Dutch duo will test Man United on Sunday
by Myles Palmer
Manchester United are due a win against Arsenal, but Bergkamp and Overmars might have other ideas.
The two Dutchmen looked exceptionally sharp in the 1-0 win against Blackburn on a windy Tuesday night.
Sunday's FA Cup semi-final against Roy Keane and Co at Villa Park will be close. A replay, if needed, will be on Wednesday.
Bergkamp scored the winning goal against Blackburn from a free-kick after 42 minutes. He hit the wall, as he usually does. The ball slammed into the hip of a player in the wall, and rebounded back to Bergkamp, who blasted a perfect left-foot shot into the bottom corner on the other side.
Hard to think of another Premiership player who could have buried from that rebound 22 yards out.
I remembered my friend Danny Wright, who worked for Oracle in Paris with a Dutch guy who was at school with Bergkamp. The guy said Dennis spent all his time kicking a ball against a wall !
Tuesday night's goal could only have been scored by someone who had spent half his early life kicking a ball against a wall.
Bergkamp's technique is unbelievable because he works on it all the time. He is one of the first players out on the training pitch, and the last one in. Top man!
Australian John Filan had been giving a spectacular goalkeeping performance, the best of the Highbury season so far.Especially one tipover of a blistering shot by Ray Parlour (49).
After 82 minutes, Keith Gillespie brought Dennis down in the box, got a yellow, mouthed off, and Poll gave him a red card.
I said Filan was playing well enough to save a penalty, and he did. A sidefoot shot which Filan read and stopped with his left hand. Dennis obviously didn't practice penalties against that wall in Amsterdam.
My strongest impression of the game was that Bergkamp and Overmars looked so classy and fit and hungry. They looked world class and they looked like winnners.
Bergkamp was obviously in the mood right from the kick-off. His first five touches revealed a player whose control and passing were sharp, slick, concentrated, magisterial.
When his fierce midfield tackle just caught Gillespie's boot after five minutes, referee Graham Poll had a word with him.
The Dutch aces played generously. They knew that Kaba Diawara,
who
came in for Anelka, desperately wanted to score his first goal.
So they really tried hard to set him up.
Overmars went wide more often, crossed more than he does when playing with Anelka, trying to find the big man's stronger left foot.
When a low cross aimed at Diawara was cut out by Darren Peacock, at full stretch, a big Handball! shout went up from the Clock End (11).
But it did not happen for Diawara. He shot wide. He hit the side-netting. He shot into Filan's body.
After 60 minutes, Kanu replaced him. Nigel Winterburn was magnificent. He is always magnificent. What a player! Vivas was a terrier in central midfield, very quick to the ball, using it well. He has exceptional passing ability and Wenger is grateful for his versatility. He headed brightly across the six-yard box for Adams to blaze high and wide after 20 minutes.
Vivas hit Viera with a right wing corner, but PVs near-post header was saved (50). When he crossed to Kanu, the header sailed gently towards Filan (66). Keown and Ward were booked for argy-bargy in the box after 22 minutes.
Adams and Keown had encountered Mark Hughes, the most in-your-face
striker of the last decade, in the 0-0 at Southampton on Saturday.
Now it was Chris Sutton, the second most awkward, aggressive centre
forward in English football.
After 70, Keown and Chris Sutton tangled, the whistle went for a free-kick to Arsenal, and then Keown's left arm flailed out, catching Sutton in the face. Red card. Sutton, now Blackburn's captain, is a superb striker who could still partner Michael Owen for England.
Sutton can link the play like Sheringham, bulldoze past defenders like Shearer, and nod in headers as neatly as Dublin. He looks slow, but he is a tremendous team player and target man. Always has been. George Graham always rated him, and thought he had signed him from Norwich in 1994.
Sutton blazed a foot wide (18) and burst past Tony Adams and shot well wide again (60). He did not do anything in between because Blackburn, having been decimated by injuries, look like an alehouse team who really could go down. Arsenal dominated with 20 shots against 5, and 11 on target. According to the scoreboard stats, Blackburn did not have one shot on target.
Afterwards Mr Wenger looked unusually contented during his 10-minute press conference. You can tell that he enjoys the job and gets a lot of satisfaction from it. He fielded a barrage of questions about Arsenal's disciplinary record with great aplomb.
Brian Woolnough: "A vital three points? "
Wenger: "Vital. A difficult win, and, I think, a well-deserved one. I'm pleased with our performance because we kept going, and had a great second half with 20 attempts on goal. It just shows how much we dominated.
"We couldn't, unfortunately, finish the game with a 2-0 or a 3 0 like we deserved tonight, but the spirit was high again, and we have shown that we don't give up, and keep going.
"That's very positive because we have 63 points with six games to go. Its not too bad. One point behind with one game more played. We are still there.
