Quote:"But I'd give Arsenal credit for assembling a very strong squad there. Not only talented, but physically very strong, so they can take you on, whatever way you wanna play it, they've got the answer to you."
George Graham on the new Arsenal
"If I see one more shot of Dwight Yorke in that baseball cap I will put my foot through the screen." Match Review - see below
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(A weekly column )
14 MAY
The City was more confident about Arsenal prior to the midweek games. Arsenal shares were steady at £2200 and Man United's at 181/2p down 1/4p.
Arsene Wenger replied to the outspoken attack by Manchester United chairman Martin Edwards on referee David Elleray by saying that the game cannot survive if the honesty of officials is brought into question.Edwards, was reported to have said:"If Arsenal or Chelsea win the championship, I trust they will strike a commemorative medal for Mr Elleray because he would have done it for them."
Arsene Wenger said of Anelka this week:"I personally believe that for his development and career it would be very good that he stays at Arsenal as the club have shown a lot of faith in him and he has developed very well with us.I can say football-wise he is happy.
Kenny Dalglish says if teams finish level on top of the Premiership on points there should be a play-off."If you play 38 games in one of the most prestigious leagues and it's all square at the end a play-off is only fair."
According to the Scottish Daily Record:"Keane is definitely out of the Ewood Park crunch and is unlikely to make the final Premiership match against Aston Villa on Sunday." Must have bought him on the quiet!
"Of course I'd like my old club to do well, but not at our expense," says Leeds manager David O'Leary, who joined Arsenal for £4 a week and a Tube pass, and left 20 years and a record 722 appearances later.
Arsenal may be interested in Everton's cast offs Ibrahima Bakayoko and Olivier Dacourt, but might have to fight harder to gain the services of Michael Ball.
Kevin McCarron will win £10,764 from a £1m bet if Man U pip Arsenal to the title. He already has seven of the eight teams to win their respective divisions.
Bit of a spat between ex-Arsenal oldies George Graham and David O'Leary over Willem Korsten moving from Leeds to Spurs, with the latter accusing the former of doing a deal in-house.
David O'Leary is coming under pressure from his son:"He's coming home from school and all the other kids have been telling him to tell me that `we don't want that mob from across the Pennines winning the league'."
Dennis Bergkamp hit 30 this week.
Commentator Alan Green said players like Dennis Bergkamp or Tony Adams should have won the PFA Player of the Year Award.
George Graham warned that if the three top teams in the Premiership spend around £10m on new players in the close season, then it will take the others around four to five years to catch up.
David Platt's horse Handsome Ridge goes from strength to strength winning the last race on Staurday and the Shergar Cup for Europe at 5/1.
The Times reports that the Arsenal Ladies Team came in for verbal abuse from a contingent from Croydon Ladies. So Arsenal barred members of Croydon from watching their match against Tranmere Rovers.
One paper said this week that Arsene Wenger bought Vivas and Grondin to prolong the careers of Dixon and Winterburn.
Interesting satellite development, which Arsenal could well take note of, with the formation of Ajax Cape Town SA, with the Amsterdam club investing three quarters of a million. There will be a state of the art academy where youth development will be in the Ajax way, from under-eights upwards.
David Ginola said he wants to do the business for Arsenal on Sunday: "But because there is more of a French connection at Arsenal, I will say Arsenal - for Arsene, Manu, Patrick and Nicolas. There are no Frenchmen at all in Manchester!"
The lastest recycled transfer round - Heskey and Hughes (West Brom) crop up again being linked with Arsenal along with a Seedorf-Anelka swap. Gilles Grimandi is reported as having itchy feet.
Charlton's last gasp winner against Villa means that the Midlanders have to beat Arsenal to secure a place in the Inter-Toto Cup.
Congratulations to ex-Arsenal player, Chris Kiwomya for securing a very important hat-trick for QPR against Crystal Palace.
Less good news for Scott Marshall who is reportedly on his way from
Celtic after being blamed for two of the Rangers' goal in the
3-0 drubbing.
