Aston_Villa (0) 1 - 1 (0) ArsenalVilla Park, Sunday 5th March 2000. kick-off 3pmFA Carling PremiershipPreview
Aston_Villa (0) 1 - 1 (0) ArsenalVilla Park, Sunday 5th March 2000. kick-off 3pmFA Carling Premiership
scorers: Walker 63 Dixon 84
Arsenal:
Seaman
Dixon (c) Keown Grimandi (Luzhny) Silvinho
Parlour Vieira Petit (Winterburn) Henry
Bergkamp (Overmars) Kanu
A very disappointing performance following Thursday's
heroics. It seems clear that some members of the squad
are now focussing on the UEFA Cup. Unfortunately a
Champions League place for next season is very much in the
balance, with Chelsea now above both us and Liverpool in
3rd, so days like this simply are not acceptable.
Having said that, the game also showed that at times like these there's no-one quite like our old guard. Dixon's captaincy and his second goal in 2 games, together with the added drive introduced to the team when Winterburn replaced the petulant Petit in midfield, showed that when the chips are down there's no-one quite like Grandad. Villa were at us from the start. If it weren't for Wright's poor finishing we'd have been behind after a minute or so. He tried a volley from Delaney's cross from the right, but couldn't keep it down. Then Merson hit the first of many through balls for Joachim to run onto, but this time it was too strong and came through to Seaman. Shortly after, he tried it again on the break, and we were lucky that the offside flag was shown (against someone apparently running back in the centre, rather than against Joachim himself. Villa wwere working on their right hand side, presumably figuring that Parlour and Dixon were a better force defensively on the other side, than Silvinho and Henry on our left. Seaman made a good stop as Joachim tried to go round him. One-on-one, and with plenty of space, the striker should have used his pace by pushing the ball wide round the keeper. But he went too clsoe to Seaman. It was a good stop, but the keeper should never have had the chance. Seaman saved again from Joachim after Richard Walker's flick-on had put Dixon is a bit of a muddle. The ball squirmed through under him and put Joachim clear on Seaman again. Again, we were lucky he placed the very good chance so close to Seaman. We had a few chances, with the keeper Enkelman making a save at the second attempt, and diving one time at the feet of a rather indecisive Henry. He easily dropped onto a Bergkamp shot along the ground and Henry tried a daft on from 35 yards. Villa had a good game plan, defending deep so as not to allow space behind for Henry to run into, oft forcing (tempting?) Arsenal into these efforts from distance. At half time Overmars came on for Bergkamp and shortly after Grimandi was replaced by Luzhny. Given that neither of the departing players will be used on Thursday, there is no immediate panic. But panic did set in when Villa took a well deserved lead with 25 minutes to go. Overamsr gave away a daft (unecessary) free-kick by the corner flag, Merson curled int onto the box, and 22 year old Walker rose to head home at the far post, his first senior goal for Villa. Petit, who had had one of his more lacklustre games, was brought off apparently at his own insistence. He'd been booked and was clearly not enjoying himself. I guess that sometimes it makes sense to leave a player like that on rather than acceded to his request. But when he's not contributing, and looks likely to get himself sent off, then for the sake of the team it's better to bring someone else on. Wenger has said something publicly about Petit being "tired" but surely it's only babies that get what they want just cos they're tired? Hopefully he'll say something in private to the player about how he's expected to earn his not inconsiderable wages. Anyway, it was a blessing, as Winterburn was brought on. Perhaps surprisingly he was brought on as a straight replacement, with Silvinho staying at left-back. But it made perfect sense as it gave Winterburn's drive the chance to affect things more. In the end though it was the other full-back whose drive got the equaliser. He went roaring upfield, taking a pass from Kanu in his stride and bursting into the box. He careered past a couple of defenders and poked the ball through Enkelman from the 6 yard line. For the remaining 6 minutes Arsenal wernt for it a bit and hopes were raised of a repeat of Stamford Bridge earlier this season. But lightning didn't strike again, and to be frank we were very lucky to get a point out of this. Chelsea's win at Newcastle takes them into 3rd above us and Liverpool (see table), so there are now going to be 3 teams battling for the 3rd Champs League place.
Result : Aston Villa (0) 1 Arsenal (0) 1
Scorers: Walker 62 Dixon 84
Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon, Silvinho, Keown, Grimandi; Petit,
Vieira, Parlour; Bergkamp, Henry, Kanu
Subs: Overmars (Bergkamp h-t), Luzhny (Grimandi 50),
Winterburn (Petit 73), Ljungberg, Manninger
Booked: Petit
Villa: Enckelman, Ehiogu, Southgate, Barry, Delaney, Wright,
Taylor, Stone, Merson, Joachim, Walker
Subs: Hendrie (Walker 81), Watson, Bartelt, Samuel, Curtolo
Att: 36930
Ref: Graham Poll (Tring)
Yet another disappointing performance away from home by Arsenal, though
to be fair one could mention mitigating circumstances such as something
of a mental and physical hangover from the high of Thursday's UEFA cup
game, and the fact that Villa are a team in form having lost only once
in their last 17 games.
