got round Bjornebye.
Wright 6.0 Another lacklustre game, though I thought most of the
time he was trying.
Bergkamp 6.5 Also looked rather rusty with his first touch unusually
poor particularly later in the game, and disappointingly
faded towards the end.
Wreh 6.5 Had a go but poor finishes again.
Report by Derek
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