Thanks
Thanks to: Myles Palmer, Gary Jacob, Bob Bateman and Adrian Barker and everyone else who has sent things in
Arsenal 1 Aston Villa 0
Brave attempt; brave season. Strange atmosphere.
Come August, the disappointment will largely be forgotten and Arsenal - with three to five new players (according to Arsene) will be ready to challenge on four fronts, and perhaps most importantly the European one.
Given the situation last December - with World Cup rustiness, injuries, suspensions and the added burden of defending the Championship, and a lack of transfers in, Arsenal's achievement is remarkable.
The match took on a similar dimension to other Arsenal home matches - with Villa defending deep and getting nine or ten behind the ball.
Overmars cut incisively through early on, and Vieira and Bergkamp had chances.
Vivas, who had a rotten end to the season, what with Leeds, did his knee in a block tackle. Arsenal had to re-adjust with Ljungberg wide right, Parlour switching to the middle and Petit dropping in at the back. It affected Arsenal's balance and effectiveness.
And as the chances came and went (along with one or two golamouth scrambles), the feeling grew that Arsenal would never score. That was heightened by the 0-1 scoreline at Old Trafford.
Bergkamp had an accurate free kick headed off the line by Southgate, as the news filtered in that David Beckham had equalised.
The frustration grew after half-time, as Vieira had a goalbound shot blocked by Oakes.
Anelka, who had a poor match, was replaced by Kanu. Have we seen the young Frenchman for the last time in an Arsenal shirt? The way he played, perhaps - although it has been a long hard season and he could well be tired.
As so often when the Nigerian has come on, the course of the game has changed. Arsenal became more measured, with more attacking options.
And when composure was needed for the umpteenth corner, Kanu was on hand trapping neatly and tapping it in for 1-0.
By that time of course, news had filtered in that Andy Cole had put United ahead and on course for the Championship.
And anyone who understands football politics would have known that George Graham's position at Spurs, had they allowed Arsenal to win the title would, shall we say, have been difficult.
So Arsenal played out the season in an anti-climax, with a feeling of resignation emanating from the crowd.
Alex Ferguson paid Arsenal a compliment when he said:"they've been fantastic challengers." Which can be put alongside Jaap Stam's comments that Arsenal were the best team they have played this season.
Arsene Wenger said he was concentrating on winning the game, rather than listening to the Old Trafford score. However he did say that Villa had something to go for (Inter-Toto) and that Tottenham hadn't.
Asked about matches which made the ultimate difference, he pointed to the hand-ball goal at Wimbledon, and the Leeds match.
He paid tribute to the remarkable consistency - 78 points for the last two seasons and the record Premiership defence - 17 goals conceded.
Arsenal beat Villa 1-0, Man Utd beat Spurs 2-1. What did you expect?
By Myles Palmer
Kanu for Anelka is always a fantastic substitution because they are opposites.
It is like bringing Romario on for Ian Wright. Finesse is the opposite of unpredictablity.
Kanu came on for Anelka after 61 and within four minutes had proved me wrong by scoring his seventh goal.
Elsewhere on this site I had predicted Kanu would score six goals before the end of the season.
Had to call my pal Mark Draper, who left me a ticket among the Villa fans, South Stand Clock End, Block 18, Row 23, aisle seat 47.
The Brummie fans are good noisy fun. After ten minutes of the game I realised that I was standing up. Everybody round me was standing up. Then I realised that I would be standing up for 90 minutes, and could not make notes. But I was enjoying the novelty of seeing the game as it is played, up and down.
I had a big close-up of the Arsenal attack in the first half, and the defence in the second. Became detached from the second half because I was too far way to see the North Bank chances properly.
Highlight of the first half came after 19 minutes when the stadium erupted.
I heard the first screams from the executive boxes above my head: Les Ferdinand had scored at Old Trafford.
I was told that Ginola had gone off injured early on.
When Vivas was injured, Arsenal were totally disrupted. Petit went to left back, Parlour moved inside, and Ljungberg went wide right. We were attacking my end, but struggling to create openings.
Overmars was still off form, hitting shots just wide.
