Elleray 11 Spurs 2 Arsenal 1
by Myles Palmer
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
People who say David Elleray is a Gooner are wrong. He is not a Gooner. He is is just a bad referee who thinks he is a superstar.
Elleray is also a homer. He made sure Spurs won this game by disallowing a Kanu goal for pushing when the ball was already over the line. And by sending Ljungberg and Keown off.
Incredibly, he gave yellow cards to 11 players.
It was a strange afternoon for yours truly. The Spurs press office had blown me out, but my friend Mark Jacob had a wedding so he gave me his season ticket.
Mark's seat is a very good one, high in the Upper West Stand on the half way line, behind the huge directors box where Alan Sugar entertains half of Chigwell.
I was with Mark's Uncle Zak and cousin Adam, whom I know pretty well. And I enjoyed a superb view of an eventful match from a high angle.
The day began badly with news that Mr Wenger had picked Kanu and Bergkamp again.Why sign Suker and give him the No 9 shirt of you are not going to play him?
Suker is the only centre forward at the club.
Does Wenger think Suker is a only a 20-minute player? If the Croatian is not good enough, buy someone else before Xmas!
Last May George Graham got his game plan all wrong. He tried to press the pressers, pushing up, and Bergkamp's passes sliced their defence to shreds for a 3-1 win.
This time, without Anelka, the shape of the game was totally different. Arsenal had no pace to threaten Tottenham, and they lost the key duels.
Bergkamp could not get away from Sol Campbell, and Overmars was well contained by Stephen Carr, who is much improved.
Iversen ran in from the left for a Ginola lob over the defence and made it 1-0 after seven minutes.
Suddenly the whole West Stand jumped up and punched the air. Pandemonium. I was the only one sitting down, so I felt a bit left out, quietly scribbling in my chunky American Scholar spiral notebook, which has all my Arsenal match notes.
It seemed a very odd goal for Arsenal to concede, very untypical. It seemed years since that type of simple goal had caught out the legendary back five. But give credit to George Graham: he knows better than anybody what balls might beat them and what runs might beat them
In this game, because there was no spearhead centre firward, Bergkamp was pushing up on Sol Campbell, asking for the ball to feet, backing in, turning, beating him occasionally, but never near enough to the goal to do real damage.
After 19 minutes Petit made a suicidally stupid late tackle on Chris Armstrong, the worst striker in the Premiership, who was going nowhere and was covered by Dixon and Keown.
Petit got a yellow card, the first of the game. Spurs took a short free kick, Ginola teeing it up for Tim Sherwood, whose right foot shot went round the wall, past Seaman and into the far corner.
The best free kick of his life.
Sherwood will never do that again.
As Graham Taylor said in that memorably documentary, DO I NOT LIKE THAT!
Incredibly, Arsenal were 2-0 down in 20 minutes against Spurs. Yes, 2-0 down! Not 1-0 but 2-0! Surely this had not happened since Wembley in 1991?
Marc Overmars had been peripheral, but the game was far from over, especially as Tottenham had lost to Kaiserslautern on Thurday night. They were sure to tire in the later stages, having had two days less to recover than Arsenal, who played in Sweden on Tuesday night.
Elleray booked Justin Edinburgh for a foul on Vieira, after letting play go on for a long time while Vieira lay very still in the centre of the field.
Bergkamp beat Campbell and made a good run infield, and passed to Overmars, but his dummy didn't fool Carr, who took the ball off him.
Then came a right wing corner, an inswinger by Petit, which Kanu forced over the line as a defender tried an overhead kick on the line.
The TV replay I saw later suggested this was a very harsh decision as the ball looked over the line already.
Arsenal were pressing furiously now, and every clearance was being cheered like a goal by the West Stand and the other stands, except of course for the pack of Gooners in the corner to my right.
Patrick Vieira got on the end of Petit's free kick to make it 2-1 after 38 minutes. Nobody jumped with him as he powered the header in off the post.
The Gooners, predictably, sang "Vieira, Vieira, he comes from Senegal, he plays for Arsenal". Spurs were nervy now and Iversen conceded another free kick for an elbow.
