(0) 1 - 2 (2) ArsenalEwood Park. Sunday 25th October 1998. kick-off 4pmFA Carling PremiershipPreview
(0) 1 - 2 (2) ArsenalEwood Park. Sunday 25th October 1998. kick-off 4pmFA Carling PremiershipSee also
scorers: Anelka Petit Johnson
Arsenal:
Seaman
Dixon Keown Bould Winterburn
Ljungberg Petit Vieira Overmars
Bergkamp Anelka
iSutton was sent off in the last minute for a terrible foul
on Vieira. It was amazing that the Frenchman was still on the pitch
himself, but not through any fault of his own. He seemed to be targetted
by the opposition. Tim Sherwood, that other great Arsenal favourite (!)
had hacked him down in retaliation for a heavy but legal Vieira challenge
and incredibly got away with a yellow card. And before that Vieira had been
off the pitch injured. At one point Wenger seemed to be about to bring
him off but Gary Lewin indicated he should continue. It seemed there
was was a real danger of Vieira getting over involved with all the
attention he was getting, and indeed he ended up with a silly
booking himself, for dissent.
Arsenal won this one in the first half, Anelka starting the scoring with a great 25 yard shot after as many minutes, after Vieira had won the ball. Then Petit scored with a shot from a free-kick which perhaps was slightly deflected leaving Flowers little chance. Blackburn brought Davies on at half time, and went on to dominate the second half but for a change we hung on to claim the 3 points (doesn't scoring 2 in our period of domninace instead of just the one make a difference? Seems we have to bank on a late goal for the opposition these days). Seems all the Arsenal names in this summary are French. C'est la vie. It hasn't felt like a great start to the season, but this
win takes us third.
Result : Blackburn (0) 1 Arsenal (2) 2
Scorers: Johnson 64 Anelka 25, Petit 39
Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon, Bould, Keown, Winterburn; Petit, Vieira,
Ljungberg, Overmars; Bergkamp, Anelka
Subs: Garde, Grimandi, Hughes, Vivas, Manninger
Booked: Ljungberg, Vieira
Blackburn: Flowers, Kenna, Davidson, Peacock, Henchoz, Sherwood, Wilcox,
Duff, McKinlay, Johnson, Sutton
Subs: Davies (Wilcox 45), Croft, Dailly, Dunn, Fettis
Booked:Sutton, Sherwood.
Sent off:Sutton (90, Serious Foul Play)
Att: 27012
Ref: D Gallagher (Banbury)
Another Sunday and another win, the first away victory of the season.
Ewood Park has been a happy ground for Arsenal over the last 3 seasons.
Wenger's first game in charge was the 2-0 win two years ago and last
year's 4-1 demolition confirmed the start of Arsenal's sprint to the
title. Yesterday's win however won't bring back quite such happy
memories, in particular for Patrick Vieira who appeared to have been
singled out by Blackburn for some quite disgraceful treatment. Sutton
was sent off just before full time for one dreadful assault, and
Sherwood should have preceded him into the dressing room for another
that was even worse.
The match started off very quietly, Blackburn's over-cautious tactic of playing Sutton alone up front with 5 men in midfield meaning that Arsenal had a lot of the ball in the opening 10-15 minutes, though the Gunners could do little with it. In the early exchanges the closest we came to any sort of threat on either goal was when Vieira and Petit each almost put Overmars in with long passes, but the Dutchman miscontrolled the first, and the latter was slightly overhit. Eventually there was some real excitement at the other end. Arsenal's offside trap failed and let Sherwood away down the right. Dixon just managed to clear his cross, but Seaman could only weakly punch away the resultant corner and after Peacock missed an attempt to swivel and shoot Sherwood did manage to hook a shot goalwards over his shoulder. Winterburn scrambled it away from just in front of the line though Seaman probably had it covered, and Dixon eventually completed the clearance. The game settled back into it's former stalemate for a while after that apart from another Blackburn break down the right which ended in a cross from Kenna which was just too high for Sutton to get sufficient purchase on a header, and it looped over the bar. The deadlock was broken 25 minutes into the half. Vieira hustled McKinlay into a mistake midway inside his own half and the ball broke to Anelka. He set off towards goal with Vieira and Bergkamp in support on either side in a 3 on 2 break. The best option looked to be a lay off to either of his colleagues but fortunately Anelka had other ideas and lashed in a shot from 20 yards which curled away from Flowers and went in off the base of his left hand upright. Just over 10 minutes later it was 2-0. Dixon chipped a ball in from the right towards Ljungberg on the edge of the box, and the Swede was barged from behind by Henchoz as he tried to take the ball on his chest. Overmars stopped Ljungberg's short tapped freekick for Petit to thump a shot towards Flowers' right hand post, the ball deflected off McKinlay in the wall and went just inside the opposite post leaving the keeper stranded. Two shots, two goals and that was more or less it for the rest of the first half. Blackburn clearly need a change of tactics in the second, and at half time Hodgson duly brought