Arsenal (1) 2 - 1 (1) Preston North EndHighbury, Tuesday 12th October 1999Worthington (League) Cup 3rd roundReports to follow...Preview
Arsenal (1) 2 - 1 (1) Preston North EndHighbury, Tuesday 12th October 1999Worthington (League) Cup 3rd round
scorers: Kanu 31 Macken 39
Malz 61
Arsenal:
Seaman
Luzhny Grimandi Upson Winterburn
Parlour Vernazza (Overmars 46) Malz Silvinho
Kanu (Wreh 68) Henry
A disappointing and somewhat lucky performance, but the right
result, if you care. Not many do it seems, with a meagre 16,000
turning up for a competition which Arsenal this season have officially
downgraded. Arsène Wenger commented that the poor turn-out
reflects the attitude of the club as expressed in his team selections,
but there are other factors not least of which are the fact that those
of us with season-tickets are no longer being forced to pay for seats
at these games (a move for which the club must be applauded) together
with the fact that we're making the longer
trip to Wembley for Champions League matches almost every other week.
Perhaps Arsenal will now see fit to go a bit further and reduce the
price of tickets considerably, or make more available to the
away fans.
As for the match, Preston were as predicted, up for it. Preston had the first decent chance after a quarter of an hour when a curling free-kick had Seaman beat but just missed the outside of the post. It was another 15 minutes before we had a shot on target, with Henry producing a great piece of skill. Receiving the ball from summer signing Stefan Malz he flicked it over a defender before volleying goalwards. But it was too close to the keeper who made a decent save. But almost immediately after this we took the lead. Henry's pass split the defence, with Kanu just beating the offside trap. He bamboozled the goalie and then took his time to find a spot past the defenders who'd made it back to cover before slamming the ball home. But just before half time Preston's top scorer Jonathan Macken brought them back into it with a spectacular finish, and they kept battling away. In the second half Alex Mathie, who'd provided the pass for Macken's goal, failed to pick him out a second time having beaten the offside trap. Macken was unmarked int he centre bt Mathie's wastefulness bought Parlour and Grimandi time to get back and clear. Just 5 minutes later, Silvinho took a corner which was cleared but only as far as Malz, who struck it left-footed into the turf, but strongly enough that it bounced up and into the far corner. No record-breaking appearance for Jermaine Pennant then, with Wenger obviously caring just enough about this competition not to throw a 16 year old until we were cruising (which of course we never were). By contrast, when Kanu came off it was to be replaced by Chris Wreh (hands up who thought we'd got rid of him) and it was no great surprise when this failed to produce the spark of creativity we'd been lacking all night. Malz had a good game overall, and was the focus of Wenger's praise after the match. With Petit's continuing absence and the impending suspensions for Vieira and Grimandi, there's one more name in the hat for midfield cover places. The fact that Stephen Hughes was not even on the bench must surely say something about his chances of filling that gap...? (apparently I was wrong here - Fulham are insisting on Hughes seeing out the term of his loan, so he won't be available to us till the end of this month)
Result : Arsenal (1) 2 Preston (1) 1
Scorers: Kanu 31, Malz 61 Macken 38
Arsenal: Seaman, Luzhny, Winterburn, Grimandi, Upson, Malz, Vernazza,
Parlour, Silvinho; Kanu, Henry
Subs: Overmars (Vernazza h-t), Wreh (Kanu 68),
Pennant, Vieira, Lukic
Preston: Moilanen, Alexander, Gregan, Jackson, Edwards, McKenna,
Rankine, Macken, Cartwright, Mathie, Kidd
Subs: Eyres (McKenna 68), Gunnlaugsson (Mathie 76),
Nogan (Macken 76), Lucas, Murdock
Booked: Gregan
Att: 15239
Ref: Terry Heilbron (Newton Aycliffe)
A sparsely populated and even quieter than usual Highbury last night,
and a game to match the occasion as Arsenal scraped through against
spirited but limited 2nd division opposition in the Worthington cup. It
was fortunate that Preston took up virtually all their ticket allocation
to lend some life and noise to proceedings, because with Worthington cup
games no longer included in the deal, season ticket holders stayed away
in droves. Couldn't have been many non-season ticket holders either come
to think of it, with the total attendance just over 15000.