Then Bergkamp chased 50 yards after Ginola, and having run that far, brought him down. He got a yellow card which he expected and deserved.
When Spurs came out after halftime Zak said:"We're not a second half team. The last time we held a lead here was Man Utd. We played really well that day."
Vieira launched a superb move with a pass to Bergkamp in the box and his sublime layoff found Ljungberg right in front of the goal, but Campbell took it off him with massive strength and finesse, an interception of immense delicacy.
Sol plays the best games of his career against Arsenal because he has to. He is an overrated defender who misses too many high crosses and passes erratically, but he has played some colossal games against Arsenal and he played another one here.
In midfield Kanu actually lost the ball to Sherwood, an event which seemed inconceivable. Maybe my eyes were playing tricks. I could not believe that had happened.
Then a rumble started at the far side which I could not see clearly. I saw it later on TV.
A rough tackle by Edinburgh on Ljungberg, who pushed him away, and a melee started. And Elleray sent Ljungberg off ! The little Swede gave the ref a two -fingered gesture as he made the long walk, and kicked a door in the tunnel as well.
Who could blame him?
Freddie was very hard done by in this incident. He did not kick anybody elbow anybody or, as was a suggested, headbutt anybody.
If there is a disciplinary hearing the FA should apologise to Ljungberg!
Keown got a yellow card for tackle on Ginola which may have been a dive. Vieira seemed to think so for he made a comment and was booked as well.
Spurs had done nothing in the second half and Seaman did not have a real save to make, but now Ginola could run at Dixon without the protection of Ljungberg in front of him.
Stephen Clemence, a feeble player who was having a half-decent game for once, fouled Overmars and got a yellow card.
When Overmars fell near the D, after being challenged by Carr, Bergkamp took the free kick - and hit the wall as always. He hits the wall 49 times out of every 50 freekicks.
Elleray booked Dixon for a foul on Ginola, but there was still 25 to go.
Still 25 minutes in which Arsenal might equalise or even win. Arsenal's passing was cool and resourceful in this period. They were losing 2-1 but were outclassing Spurs.
After 71 minutes Wenger brought Suker on for Kanu. Overmars had made a run and shot stupidly against Perry two minutes before, and now he zoomed into the box onto a lovely short touch by Suker, but shot straight at Walker, who palmed out to Suker and then saved his shot brilliantly. Not in the Toldo class, but a matchwinning (or point-winning save) nevertheless.
Petit was very reluctant to come off, but he did, and Grimandi came on.
There were still 15 minutes left, still time to score. Suker fouled Campbell and got a yellow card.
Even with a man more Spurs lacked the class to administer the coup de grace by scoring a third goal.
Indeed, George Graham descended into a welter of time-wasting substitutions, bringing on Fox for the disappointing Leonhardsen, and Domingues for Ginola.
When the fourth offcial held up the injury time board it said:4 MINUTES.Plenty of time. But the match was by now so harumscarum that we were treated to the bizarre sight of Davor Suker dribbling across his own six yard box and clearing the ball like a left back.
When Dominguez teased Keown the defender lunged in clumsily rather than viciously, and that was a second yellow and a long walk to the tunnel.
Imagine the tabloid headlines: TWO OFF IN RED CARD DISGRACE SHOCK HORROR. WHAT IS THE WORLD COMING TO?
Then the whistle went and it was down the stairs amidst thousands of Spurs fans singing:"WE BEAT THE SCUM TWO ONE - WE BEAT THE SCUM TWO ONE", a twenty minute hike to Seven Sisters with Zak and Adam, and a tube home.
Arsenal should have drawn the game at least. If they had equalised they would probably have scored again.
Spurs, although mediocre, can play a lot better than this.
Campbell,Sherwood and Carr did well, Perry was OK, Walker looked good, and the rest just worked hard.
Spurs will not win anything this season and the fans know it. That is why they reacted to the final whistle with tumultuous celebrations, as if they had won the European Cup.
This was the biggest moment of their season.
Sunday 7th November.