Arsnocerous and the Arsenal Athletic Acceleration Machine
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
As usual Arsene Wenger gave all the credit to his players.
On days like this you realise that Arsene is a calming presence who talks from within the serenity of a grand design. He sees a bigger picture.
Like most managers, Arsene lives each game, and the preparations for each game. But he analyses the sequence because he knows that football is a game of sequences.
He hit some bullseyes in a press conference which was a bit more tactical than usual.
The ideas flowed out of him just as the passes and shots flowed out of his team.
He talked about the stylistic evolution of the Arsenal attack in the post-Anelka period, and how performances depend a lot on fitness.
Without saying it in as many words he admitted that the two Dutchmen often perform below their maximum because they are carrying minor injuries which restrict their running and undermine their self-confidence.
Back in 1997 I figured out that Wenger is a scientific fitness coach who loves a certain style of football.
So, day by day, week by week, month by month, the slightly mad professor, with stopwatch in hand, built and tested his Arsenal Athletic Acceleration Machine until it could explode from 0-25 m.p.h. in 3.2 seconds.
This performance against Middlesbrough was exactly the kind of team effort he is usually looking for. An exhibition of fast, skilful, precise, fiery, penetrating and overwhelming football. Bang! Bang! Bang! Youre dead!
So I started the press conference by asking him about theDutchmen. Did they find another mood, another level, today?
"Yes, they played very well, but I think overall it was a very good team performance. And Im very happy for them that they scored because they missed that a little bit.
"We had a good creative game today, good passing, the right concentration for nearly 90 minutes. We lost it a little bit at the beginning of the second half when we were under a little bit of pressure and lost our game.
"But I'm quite happy that we had a good creative game for 80 minutes.The challenge is to repeat it, and the target is to repeat it. We know at the moment we've had a problem of consistency. And the target is to repeat this kind of game."
I asked Arsene if this was a kind of homecoming, having three games at in a row at Highbury, which is unusual.
"It is very unusual because we played our European Cup at Wembley. We know its a very important week for us. We started it well. Lets see how we can cope with the repetition of the games, and with keeping up that kind of concentration."
Best performance so far this season?
"Over 90 minutes, defensively and offensively, yes. I think we had some quite good games this season, but we could never put together defensive concentration and offensive efficiency.
"For example, against Barcelona, at home, I personally believe that going forward we were outstanding, but defensively we were very poor."
You looked like a hungry team today?
"We looked a hungry team. We looked like a team who had time to think about what happens to them. And who have the intelligence to react."
Does that performance indicate that you're now at your best?
"No, it is not enough. I personally believe that this team has a huge potential, but we lacked consistency until now. We found a good level today and we have to repeat that. Consistency gives you a chance to win something. Potential, nothing."
I asked: "You've got seven games without Patrick. Are the other players very much aware that they'll have to give more because they're missing him?
"Yes, but I believe that we went into the season knowing that we will miss some important players at some stage of the season. We have 20 players of international level. And of course we would love to have Patrick, but one missing, we should be able to compensate, even over five or six games."
A reasonable answer. No player at the club can do everything that Vieira does, but, collectively, they can make up for his absence.
How did Petit come through?
"His knee is still strapped but he was outstanding. This was the first game where hes really back to his best level."
Do you think Ray Parlour can play the central midfield role for England?
"He can. I'm not the only one who believes that in England, and not the only one in our club."
This was a rather enigmatic comment. To whom was he referring? Maybe Tony Adams thinks his Essex pal Ray can play central midfield for England.
Pleased with Dennis today?
"Yes, I'm pleased with his runs. It was maybe the first game when he had so many runs forward, behind the defenders. And he looked really sharp going forward.That's why I'm pleased. Because he looks like he has changed his game, and is playing really to go behind the defenders.
"The mixture he had today, between coming off to the ball, and running behind the defenders, was right."
This point has bugged me for the last two years. I believe that Bergkamp plays too deep, does not mix it up enough, so I could not resist the obvious question: Have you asked him to do that?
"Yes. He wants to do that as well. He's an intelligent player, and he adapts his game to his physical potential. So when he had some problems at the begining of the season, and was not feeling as sharp as he is at the moment, he came deeper for the ball.
"When we don't play so well as a team he doesn't get as many balls behind the defenders, so he comes and tries to build up the game. And last year he was always in a situation where we wanted him to come to the ball, and Nicholas to go behind the defender. And this year we try to mix that with Kanu, and that takes some time as well."
This was significant.Wenger said: Yes. He HAS asked Bergkamp to make more runs behind the defence. Why? Because Anelka has gone and Bergkamp can do that better than Kanu.
Basically, August-November has been a period of transition in which the manager has had to decide whether to play Suker or Kanu at centre forward. He has looked at both and played both.
And he has decided to pair Kanu with Bergkamp.This is not ideal because it is two No.10s, just as Shearer and Owen is two No.9s.
Is Dennis playing well the key to a performance like that?
"No, not only. I believe it was team performance today, more than just one player."
You looked like a team that has regrouped in the time off for international matches?