on Davies to support Sutton up front. The change almost had an immediate effect as Davies got on the end of a Sutton flick on into the box, but he volleyed wildly wide from an angle. At the other end Arsenal should have increased their lead when Ljungberg was allowed to advance unchallenged into the box but he seemed to be taken aback by the amount of time he was given and took too long eventually to get a shot in and it was charged down. Soon afterwards came the first real save of the match. Sutton was given too much space a few yards outside the box and fired in a shot which took a wicked deflection off Bould. Seaman was already going the other way so reacted brilliantly to change direction and get down to push out the shot. Davies got on the end of the rebound, but under pressure from Keown sliced his shot from an acute angle well wide. Soon after that the match started to turn a bit nasty. Sherwood and Vieira contested a 50-50 ball a few yards outside the Arsenal area, and then Sutton lunged in two-footed on Bould as they both went for the loose ball. Sutton was rightly booked and Vieira and Sherwood both needed treatment, the latter having to go off for stitches in a shin gash. The initial tackle though fullblooded on both sides, seemed fair enough to me, though having now seen it on video I'm not convinced Sherwood didn't make a secondary movement to stud Vieira's knee. He was back on the field when Blackburn managed to pull a goal back a few minutes later. Duff turned on a throw-in on the Blackburn left near the goal line, and whipped in a cross which Petit half hooked away as he faced his own goal. The ball rather fortuitously landed right on the head of Johnson about 10 yards out at the far post, and he reacted well to guide it just inside the post. Blackburn now redoubled their efforts, and in Sherwood's case went much too far in their fight for an equaliser. Vieira went to ground to hook away a loose ball in the middle of the park and the Blackburn captain quite deliberately jumped on the Frenchman's right leg with both feet. It was a shocking foul, but presumably the ref didn't have a good view because he only booked Sherwood when a red card would have been entirely justified. Vieira commendably didn't appear to attempt any sort of retribution, though he was booked after losing his temper with the ref after Bould had been penalised for a challenge from behind on Sutton. He seemed intent on talking himself into a red card, but fortunately Keown made sensible and strenuous efforts to shut him up, going as far as to put his hand over Vieira's mouth. Sutton put the free kick into Seaman's arms from 25 yards. Blackburn did get the ball into the net about 10 minutes from time, and Ewood Park exploded, but the whistle had gone moments before as Davies had been clearly pulling Keown back as they chased a long ball into the box. However, Blackburn were clearly aggrieved and as the match moved into injury time Sutton's frustration boiled over and he committed another recklessly violent tackle on Vieira. This time the ref did pull the red card straight out. Apparently Sutton had just had his nose broken in an aerial challenge but it happened just in front of me and seemed to me to be accidental. In the meantime at the other end Arsenal could have made the game safe as Anelka twice broke away with only Flowers to beat. First a pass from Bergkamp I think, released him down the inside left channel, but Flowers brilliantly fingertipped his shot over the bar. Then Ljungberg sent him away down the right, but from an angle this time he pulled his shot across the keeper and narrowly wide of the far post. Blackburn exerted some heavy pressure in the final 10 minutes, but apart from a couple of corners didn't managed to seriously threaten Seaman's goal, and after Sutton's sending off Arsenal comfortably saw off the five minutes of injury time. Overall a pretty satisfactory result, though perhaps a slightly fortunate one, as when they stuck to football Blackburn probably deserved a draw. However, taking into account Sherwood and Sutton's vicious behaviour I can't help feeling they got exactly what they deserved. In defence and midfield it was a solid performance from Arsenal, but in attack I think we are still someway below par.
Seaman 7.5 One terrific save, one dodgy punch, but otherwise
competent and untroubled.
Dixon 7.5 Had a pretty solid game all round.
Bould 8.0 As reliable as ever.
Keown 8.0 Ditto, and did well to restrain Vieira from further
dissent.
Winterburn 7.5 Typically solid and industrious.
Ljungberg 7.0 Fairly quiet first half, but got better in the 2nd as
Blackburn left more space at the back.
Vieira 7.5 As commanding in midfield as usual, and commendably
didn't react to the provocation.
Petit 8.0 Another great all round game, covering everywhere.
Overmars 6.0 Not sure this wasn't he worst I've seen him play for
Arsenal. Even his control was poor.
Anelka 7.0 A great goal though his 2nd half finishing perhaps left
something to be desired.
Bergkamp 6.5 Disappointing overall again. One or two nice touches
and he did some running around, but still nowhere near
his form of last season.
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