Arsenal (0) 0 - 1 (0) RCWembley. Wednesday 25th November 1998. kick-off 7.45UEFA Champions LeagueReports in so far: Rupe, Derek, Paul.Preview
Arsenal (0) 0 - 1 (0) RCWembley. Wednesday 25th November 1998. kick-off 7.45UEFA Champions League
Arsenal:
Seaman
Dixon Adams (Bould h-t) Keown Winterburn
Parlour Hughes Garde (Vivas) Overmars
Wreh (Boa Morte) Anelka
A very disapppointing end to our European hopes this season. This loss
measn we're out of the competition, since both Lens and Kiev are
3 points ahead, with 1 to play (against each other).
Dynamo beat Panathinaikos tonight
(see Champs League
page for full results and table). So even if we could reach
8 points,
which wouldn't be enough to clinch a best-runners-up spot, we
can't finish higher than 3rd, since both Kiev and Lens beat us
over the 2 matches. So now we go to Greece with the result
mattering to neither team. I guess there's points mean
prizes in this competition, so maybe we won't be playing
a reserve side in this one. But don't go betting on
Bergkamp to bother with the 2 day train journey!
What of today? Well, it's hard to fault the defence. I'll have to watch the video before judging how come the goal scorer was in so much space when the cross-shot made it through to him towards the end, and apart from that they did alright, and Seaman had to make a couple of good saves. But in front of the defence things were, frankly, awful. Hughes did alright, to be fair, but Parlour and Overmars did not, and if teams containing the likes of Wreh Anelka Garde and (later) Boa Morte are to do well in these big matches players like Parlour and Overmars have to lead the way. Anelka was his customary self, getting in good positions but failing to convert from (m)any of them. He and Wreh missed a few good opportunities. I guess you could look at the chances we created and say it could so easily have gone the other way. But Arsenal were giving the ball away too much, giving Lens too much space and generally hassling them too little, and failing to provide options for each other. At the end of the day Lens simply deserved it more. I don't know much about the 2 sendings off apart from what I heard on the radio. Parlour desrved to go for punching his marker in the face, apparently, but the other guy was only booked when the radio comms reckoned he should have gone too for elbowing in the initial incident. As the free-kick was taken Dixon (?) went down in the centre circle and after consulting the linesman the ref sent the striker Vairelles off. The radio comms had just made him man of the match. If the bobbles from the poor pitch didn't help, it only went to reinforce the feeling that the move to Wembley was, in footballing terms, a complete disaster. Not only is the pitch not as good, and different to what our players are used to, but the atmosphere is very poor compared to Highbury, and the opposition are always really up for playing at Wembley. And because of the ludicrously cheap prices, it won't have helped as much towards the cost of a Shearer/Fowler/etc as it might (just kidding). This was the first home European match I've been able to get to this year, and I had to get all that off my chest :-). Finally, Dark blue shirts and white shorts? Yuk.
Result : Arsenal (0) 0 Lens (0) 1
Scorers: Debeve 72
Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon, Winterburn, Adams, Keown; Garde, Hughes,
Parlour, Overmars; Wreh, Anelka
Subs: Bould (Adams h-t), Vivas (Garde 67), Boa Morte (Wreh 67),
Grimandi, Mendez, Upson, Manninger
Sent off: Parlour (90 violent conduct)
Lens: Warmuz, Sikora, Lachor, Magnier, Rool, Debeve, Nyarko,
Vairelles, Dehu, Smicer, Nouma
Subs: Eloi (Nouma 59), Moreira (Smicer 80), Marichez,
Wagneau, Vivian Foe, Meride, Sankhare, Diop
Booked: Rool
Sent Off: Vairelles (90 violent conduct)
Att: 73707
Ref: Anders Frisk (Sweden)
Another night of frustration and disappointment at Wembley as Arsenal
failed to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions' Cup. A team
lacking 3 of it's most influential players couldn't find enough quality
in reserve to overcome the French champions who deserved their victory,
even though it came via an offside goal. After a fairly even first half
in which both sides missed a number of good chances, Lens had much the
better of the second which ended with both teams having a player sent
off.