Patrick Vieira surprisingly miscontrolled a couple of early balls, but recovered to become the game's outstanding performer.
He had a rocket shot saved by Oakes, a header kicked off the line.
Late on, he zoomed past Ehiogu and won a corner off Southgate, and then, after the corner, had two shots blocked.
Vieira is a giant footballer, a supreme gladiator who has started scoring with his left foot and winning headers in both penalty areas.
He re-invented his partnership with Petit in this game, moving to left half to keep in close contact after the ponytail was deployed at left back.
Petit adapted well and used the space he was given to come forward and create.
We always struggle against Villas three centrebacks, and with Draper, Scimeca and Grayson playing so deep, it was really six centrebacks.
Tactically this one was the reverse of the Spurs game. Spurs pressed suicidally and left themselves vulnerable to Bergkamp's defence-splitting passes.
Villa sat deep with nine defenders. They relied on a pass by Draper or Merson releasing Joachim, which rarely happened.
Overmars beat Watson but tripped over his heel, a harsh yellow card with fans baying for red. Bergkamp hit his free kick nicely past the wall, but Gareth Southgate headed it off the line with Oakes beaten. Southgate is becoming good at that trick.
Parlour, who was obviously not fit at Elland Road and should not have played, was poor again.
Villa centreback Ugo Ehiogu is a monster player. He still looks a better footballer than Sol Campbell. He reads the game so well, and is a better passer.
Wenger should sign him. Among English defenders, Ehiogu is a major talent, the most under-rated in the Premiership. Most English players are not good enough to get into the Arsenal team, but Ehiogu is. Wenger could make him a world beater.
From memory, only a few scares. Merson had a shot that just beat the post, so did Scimeca.
Adams obstructed Merson, who took far too long to make up his mind. Adams grabbed Joachim, then let go. In an away game that incident might easily have been a red card but ref Dermott Gallagher only gave Tony a yellow.
David Beckham made it 1-1 at Old Trafford late in the first half, and I knew Spurs could not hold on.
Seen on TV, that equaliser was ball-watching by the rusty Justin Edinburgh, and the move started with a foul on Sherwood by Scholes.
At half time I was glad to sit down and see a lap of honour by the Cup-winning Arsenal Ladies team. One of them carried a two-year old girl. What next? The Arsenal Mums X1 ?
We heard that Andy Cole had made it 2-1 for Man Utd.
We dominated; Kanu came on and played beautifully. Too far away to really enjoy the Kanu goal, flicked in after a Petit corner, a scruffy little goal executed with astonishing finesse past defenders on the line.
The only high ball Ehiogu missed was this corner when Kanu produced this deft finish from three yards.
Bayern bomber Gerd Muller called these:" little goals". This was the biggest little goal of the season.
We do not score enough little goals. Very surprised that Villa boss John Gregory took so long to bring Steve Stone on. Stone was needed as soon as Petit switched to left back. He could have attacked Petit while he was still getting used to the new angles.
By the time sub Diawara (for Overmars) headed just over the bar (85) it was all over, so I zoomed out to get into the station without queuing.
It was odd not to go to the press conference after going to them for the last 15 years, but it was a relief to sit down on the tube and even nicer to get home in 45 minutes.
Arsenal had won, and Manchester United had won, which was what I expected.A strangely frustrating event when the championship goes to the last day, and you have to win, but it is out of your hands.
I knew Spurs were not good enough to hold Manchester United because I have seen Spurs 18 times this season.
Whether they tried or not, Spurs are not good enough, so I never considered they could win up there, and I was 99.9% sure they could not draw.
I thought George Graham would go there and lose 1-0. That was wrong. They went down 2-1, and Ian Walker was their best player.
The Les Ferdinand goal, seen later on TV, was the kind he used to score for QPR and Newcastle, but never scores for Spurs.
Les is a power sprinter, a power jumper and a power header. He made a power sprint onto Iversen's flick-on of Walker's goal clearance, and a power stretch, and flicked the ball beautifully past Peter Schmeichel. Loved it! But that goal was never gonna be enough.