In fact Arsenal started off quite brightly and dominated proceedings early on. Apart from the odd tackle and block, Preston didn't touch the ball in the opening 5 minutes or so. Malz and Vernazza in midfield, both playing their 1st senior games of the season pushed forward regularly in the early stages, and both tested tested Dolph Lundgren in the Preston goal with long range shots. Midway through the half Henry produced a lovely bit of skill, flicking the ball over a defender's head and running round to leave himself with only the keeper to beat. However, he had a fairly acute angle and on his left foot he couldn't get enough power into the shot to seriously trouble the keeper. Preston were defending and chasing and harrying to good effect and as the half wore on a curious malaise gradually began to afflict Arsenal, and it seemed no player was immune. Passes started going astray, lackadaisical defending became the norm and the main tactic seemed to become hitting long, high balls to Henry which was pointless because although he won a lot of them, there was nobody to feed off his knockdowns. The visitors thus gradually gained encouragement. Alexander had Seaman scrambling across his goal with a free kick which in the end was several feet wide, and then Preston should have had a clear chance when Macken, I think, appeared to have beaten the offside trap, but the flag went up and Seaman saved the shot anyway. However, when another of Preston's occasional ventures into Arsenal's half broke down on the half hour, it was the Gunners who scored first. Henry picked up the loose ball 20 yards inside his own half and his early pass beat the offside trap and released Kanu on a clear run in on the keeper. In typical style he disdained the simple finish, took the ball round the keeper, and then checked back and left another couple of defenders on their backsides before lashing the ball high into the unguarded net. Barely seven minutes later though, the visitors equalised with something of a fluke goal. Some sloppy defending saw the ball pinging about on the edge of the Arsenal area before it eventually reached Macken in the middle. He was almost horizontal as he hit a waist high volley, and the ball sliced off the outside of his boot and looped in a perfect arc over Seaman and just under the bar to set off an explosion of delight from the other end of the ground. Preston also threatened another goal when a cross was slanted in from the left and Upson seemed unsure of how to deal with it. In the end he made a mess of his attempted clearance, the ball bounced up to hit him on the arm and then kindly back into Seaman's hands. Preston appealed half-heartedly for a penalty, backpass or both, but the ref rightly waved play on. Overmars came on for Vernazza at half time, I assumed at the time because the latter was injured though I haven't seen any reports since that confirm this. The flying Dutchman took up an advanced position wide on the right with Parlour moving into the middle alongside Malz so that Arsenal were playing more of a 4-3-3. It didn't at first appear to have much effect on the way the game was going though, as if anything Arsenal became even more disjointed. Preston could have taken the lead when Arsenal's offside trap failed again and Mathie? was put in on the right side of the area. Seaman came dashing off his line but didn't get there and Mathie, if it was he, got to the byline and cut the ball back. Parlour missed an attempt to clear but succeeded in distracting the Preston attacker in the middle, and the ball eventually bounced kindly for Grimandi to put it behind for a corner. However, Arsenal did gradually start to put some more cohesive football together. Silvinho had a couple of good runs down the left ending in crosses which only just failed to find a red shirt in the middle, and then took a corner from the right won by Overmars. It glanced off a Preston head at the near post and dropped to Malz as he lurked on the edge of the box. His left foot volley wasn't perfectly timed, but the shot was accurate and powerful enough to sneak in at the far post. Moilanen did get a faint touch which ironically deflected it past the defender guarding the post. Thereafter the game became a bit more open as Preston pressed forward. Henry curled a shot from the lefthand corner of the box onto the roof of the net, Silvinho did likewise with a 25 yard free kick, and Parlour slashed a shot wide when well placed. Malz then went on an astonishing run, dribbling in from the left past 3 or 4 players he got into the area, but with Henry and Wreh both waiting unmarked on the edge of the area, he suffered from a rush of blood to the head and decided to try and beat the rest of the Preston defence and was eventually crowded out. As the game entered the final few minutes the Arsenal defence got a bit edgy (along with me - "don't let them score, I wanna go home!"), and wasn't helped by the forwards missing two great chances to put the result beyond doubt as Preston pressed desperately for an equaliser. First Henry superbly plucked a clearance out of the air and released Wreh for a run down the left. The Liberian passed inside to Parlour who in turn passed it on for Overmars who was running in unmarked on the right. The winger's angled shot was well struck but at a convenient height for Moilanen, and the keeper made a great save. Finally, in injury time Wreh picked up another clearance in his own half and his pass was early enough to send Henry completely clear from the half way line. His second touch as he took it on at unnecessary speed was dreadful however, and allowed the keeper to come out and block. Fortunately the whistle went soon afterwards and spared us further torture. Perhaps that's being somewhat harsh because in some ways it was a makeshift team and Preston should take a lot of credit. They were pretty well organised and defended very well.
Seaman 7.0 Didn't have a great deal to do to be fair, but looked
a bit dodgy once or twice on crosses.
Winterburn 7.0 Captain for the night, plugged away manfully as ever.
Luzhny 6.5 I still feel a bit happier with old man Dixon at right
back.
Grimandi 7.0 Had a reasonable game apart from hitting too many long
hopeful balls.
Upson 6.5 The least impressive performance I've seen from him.
Had some trouble coping with the experienced Mathie.
Vernazza 7.0 Did quite well early on I thought. Not sure if he was
injured later in the half.
Malz 7.0 Looked quite a good player at times, though I thought
he wasn't aware enough. He seemed to me to tend to
receive a pass and then stop and look up before
deciding what to do next.
Parlour 6.5 Did improve as the game went on and was getting stuck
in as usual, but still looking strangely out of touch.
Silvinho 7.5 Looked the best footballer on the pitch, though even
he wasn't totally immune to the odd poor pass.
Henry 6.5 A couple of lovely touches, but otherwise didn't do
much right and became embroiled in a running argument
with a couple of Preston defenders after appearing to
elbow one of them.
Kanu 6.5 A few of the usual sublime touches, but otherwise
didn't have much joy.
Overmars 6.5 Flickered briefly on occasion.
Wreh Played one or two nice passes, but usually only after
he'd missed the chance to play a better earlier one.
Derek
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