It was Lens who settled first as Arsenal seemed to take a couple of minutes to get used to finding each other in the unfamiliar navy blue shirts. The visitors caused some early problems for the Gunners' defence, but in fact it was Arsenal who had the best early chance. Dixon found Parlour in some space on the right and he whipped in a cross which eluded a defender in the middle and fell to Wreh near the penalty spot. His chest control wasn't perfect but he still had a chance to get in a shot but snatched at it and the ball dribbled harmlessly through to the keeper. Arsenal proceeded to have much the better of the next 20 minutes or so. Probably their best chance of the half came when Hughes slid in to win a tackle in midfield and the ball fell to Wreh. He released Anelka with a good early pass which set up the young striker with a good chance running into the box. With space to his left though he chose to hit an early shot with the outside of his right foot which went over the bar. Wreh was again involved when he touched the ball through on the right to send Overmars clear. With Anelka unmarked in the middle and only one defender cover it just needed an accurate square pass but Overmars put it too close to the keeper and allowed Warmuz to make a good saving interception. Midway through the half Lens started coming back into it, and had an equally good chance when Vairelles got away down the right and cut the ball back for Nouma, but running in unmarked the striker put his shot from about 10 yards straight at Seaman. Seaman made a great save later in the half when some clever linkup play between the Lens forwards set up Smicer with a chance from just outside the area. He hit a tremendous shot but Seaman was equal to it, diving to his right to pull of a superb save. At the other end Arsenal's attacking play was less convincing but they still managed to make some good chances. Wreh again released Anelka, hooking a pass forward to send the Frenchman racing clear from the halfway line. Warmuz anticipated well though and came racing out of his area. Anelka still beat him to the ball, but the keeper threw himself desperately in the way and was rather lucky to stop the ball with his legs, and he got up to complete the clearance. Other good Arsenal positions came when Wreh again sent Overmars clear down the left. A defender made a good tackle to stop his attempt to get to the byline but Winterburn was following up and sent over a cross which found Parlour in the middle, but he got under the ball and his header sailed over the bar. Then Hughes went on a good run down the right and got past a defender to run in unchallenged along the byline, but his attempt to chip over a cross with the outside of his left foot was just intercepted by the keeper again. Arsenal lost another key player at half time, Adams succumbing to a recurring back injury and Bould taking over his position and captain's armband. And early on Lens almost took advantage when Bould's slowness coming out played Smicer onside and the Czech ran clear down the left. His low cross nutmegged Bould as he came across to cover and fell to Nouma on the 6yd line, but fortunately he put his shot over the bar as Winterburn belatedly lunged in. Lens were now causing more and more problems for the Arsenal back line, while in contrast the Gunners were struggling to produce much at the other end. They did go close when Keown got a head to Hughes' near post corner, but Warmuz made another great save, palming the ball off Wreh's head as he followed in at the back post. However, the greater alarms were at the other end. Eloi replaced Nouma after an hour and almost got through a couple of times, Keown stopping him with some superb defending on one occasion. Another concerted Lens attack ended with Vairelles being set up with a chance from just outside the box, but Seaman was again equal to his snap shot and did well to prevent the ball getting away from him for Eloi following in. Midway through the half Arsenal replaced Garde and Wreh with Vivas and Boa Morte. Parlour moved into the middle with Vivas going wide right, and Overmars also moved into the middle in support