So Arsenal finish 2nd with 78 points after a hugely enjoyable season.Only 17 Premiership goals conceded. The best defence in Europe.
I have loved this season, although I hated Arsenal moving to Wembley for the Champions League, and I hated not having a striker who can head the ball.
Let's face it, Arsenal do not score goals from crosses. Dixon and Parlour cannot cross the ball for toffee, and even if they could there is nobody in the box who can head the ball or volley it or make a run to the near post.
Heading the ball into the net, and winning knockdowns, is a big part of football.
At the 1998 the FA Cup Final press conference, after Arsenal had beaten Newcastle to complete the Double, I asked Mr Wenger if he was looking specificallly for a centre forward who could head the ball.
He smiled and said:" That's an interesting question."
Today, 12 months later, I am still waiting for an answer.
My Footballer of the Year? Vieira.
Do I think Anelka will stay? Yes.
Would I sell Anelka and sign Fowler? Yes.
Would Fowler be a big risk? Yes, but so was Overmars, so was Kanu.
Would I like Olivier Dacourt from Everton? Yes, for the games where PV or EP is/are suspended.
Bergkamp, who was 30 on Friday, says this team is still improving.
So that was Arsenal's last match of 98-99. A long, exciting season, some phenomenal team performances, and a winning anti-climax.
I hope United do NOT do the Treble. If they do we will never hear the end of it. The hype is unbearable already. If I see one more shot of Dwight Yorke in that baseball cap I will put my foot through the screen.
Without Schmeichel, Man Utd will not win five of the next seven Premierships.
May 16th 1999
Leeds 1 Arsenal 0
Elland Road - a bridge too far; a hostile place if ever there was one.
Remember asking a copper the way to the ground in the early eighties - the days of alsatians and frightened horses and 'e said:"don't speak with that Southern accent or ya'll get ****** up."
It will be all to easy to make Nelson Vivas (on for Nigel Winterburn late on with a broken nose) a scapegoat for the defeat - absent on the far post as Jimmy Floyd H.headed in a precise Kewell cross.
But if Arsenal finish the season as runners up - as now seems likely [but football is a funny ole game] as Arsene Wenger says - it is not a disaster. A prized Champions League spot is probably more important in the grander scheme of things.
One of the reasons Arsenal found it hard to score was that they were up against a mirror image of themselves - a rock solid defence founded on Arsenal principles.
The fact Parlour, Petit and Vieira were all booked in the first 30, restricted the ball winning capabilities in midfield - particularly when up against the spikey - Batty, Bowyer and Hopkin.
Arsenal seemed jittery and nervous and could not stick away the chances - and when is Kaba Diawara going to score? A player of promise has not fulfilled. He has unluckiness in his boots - having one off the line, another diverted by Martyn's foot at the last minute and a header which grazed the bar.
The talk about Nicolas Anelka departing would have been hastened by his disappearing act in the second half - when he was sorely needed.
Kanu made a difference when he came on for Overmars, and some of his passing and dribbling activated the saliva buds in anticipation for next season.
The future looks bright. The famous defence is together - perhaps for the last season - surely Wenger will use Grondin and Vivas to extend Lee and Nigel's Arsenal careers.
The age balance looks good - even if Dennis Bergkamp turned 30 this week.
But perhaps the most significant bright spot will be the opening of the new training ground next season, enabling Arsene Wenger to put into effect his long term blueprint for Arsenal Football Club.
IG
Brave failure at Leeds after Winterburn horror injury
By Myles Palmer
Would Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink have scored that 86th minute winner if Nigel Winterburn had been defending that Harry Kewell cross in the 86th minute?
Probably not.
But we will never know.
Vivas came on and got on the wrong side of Hasselbaink who scored with a diving header.
The turning point of an exciting game came when Alfie Haaland's knee demolished Nigel Winterburn's nose after 75 minutes.
Haaland stupidly tried to pull the stricken Nutty Boy to his feet when he was clearly on planet Zargon.