It was a rather strange game overall. Wenger tried what one assumes was a tactical ploy designed to overcome Villa's 3 man central defence by playing Kanu and Bergkamp off Henry as a central striker, and Vieira, Petit and Parlour as a narrow midfield trio. The main upshot was to confuse the players as much as everyone else, as it left Arsenal looking rather lopsided with a definite list to the right, as large gaps were left on the Gunners' left flank early on. Added to that, Villa's response was to treat the game as an away fixture and for most of the first half they were happy to sit back and let Arsenal have most of the ball. The home side's tactic almost worked because several times in the first half, quick breaks exposed Arsenal's defence, particularly on the left. Early on a lovely first time pass by Merson found Joachim in space on the left and his cross was deflected to Wright at the back post. Fortunately he skied his volley over the crossbar. Soon afterwards it was Stone I think who got clear down the left, but Walker under pressure from Keown, headed over. The best chance of the match came after about 15 minutes. Stone flicked a pass down the middle for Joachim to beat the offside trap and run clear. He had time and space to round Seaman, but the keeper brilliantly stuck out a hand to take the ball off his toes as he tried to do so. A few minutes later a couple of mistakes by Dixon within a minute or two gave Joachim two more chances. First Dixon completely misjudged a bouncing ball just outside his own area which allowed Joachim to nip in and leave himself with only Seaman to beat. Fortunately he put his shot too close to the keeper and allowed Seaman to make another good save. Shortly afterwards Dixon was muscled off the ball by Joachim and he cut in from the right, but put his attempt to beat Seaman at his near post into the side netting. At the other end, despite plenty of possession Arsenal struggled to create any worthwhile threat to the Villa goal. After about 25-30 minutes Wenger did abandon the 4-3-3 tactic and went back to a more orthodox 4-2-2 with Henry moving wide left to leave Kanu and Bergkamp in the middle. It did at least plug some of the gaps and stemmed the flow of chances Villa were creating on the break. However, with Bergkamp being crocked midway through the half by a nasty challenge from Stone, Arsenal still didn't create much. A run by Silvinho created probably Arsenal's best chance of the half when his pass found Bergkamp in space about 25 yards out, but the Dutch master's left foot shot though well-placed didn't have the pace to beat Enckelman. Otherwise there was a free kick from Petit which was deflected just wide, a Bergkamp pass which almost put Henry in, and a hurried dash out of goal by Enckelman which gave the ball to Dixon wide on the right hand touchline with the goal unguarded. It would have been a difficult first time shot for the most technically gifted player, so it was no surprise to see Dixon's effort drift well wide. The struggling Bergkamp was replaced at half time by Overmars, soon to be followed by Grimandi who had to limp off to be replaced by Luzhny. The first 15 minutes or so were a more even affair, neither side really getting the upper hand, but with Villa making more of an effort to get forward than they had in the first half. 20 minutes into the half, the home side took the lead. Overmars chased back to try and cover the wing back Delaney's break down the right, but clumsily conceded a free kick a few yards from the corner flag. Merson curled it in to the near post where Walker got goalside of Petit and headed past Seaman from the corner of the 6yd box. Arsenal at last now started to show a bit more urgency, though they still struggled to make any clear cut chances, and were restricted to a couple of long range shots from Vieira and Kanu which went wide. Overmars was also set up with a couple of difficult half chances from crosses in from the right by Kanu and Dixon, but both times tried to control difficult balls and they ended up bouncing away from him. At the other end Villa had another decent half-chance during something of a goalmouth scramble which I can't remember very well, but otherwise the main excitement was the booking and subsequent substitution of Petit. He responded to the yellow card by sarcastically applauding the home fans (with some justification it has to be said), and was replaced by Winterburn shortly afterwards. To add to the somewhat bizarre nature of the game, Nutty proceeded to play in central midfield, doing a remarkably good job of it. With barely 5 minutes left Arsenal at last managed to manufacture the equaliser which had seemed so unlikely for much of the preceding 85 minutes. Kanu's precise pass picked out Dixon's run into the area, and the fullback wrongfooted Barry and broke through to poke the ball past Enckelman as the keeper came out. For the last 5 minutes there was even a vague chance the Arsenal might snatch the winner. Arsenal's 2nd best chance came when Parlour's run and dinked cross from the right picked out Overmars in the middle, but he side-footed a sharp volley over the bar from about 15 yards. Pretty disappointing overall, something of a come-down after last Thursday's tour-de-force. Perhaps there was a bit of a hangover after that, so I may be a bit harsh by saying it was again typical of Arsenal's league form this season - the failure to raise the tempo in away matches against lesser teams. Merson was comfortably the best player on the pitch.
Seaman 7.5 One great save, and a couple of other competent ones.
Otherwise looked solid enough.
Dixon 6.5 Until the goal had a rather bad game, though he was
one of the ones at least trying, as you'd expect.
Silvinho 7.5 I thought he had quite a good game overall - the fact
that Villa found a lot of space down his side early on
most more down to lack of cover in front of him.
Grimandi 7.0 Probably saw more of the ball in the 1st half than
anyone, as Villa let Arsenal pass the ball about at
the back.
Keown 7.5 Had a reasonable game overall, and threw himself up
front for a few minutes during the search for the
equaliser.
Petit 6.0 Out of sorts again, though he did put in quite a lot
of work in the first half with some belated covering
on the left. 5th booking means he misses the Spurs
game.
Vieira 6.5 Had a relatively subdued game for him, apart from the
last 20 minutes or so.
Parlour 6.5 Again had a relatively poor game, despite the usual
effort.
Kanu 7.0 Looked the most likely to create something.
Bergkamp 7.0 Was working quite hard in the opening half hour or so,
though with tendency towards the whinge mode.
Henry 6.5 Also did a reasonably amount of work and running but
never quite got into the game.
Overmars 6.0 Disappointing again, though well marked by Delaney.
Luzhny 7.0 Did ok as centre half again, though not often tested.
Winterburn Never thought I'd see Nutty as a central midfielder,
but he did well and gave some much needed impetus to
the game.
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