of Anelka with Boa Morte taking his place on the right. The change almost had an immediate effect as Overmars finally made an impact, a wriggling run into the box from the left setting up Parlour for a shot from the edge of the box. He struck it well but too close to the keeper, and Warmuz made another good save. Five minutes later Lens finally made the breakthrough, courtesy of some poor defending and a neglectful linesman. Bould stretched to get a head to a long ball in from the left which he could have left, and the ball fell to a Lens player about 20 yards outside the box. From his pass forward the ball pinged about on the 18yd line and Dixon's hurried clearance went to Smicer. He dribbled into the area, fooled Dixon with a turn, feinting to cut inside but going outside before cutting the ball back along the 6yd line. Eloi was clearly a good couple of yards offside in the middle, but the ball passed him by and reached Debeve at the far post. The TV replay showed he was also just offside but the linesman kept his flag down and Debeve tapped into the net. That was pretty much it, Arsenal's Champions League hopes gone. Boa Morte had a chance when he chased a ball over the top by Winterburn I think, but with the keeper off his line the young winger seemed caught in two minds between hitting an early shot or taking the ball on, and he ended up woefully miscontrolling and the ball rolled harmlessly away from him. The Gunners continued to labour manfully away for an equaliser, throwing Bould forward for the last 5-10 minutes, but only really made one chance. That though was a good one - Dixon hit a long ball foward which Bould and a defender challenged for just outside the area. It eluded both though, and also bounced over the head of another defender to fall to Overmars lurking behind. With the keeper exposed Overmars tried to volley a lob over him but didn't get enough height on it and Warmuz made another good save. As the game drifted into injury time, Parlour's frustration got the better of him and he hit and kicked out at Rool as the Lens hard man wrestled with him as Parlour tried to get past him down the right for a return pass. The ref rightly sent Parlour off and booked Rool who was lucky not to have been booked earlier after a series of run-ins with Parlour and Dixon. Before play restarted Dixon collapsed to the ground after brushing past Vairelles, apparently winded from an elbow to the solar plexus. After order had been restored following a minor scrum the ref sent off Vairelles as well. Desperately disappointing overall, though not entirely unexpected. Any team is going to struggle after having it's spine ripped out. Bergkamp, Petit and Vieira were definitely missed, but it wasn't just their replacements who struggled. The team as a whole seemed to lack confidence and touch.
Seaman 7.5 Pretty solid and made 2 or 3 very good saves.
Dixon 6.5 Partly to blame for the goal, but otherwise didn't
have a bad game. Made one suberb goalsaving block.
Winterburn 6.5 His usual committed self though he seems more prone
to defensive uncertainty this season.
Keown 7.5 Had a pretty good game defensively.
Adams 7.0 I think we probably missed his motivating in the
2nd half.
Bould 6.5 Did a reasonable job in Adams' place, and tried his
hardest as centre forward in the final few minutes.
Hughes 6.5 Didn't play all that badly but his tactical awareness
defensively is nowhere near matching Petit & Vieira.
I also think he tends to be overawed in big matches -
in the league cup games he was much more assertive.
Garde 5.5 Struggled again at Wembley.
Parlour 6.0 Another poor game, almost back to his pre-Wenger days.
Overmars 6.0 Also had another ineffectual game, only really created
anything once.
Anelka 6.0 Probably his worst game this season.
Wreh 6.5 Apart from missing that early chance I thought he had
quite a good game, in the 1st half anway. In fact
looking back he set up most of our best chances. I
reckon he's a better player than he looks, if that
makes sense.
Boa Morte A trier, but a headless trier.
Vivas Didn't see a great deal of the ball, but mixed when he
did. A couple of good runs, a couple of poor passes.
