Five Reasons Why Arsenal Can Win In Barcelona
by Myles Palmer
MORE FEATURES
THE ARSENAL AGM - FULL WRITE UP
FIVE REASONS: ARSENAL COULD WIN IN BARCELONA
CARLTON AND ITV UPSET US AGAIN
JEKYLL AND HYDE PLAY THE NOU CAMP
Because Arsenal have the meanest defence in the world
Tony Adams, back to his authoritative best and fittest, is the inspiring organiser of the finest defence in club football. Arsenal did not keep one clean sheet in six games against Lens, Kiev and Panathinaikos, but they kept one against Fiorentina.
Martin Keown is a big, ferocious, experienced stopper, the kind of defender needed to subdue awkward, lanky opponents like Patrick Kluivert and Rivaldo. Keown miskicked a crucial clearance against Solna, and was short with a headed backpass against Watford, creating a 50-50 between Manninger and Smart in which the keeper was injured. Nobody is perfect.
Keown will be pumped up for the Nou Camp and knows there will be plenty to keep him busy. Nigel Winterburn is one of the defenders of the century, a Gunners legend, a far superior left back to Kenny Sansom, who won 86 caps for England.
Because Barcelona have often been beaten by British clubs
These clubs include Dundee United.
Because Suker knows how to score in the Nou Camp
Suker knows Spanish football, and has scored there for Seville and Real Madrid.
The Croatian says he will be motivated by the hostile reception which awaits him.
He has a point to prove to Real Madrid coach John Toshack and the Spanish football public.
If the Catalan crowd jeers Suker it is because they are afraid he will score.
Because our Dutchmen want to beat Barcelona's Dutchmen and show that Arsenal are better than Manchester United
Barcelona have the De Boer brothers, Cocu, Kluivert, Reiziger, Bogarde and Zenden. But they don't have the best two Dutch players, Davids and Seedorf.
Overmars is due a good game. He has been dismal this season. He now has so many shots over the bar that he is almost as bad as Ginola was two years ago. I call him Marc Overbars.
Bergkamp is the most strategic striker in football today. He mostly plays deep, coming off his marker to find spaces where he can get the ball, turn and play killer passes.
He is calculating, penetrating, elegant, giving shape to the attack. When Bergkamp is not there, as against Watford, they often struggle.
Kanu is an improvisational genius who cannot give shape to the attack in the same way because he does different things all the time.
Bergkamp does the same things, so the other players can read him much more easily. When Bergkamp is good, he is a world class player. But he is often ordinary.
However, he has a big match temperament. Generally speaking, the bigger the game, the more likely he is to produce a performance. But not always: he was hopeless in the World Cup semi-final against Brazil.
Dennis Bergkamp is bigger, stronger and faster than Frank De Boer and Abelardo. If he plays like he did against Manchester United in those FA Cup semi-finals, Arsenal can win.
If he plays like he did against Brazil, they will draw or lose.
Because Arsene Wenger creates more harmony than Louis van Gaal
Wenger generates peace and goodwill where van Gaal often creates confrontation, falling out with his stars.
So the Arsenal players think the world of Wenger. Each of them owes him a lot, and each owes him something different.
He has a lot of faith in them, and they have a lot of faith in him. On Sky's Sunday morning goals ,and chat show Brian Woolnough and Chris Kamara reckoned that Wenger doesn't know his best team.
That is rubbish. He knows his best team.They don't, but he does!
The Nou Camp is a fascinating test of nerve for Wenger, a manager who gambles by signing footballers with baggage, players whose careers are stalled, players with medical question marks against their names.
Wenger signed Overmars, the wonder winger who came back from a career-threatening knee injury. Kanu, after a heart operation. Suker, a Real Madrid reject. Petit, a Monaco full back he turned into a World Cup-winning midfielder. Vieira, an unknown AC Milan squad player. Anelka, a teenage nobody at Paris St Germain. Thierry Henry, a flop at Juventus.
Here is the team I think Wenger will start: Manninger; Dixon, Keown, Adams,Winterburn; Parlour, Grimandi, Vieira, Overmars; Bergkamp, Suker.