Myles Palmer: "Is it a high price to pay for Keown?"
Wenger:"Yes, it is a high price to pay for Keown, but he had an unfortunate reaction and had to get a yellow card."
Myles Palmer: "The whistle had already gone in his favour."
Wenger: "Yes. He knows that as well. He was a little bit nervous tonight, for personal reasons, but I think he knows that he shouldn't have reacted. It was a foul for him, but he couldn't control himself."
Mike Walters: When you say personal reasons, is that because of who was in opposition?
Wenger: "No, not at all. Off the pitch."
Myles Palmer: "Your two Dutch boys looked very sharp tonight.
Wenger: "Yes, they were sharp and it just shows they were frustrated because they couldn't play in the last game. They were physically very sharp. The two were outstanding in my opinion, Dennis and Marc, and were very important in our offensive game."
Mike Walters: "Was it the kind of game that warranted two red cards and eight yellow?"
Wenger: "The wind made it difficult, but it was the same kind
of game as Southampton. You play against a team who doesn't want
to be relegated and you expect a Cup tie, and it was one at Southampton,
and it was one
tonight again.
"We lived all the game with the idea that if we make a mistake they can come back to 1-1 and we went into this game knowing we need three points tonight. And that made it a little bit tense.
Brian Glanville: "Are you resting Anelka for Sunday?"
Wenger: "I was giving him a rest because I felt that he finished tired against Southampton. He had a very physical game against Ukraine, and one against Armenia, and I just felt he needed a rest."
Brian Woolnough: "Thats the 9th red card this season and 21 in all.
Wenger: "Yes, I'm certainly not especially proud of that. If you put them all together, it looks bad. But you cannot say that Martin Keown is a dirty player tonight. He had an outstanding game and a bad reaction and got a red card. That's added to some we deserved, and some we didn't deserve. And the number of those we didn't deserve is as high as those we did deserve.Nine divided by two is 4.5."
Brian Woolnough: "Just going back on Keown, do you think his personal problems were responsible for his reaction?"
Wenger: "I dont know. He can tell you that better than I. Its something private so I don't want to speak about it."
Brian Woolnough: "Had you thought about not playing him?"
Wenger: "No, never. Its not a big problem. But you can sometimes be upset by a small problem, even."
Mike Walters: "Martin seemed upset by a couple of flying elbows in the first half. Ward caught him with an elbow."
Wenger: "Yes, but in England, when the ball is in the air, you don't expect someone to say:'Please take the ball!' He will get an elbow somewhere, or be pushed. He knows that as well as I know it."
Another reporter: "Are you worried that youre not killing teams off?"
Wenger: "Yes, Im a little bit worried about it. But sometimes its important that you can win these kind of games. It happens to everybody. Sometimes you win these kind of games 3-0 or 4-0, and sometimes 1-0. But you have to be able to win it 1-0. And I'm very proud of the spirit we have shown tonight because we were down to 10 men with 20 minutes to go and still didn't give any goal away."
Another reporter: "Some people have criticised you, Arsene, for not being harder on your players for their disciplinary record. For defending those players who get red cards. Nine red cards is a pretty poor record , isn't it?"
Wenger: "I dont know. I don't know how it is compared to the other teams. Are we top of the league?"
Reporter: "I think its you and Blackburn."
Brian Woolnough: "How do you see the remainder of the season. Six games left. Do you have to win them all? "
Wenger: "I don"t think so. I still believe that 77 will be a good score. And the last week will be very interesting. Because everybody plays three times in the last week."
Northern reporter: "Do you think Blackburn have enough to stay in the Premiership.
Wenger: "Yes. Unfortunately, I believe that of many teams who are at the bottom. Nottingham Forest is in the most dangerous position. But apart from that everybody has the quality to still believe they can stay in it, and the quality to play in the Premier League."
Reporter: "Did you see today the PFA are in favour of automatic fines for red cards?"
Wenger: "If it comes from the union its a good idea."
Brian Woolnough: "Its after eight cards for each player."
Wenger: "Eight yellow or eight red? "(LAUGHTER)
Brian Woolnough: "Eight reds for one player? You can go for that next
season !(LAUGHTER)"
Bernard A: "Kanu has a languid style. He was particularly languid tonight. Was there any specific reason for that?
Wenger: "He had a very physical game at Southampton. To get into the pace of the game tonight was much more difficult. When he came on we were straight away down to ten men."
Reporter: Bergkamp's proving so important at the moment."
Wenger: He's the guy who creates the chances, and who finishes. Like I said many times. And I think he makes the team stronger just by his presence. Everybody feels that when Dennis plays that we can score at any moment.
Martin Keown later revealed that his seven year old son had gone
into
hospital that night for a major operation.
Ends April 7th 1999.
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