Derek
Blue Is Not The Colour..... For the first time in years (over 20), I actually left a match early, thoroughly disgusted at what I had been forced to endure for 83 minutes. Judging by the thousands of others who joined my brother and I down the Wembley staircases before the fireworks at the final whistle went off, I was not alone in feeling despondent about the prospects for the rest of this season. As far as I was concerned the first bad omen for the evening was as the teams lined up in front of the Twin Towers - we were wearing BLUE. How the hell can Arsenal Football Club be expected to wear colours unassociated with our tradition and history for such an important match. There was an element of stunned silence around our section as we wondered for a moment whether it was the rubbish from White Hart Lane lining up in front of us rather than our beloved Gooners. I have very good connections at the famous sportswear company who produce our kit and I have been assured today that it is the Club who decide on the 3rd strip colour scheme. Mr Dein, you should be ashamed of yourself, whatever UEFA forced us into. The second bad omen was watching Adams take every opportunity to stretch his obviously aching body during the first half. It was pretty obvious that he was in some discomfort and it was no real surprise to me that he did not reappear for the second period. Even though Uncle Bouldy is a more than adequate replacement, Tone is the ultimate 'Mr Motivator' when the going gets tough. Even though it is sour grapes, Wenger has a valid point when he states that we have had miserable luck with injuries and suspensions during the European campaign. But, and it is a big but, our squad is just not good enough to cope with the demands of the Premier League, never mind the Champions League ! I have a real fear about the run in to Christmas, arguably our traditional 'bad' time in any season. Patrick and Manu are both out for a month, Dennis needs to be sent to the South of France to see the guy who fixed Adams last season, Overmars looks disinterested, Parlour's game has gone completely....shall I continue ? All the pressure to score rests firmly on young Anelka's shoulders, and the pressure is beginning to show. A quick glance at the understudies scares me even more. Boa Morte has to be the worst £3.5m spent by anybody - he is the ultimate waste of space. Have you noticed the way he makes the sign of the cross before he goes onto the pitch and when he comes off. He truly needs divine intervention. If I was a practising Catholic I would say a prayer - not for him to improve but for him to leave. Garde does a honest job but is simply not good enough for a Championship winning club. Wreh gives 110% but either needs a long run in the side (he might just get one soon !) or needs to be given extra shooting practice ! Vivas only seems able to carry out vicious two footed tackles on the opposition and very little else. But the one that scares me the most is Hughes. He has just been handed a very juicy 5 year contract, paying in excess of £12k per week. He has been moaning recently about his lack of first team opportunities. This kid has a superb left foot, but what does he do with it - play the simple pass every time. At the moment he does not appear to have the desire, or I am sad to say, the ability to play for the first team. He will have the chance to stake his claim in the next four or five games - he had better take his chance. I have to admit I feel distinctly uncomfortable about lots of things at the moment. I'll list them for you all so you can agree or disagree with me. Media Group Merger Talks What exactly is going on here ? The Carlton link seems to have gone cold - why ? Are we being bought out, or is it just a cash injection ? We need to be told. Wenger Contract Extension Why hasn't he signed ? Will he ever sign this extension - I bloody well hope so ! New Stadium What is the latest on this ? In my humble opinion no news is bad news on this topic. If we were to move to Wembley permanently it would be a massive mistake. I am sure we would all agree that the Wembley 'experiment' has been an absolute disaster. All it has done, apart from raise a s**t load of money, is to inspire the opposition, both players and fans, to a higher performance level than our own. If I had the choice of packing 35000 GENUINE supporters into Highbury, or having to share with casual supporters in the Wembley mortuary, guess which one I would choose ? New Players Where are they ? We badly need an injection of new blood. Ljundberg is a quality acquisition, but he was purchased too late to play in Europe - what a shame. Anelka needs someone next to him who can take some of the burden off his young shoulders. If he cannot take a bit of competition, sell him, it's as simple as that. My worry is that our well founded principles of not being held to financial ransom over player purchases is going to crucify us in the long run as well as the short to medium term. It is getting to the stage where that particular bullet has to be bitten. The Chairman's call for other clubs to oppose the silly money deals has been ignored. Since that interview was given, Dublin and Ferguson have moved clubs in big money deals. We are being rapidly left behind in the market, and now that our need is more acute, the price inflation will accelerate further. Being a realist, I believe that last night's defeat does contain a silver lining....
* We don't have to return to that tip called Wembley for a while
(Hopefully in May !) I had a lot to get off my chest today and I am sure that I'm not the only one. Until next time...... (Just about) Keep(ing) the faith ! Other reports
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