But I would pick the side that played Fiorentina off the field in the 0-0 draw 12 days ago.that was: Manninger; Luzhny, Keown, Adams, Winterburn; Ljungberg, Grimandi, Viera,Overmars; Bergkamp, Suker.
I think Arsenal need Luzhny's pace, strength and accurate passing.
Wenger started Luzhny in the Fiorentia game because Dixon was suspended. He was alway going to start Luzhny in that game. He knew that before he signed him.
Luzhny was superb in Florence, apparently - I only saw highlights. Luzhny was also magnificent for the Ukraine in their 0-0 draw with France. His defending, overlaps and passing were exceptional.
Against Watford, in a good team performance, Luzhny was Arsenal's best player, although Adams and Silvinho were also superb.
It was Luzhny's laser-guided long throw which won the match in the 86th minute by landing on Kanu's thigh. The Nigerian's turn and shot did the rest.
Arsenal need to score first and hang on.
Since Ljungberg is more skilful than Parlour, and a more reliable goalscorer, I would start him.
Later on, if Arsenal are winning, I replace him with Parlour, whose running power will be vital against athletes like Sergi, Rivaldo and Luis Enrique.
What if Grimandi is not fit after that injury against Solna last Wednesday night? Would Wenger play Silvinho in Petit's position? Yes.
The Brazilian is so quick to the ball, and so quick to recover, that he can compensate for his lack of positional discipline. He is also comfortable hugging the touchline, so he can he can interchange with Overmars.
Silvinho has the potential to be an outstanding left back, but in the meantime he may be needed to help subdue Figo.
But I'm sure Wenger will start Parlour, even though he looked rusty against Watford after missing three games. Parlour will be looking forward to the Nou Camp. A big -hearted player, this is the kind of challenge he relishes.
As Graeme Souness once said during a Liverpool campaign in Europe - these are the matches you live for.
In the Sunday Times Brian Glanville has informed Mr Wenger that Alaves beat Barca last 2-1 last week by pressing and man-marking Rivaldo.
But Wenger told the daily reporters that Barcelona have so many stars that you have to defend collectively. Wenger does not like man-marking opponents.
If it was a semi-final, he might do it, I think.
Mostly, he wants his players to focus on their own normal game, wants them to keep doing the things that won previous trophies, things that got them into the Champions League. Although, of course, every time you go up into a higher level of competition, you have to lean more and deliver more, individually and collectively. You have to raise your game, your concentration, you determination.
I believe Arsenal can do that, even though they failed to score against Fiorentina, who were hammered 4-2 by Barcelona.
Having said all that, Barcelona is a daunting task against a phenomenal team who want to win the European Cup in their Centenary Year.
They are Spanish Champions who have flopped in the Champions League first round in 1997 and 1998.
Rivaldo is tall, strong, durable, awkward and very good in the air. He can hurt you with an early cross or a 30-yard shot or a free-kick over the wall.
He seems to be scoring more and more goals from inside the penalty area these days. He knocks them in from ten yards after playing one-twos, or chests a cross and hooks in an overhead volley.
Rivaldo is, in fact, the world finest player, ahead of Vieri, Veron, Desailles, Ronald De Boer, Zidane, Ronaldo and Batistuta.
He is more dangerous than them because he can win matches with dribbles, passes, shots, headers, crosses and free-kicks. But he is only flesh and blood.
Rivaldo looked jaded against Betis on Saturday, and he can be stopped by tight marking and tough, fair tackling.
Louis Figo is my No.1 favourite player, a model of sportsmanship and athleticism. The only right winger who can come inside Roberto Carlos and score with a left foot shot into the far corner, or come inside and win a penalty off the Brazilian.
Bobby Robson believes that Figo, whom he first coached at Sporting Lisbon, is everything that a footballer can be and should be.
Playing for a huge Spanish club, with a Dutch coach, in a team with six Dutch players, a Portuguese is the captain. That tells you a lot. That tells you that Figo is a helluva footballer and a very special man. An intelligent and very fit athlete with a calm, stable temperament.