Blood everywhere. Very worrying. Doctors. Stretcher.Play held up for five minutes. Arsenal's rhythm interrupted at a crucial time, just after Nigel Martyn had saved at Kanu's feet and and Jonathan Woodgate had headed a Diawara rocket of the line.
Jonathan Woodgate is the new Tony Adams. We must sign him!
Woodgate won Sky's man of the match with 71% of the vote.
A remarkable match, despite the abysmal refereeing of Gary Willard, who booked nine players.
Overmars passed to Anelka twice! Hooray!
Ian Harte blasted a penalty against the bar after Keown flattened Kewell with a wild tackle on 45 minutes. Hasselbaink rammed in a follow-up shot, and Seaman made a miraculous save (45 minutes).
Two minutes before that Seaman had made another miracle save from a Kewell 30-yarder which was flashing into the top corner.
Leeds pressed so ferociously that Arsenal had Parlour, Petit and Vieira booked in the first 36 minutes.That was inhibiting.
Batty had a lob (84) that proved he is no Nayim.
Tony Adams clattered Smith with a bodycheck.
The game changed a lot after Kanu came on for Overmars (65) and made some fabulous passes.
Diawara came on for Parlour(71) and went close with a header which shaved the bar.
Brave performance by a great team who ran out of steam, never finding the power which had sliced Tottenham apart last week.
Four Premiership defeats and second place.
Team Injuries
16/05
Vivas - knee
Manninger - broken arm (reportedly out for the season)
Nigel Winterburn - broken nose
Dennis Bergkamp's record (up to end March)
Goals - 9
Goal assists - 13
Shots on target - 31
% shots on target 57
Corners won 16
Points - 1286
Arsenal's record prior to Newcastle (supplied by OPTA)
Goals 43
Average/game 1.31
Shots 330
% on target 47
% goals to shots 10
Short passes 9072
Long passes 1232
Pass completion 79%
Crosses 422
Cross completion 21%
Goals conceded 12
Goals conceded/game .46
% of tackles won 66%
Blocks/interceptions 1688
Fouls 313
Yellows 47
Reds 5
Foul Play Table
Sheff Wed - 478
Leicester - 518
Aston Villa - 526
Wimbledon - 530
Man U - 584
Newcastle - 587
Arsenal - 598 (5 Red,47 Yellow,313 Fouls)
Riches League (Deloitte Touche) 1996/97 season
Manchester United £87.9m
Newcastle United £41.1m
Liverpool £39.2m
Rangers £31.7m
Tottenham Hotspur £27.9m
Arsenal £27.2m
Arsenal are third in the Premiership attendance League on 38,095
Goal Ratio League
Arsenal are 14th - 23 games and 24 goals
Goals/game 1.04
Minutes/goal 86 mins
Arsenal are second in the HOME POINTS league
Arsenal are fifth in the AWAY POINTS league
Arsenal are fourth in the S.Mirror's average attendance in 34 years league (!) - 31,149.
Arsenal have not lost at home for 24 games
Arsene Wenger is the 8th longest serving manager in the Premiership.
Arsenal are currenly third in the Mail 's Entertainment League
Anelka's Premiership record
Minutes 2018
Goals 12
Shots on target 38
Off target 37
Assists - 4
Passes - 592
OPTA Leagues
David Seaman 9th- 55
Lee Dixon -7th - 658
Nicolas Anelka - 10th -655
Dennis Bergkamp -9th -666
Most fouled
The NoW says Ray Parlour is the fifth most fouled player in the Premiership (on fouls for). He's been fouled 43 times prior to Preston. Ginola is top at 52.
Statistics - history (Premiership games up to Villa, from Carling OPTA)
Matches -16
Goals -15
Average goals/game -0.94
Shots - 218
% on target - 48
%goals/shots 7
goals against - 7
Average goals against/game -0.44
Tackles - 552
Tackles won - 70%
Fouls - 181
Yellows - 28
Red - 3
Arsenal are currently 10th in the MoS European League:
Played 27
Won 11
Drawn 11
Lost 5
For 31
Against 20
Points 54.3