"The team is at a stage of the season where they have to react. And they know that.There was not a lot to say. It is just that everybody at the club feels we've lost some games we shouldnt have lost so it could be bad luck, maybe. Repeated bad luck.
"But I think the team realised that they have to show more concentration. If you look at our season: We lost at West Ham but we should have won. We won at Chelsea but we were 2-0 down ,and we were 2-0 down at Tottenham after 20 minutes.The players came out of both games thinking 'We won at Chelsea but 20 minutes before the end you would have thought it was lost.'
So we are missing something. I think that is down to concentration sometimes. Not the right concentration when you start the game, maybe you think it will be easier than it is. And I believe that the English Premier League is every year more difficult."
Brian Woolnough asked about speculation that the Dutchmen might move, and noted that Overmars had not yet killed off the speculation himself.
"No, because both players have long term contracts. Long term contracts mean that I want the player to stay. When I sign a player for a long time it always means I have a lot of confidence in his quality and his commitment to the club. There is always a destabilisation around the place in modern football that you cannot avoid.
"We have no special problems with Marc Overmars. It was just things coming out in the newspapers...that's down to you!"
Is that Overmars back to his best?
"Yes, he's back. Marc had a lack of preparation. He went into the season injured. He didn't play the first games. He's just back to his best now.Tonight you have seen the best Overmars because they've changed three times the player marking him.That's always a sign."
Is he the quickest player in the Premiership?
"Over the first five yards, certainly. I believe as well that he has the intelligence. And the timing of his movement is intelligent. When you add that pace to the timing of his movement, he is always dangerous.
"Petit is an important player for him because he finds him, and because he covers him defensively."
Does this win re-inforce the club's belief that you can do something in the Premiership?
"I believe that. But if you look at the table it looks as if ten teams can win it."
You could have scored more goals?
"Yes. The third goal was the decisive one. We had bad spell in the second half, but when we scored the third goal they looked like giving up entirely. Bergkamp's best game of the season?
"Difficult to say. He had a very good game against Barcelona. But it is the game where he got what I want of him right. That means his runs, the way he balanced his game, was maybe the best, yes."
In the past few weeks you've been talking about people making that run in behind?
"Thats what we miss a little bit. So it gets easier for the defenders to push in on every player if they know that you dont go in behind them.
"So its easy for them to hold the line of you don't make the runs."
Can Gazza still punish a side like yours?
"I thought he might be short of match fitness. And he is. I had a look at him when he went on the field because I know he can put weight on. His shape was quite impressive. Physically he looked impressive.
"But, for example, tonight was the first game where Petit had 90 minutes with full fitness, and ran like crazy. But that took him four or five games. He's a world class player and it took him four or five games to get back to his best. And Gascoigne will need that as well, if he plays again. At that age it is impossible to be in and out of the team."
Is this the sparking point for a good run?
"Yes.The challenge is the next game. To repeat it. To repeat the
same quality, the same commitment, the same solidarity. That's
the challenge
for this team."
Basically, the press said: The lads played very well today, Arsene. And Arsene said: Yes, and I want that again. You could tell by his face, voice and body language that he was pleased.
He had an almost tangible aura of satisfaction because, having seen Bergkamp outpace a defence as Ian Wright and Anelka used to do, he seemed to be halfway towards solving the biggest problem in his team.
So Saturday was a feelgood day. People felt rebuilt, renewed, re-energised as they talked about the goals that had lit up a dim winter day.
Goals are medicinal. There was a palpable sense of well-being in the stands and streets and tubes and pubs and in the cars driving back to Essex and Hertfordshire.
And that came from being four goals better than Middlesbrough. From proving that the 6-1 victory up there in April was no fluke.
It was a feeling of: We are good, we are powerful, we are happy, we can't wait for the next match.
That feeling is the best part of the cycle of anticipation/satisfaction/doubt/anticipation
that makes every season such a strange and stuttering journey
of detours and lay-bys and accidents,
lows as well as highs.
The five goals put my fears to rest and were quantitative proof that this was the best Arsenal have ever played without Patrick Vieira.
It was a team effort that proved Jock Stein right. (The Celtic legend once said that a football match is about the players who are playing, not about those who are not playing.) Jock's remark is as true now as it was in the Sixties, but (and this is the key point of the weekend) I'm 100% sure that Bergkamp and Overmars pulled their fingers out because Vieira was not playing. They had to do the business and they both knew they had to do it.
Necessity was the mother of double Dutch invention.
The day also demonstrated that the Arsenal team is a beast. A living, breathing organism that has illnesses and traumas and fears as well as lively, jolly, playful moods.
As we have seen so many times in this century, the Arsnocerous is a stubborn beast, proud and primitive in some ways, sophisticated in others, able to react to the variety of circumstances that pop up during a 52-match season.
The beast did not like losing to Fiorentina, and it did not like losing at Spurs, and it really hated having two men sent off and being called a dirty beast.
But, of course, the cycle moves on. The fixture list grinds forward.
So Arsenal have thrashed a bad side with stylish power football.
Lets face it, that kind of football has never worked for them in Europe. So don't expect to beat Nantes 5-1........
Wednesday 24th November 1999.