Figo can cross beautifully, dribble productively, score occasionally, and keep his head in pressure situations. The way he scored the first goal against Fiorentina was superb : a bold run into the box, a killer shot low inside the near post. Sheer class.
Figo is a great footballer, Beckham is only half a great footballer.
I won't go through the team, it would take too long. Oh well, if you insist !
Ruud Hesp, plucked from unfancied Roda JC by van Gaal, has proved an excellent keeper, displacing Vitor Baia, whom he understudied.
Hesp occasionally has aberrations. On Saturday he picked up a deflected backpass, and the ref rather generously gave Real Betis an indirect free-kick, which was played square to Czech right back Karan, who scored.
Hesp, unaccountably, moved suddenly forward, giving himself no chance to dive for the shot. He seemed to over-react to his original error, as many keepers do.
Sergi is a chunky powerhouse, almost a Spanish Winterburn, and there is no higher praise than that. Sergi's flying flank work was brutally interrupted in Euro 96 by a Gary Neville assault which deserved a red card.
Guardiola is a cool half back who spreads the play neatly to either flank and always seems to have time on the ball.
Frank De Boer hits magnificent long passes and does well in the air for someone his size.
Luis Enrique is brave and skilful, an honest and box-to-box player whom I admire hugely. Sparks will fly when he competes with Patrick Vieira, a £35 million gladiator who has not played a big game in Spain until now.
Cocu is a brainy left-footed technician, and Kluivert a very strong target man who can head powerfully and volley accurately.
Dani is a scalpel-sharp supersub who sniffs out scoring positions like Greaves, Law, Fowler or Inzaghi. His precise and penetrating touch play also reminds me of the German Klaus Allofs, an attacking midfield player of sublime balance and stealth. Dani looks like an instinctive space-finder, although he might be a striker who thinks his game through run by run and kick by kick, as Lineker did. Either way, Dani ghosts into scoring positions and picks up all kinds of goals. Near post, far post, headers, rebounds. He can also zoom onto through balls and finish one-one-one, as he did with that brilliant goal for Mallorca against Chelsea last season.
Offensively, Barcelona are very strong in the air. Kluivert, Luis Enrique, Rivaldo, centreback Abelardo and Dani can all score with headers.
Against Betis on Saturday, Dani scored a hat-trick in seven minutes either side of half-time and had a shot kicked off the line in the 89th minute.
Arsenal took a lot more out of themselves beating Watford 1-0 on Saturday afternoon than Real Madrid did in beating Real Betis 4-1 on Saturday night.
Barca were winning 2-1 at half-time, played against ten men in the second half.
Johann Cruyff is the most attacking coach in the world, and he always played entertaining football when he was in charge at Barcelona. They won the European Cup at Wembley beating Sampdoria 1-0 in a match I saw.
Cruyffs influence remains because he set standards of entertainment and style. The Barcelona of today are still an attacking team who give you a chance. So there you have it. Barcelona v Arsenal is one of the most exciting fixtures in the September football calendar.
Most of the big clubs rested their stars before their third Champions League game.
Milan rested Shevchenko on Saturday. Barcelona rested Figo, Kluivert and Cocu against Betis, and took Rivaldo off after 56 minutes, which shows that they expect a hard game.
Arsenal rested both full backs and both strikers and beat Watford 1-0, but only after Suker and Bergkamp had come on as subs.
If Barcelona beat Arsenal on Wednesday they will have nine points from three games, and will walk the group.
They will also be taking the pressure off their visit to Wembley a week later.
It would have been nice to have Manu Petit back because he adds so much power and balance to the team.
Vieira and Petit together are worth three players, so Arsenal are like a 12-man team when they are together.
If Petit was there, Wenger might have started Thierry Henry on the right wing and attacked right from the kick-off.
But Arsenal can still win in Barcelona if they play out of their skins and have the luck that Manchester United had when Schmeichel flattened Zamarano and when Simeone's headed goal was disallowed for a tiny push by another Inter Milan player.
Bottom line? The two most important players on the field will be the referee and Davor Suker.
Sunday 26th September 1999