Arsenal 5 – Inter Milan 1. No Other Title Necessary.
Keep on reading that everyone, because it can’t get any better. To win 5-1 is massive, to win 5-1 against one of the best and biggest teams in the world, with one of the great defences, on their patch, when it matters most, is almost as big as Everest. When you score 5, looking for reasons why can seem fatuous. For the last three goals I could get pedantic, point out that by then they had only two defenders left on the pitch. But that would be stupid, and more importantly it wouldn’t even begin to diminish quite what was achieved by Arsenal Football Club. The material circumstances of the match melt away under the glare of the magnificence of the match, and the scale of the redemption it brings with it.
Arsenal 5 – Inter Milan 1.
It’s been rolling over and over in my head ever since, probably will for a few days yet.
Arsenal 5 – Inter Milan 1.
Too damned good. Simply too damned good.
This season has been awaiting an explosion, where all the things we’re capable of as a team finally knit together and annihilate the opposition. I had a feeling it might be against Fulham on Sunday, or against Lokomotiv Moskow in two weeks time, explosions that come from frustration at what I expected to be a terminal failure tonight. Only dimly did I think we would win tonight. And not once did I think I’d be writing:
Arsenal 5 – Inter Milan 1.
There’s one strange fact about this evening, one that occurs to me occasionally. Arsenal play their very best, not when the pressure’s on in the need to win, but when we need to win under the burden of injuries, suspensions and selection choices by Wenger. Think Anfield or Old Trafford 2001-2002. Ten men for the former, no Henry for the latter. Our greatest games in that magnificent season. Think Old Trafford in the cup last year, with Jeffers and Wiltord magnificent up front. Or think Birmingham on Saturday, possibly our best result this season, with half a team gone missing. I can’t explain that, but if we must suffer for our great achievements I’m willing to take the pain.
The other thing I wondered before tonight was how Henry would respond to this leak that he’s to be crowned World Player of the Year. We all know the hoodoo that surrounds essentially meaningless prizes in football. Win Manager of the Month, lose your next game. Seal up Player of the Year like Pires, get crippled by injury. It’s not set in stone that Henry will get it, but if ever he deserved it, it was tonight. This was his greatest performance in an Arsenal shirt, and possibly the greatest in total during my lifetime.
What did Henry do tonight? Simply, he played at his limits. Nothing new – no diving headers, or crunching tackles in his own six yard box. But he ran through the entire repertoire of all the ways of hurting opposition teams he and Wenger have developed over his career. And for once in a Champions League game everything worked. Well, nearly everything. If I was to be brutal, he should have had four. But let’s not quibble. Two goals, two marvellous assists – asking for anything more would be churlish.
Henry was the centre from which Arsenal flowed, and, as I’ve said before, the way he’s made himself the heart-beat of the team this year, combined with the combined excellence of Campbell and Toure, has meant that for the first time ever in Wenger’s reign, Vieira’s absence doesn’t undermine us. Edu and Parlour should not be strong enough, or technically able enough to dominate a top class midfield. With Henry bringing the pain like they did tonight, all they need to do is give him the ball, which they did.
What’s been best for us this last month, beyond the exceptional form of our superstar has been the reawakening of Ljungberg and Pires. The goals have come back, and so, most vitally has been the positional sense which sees them operate as forwards breaking into the box, feeding off of the passes of Henry and his partner tonight, the rejuvenated Kanu. With Bobby I thought it was just a matter of time. He’s simply too good to lie dormant for long. But with Freddy, I’d really thought it was over, that his perfect running into the box, bettered only by Scholes in the Premiership, had deserted him – and because he’s not technically able enough to contribute as thoroughly across the rest of the pitch, I felt his time at Arsenal might be ending. If he’s really back, as three goals in three suggests, then we have the extra part of our team in place we’ve needed: the pest who you know will be there, six yards out to bury the loose ball. It doesn’t solve the problems on the wing, or resolve the long-term partner for Henry, but it is a mighty help in the goals-for column.
This job’s not done though. Let’s not forget that amongst the superlatives. Moskow still need to be defeated, but the players know what they have to do, and a mental block has been lifted tonight. This game is a signal to redemption of the failures of the last 6 years. Yes we beat Eindhoven, Juventus and Roma just as thoroughly, but never under this pressure. This was about overcoming pain, and using it to build a platform from which we can go on to really prove ourselves in this competition.
To help quell the excitement, so that we can all keep the final part of the task in mind, it might be worth asking if Inter helped us tonight. By the absence of Emre they certainly did, but that only balanced out Vieira’s absence. By the 3-4-3 formation they deployed they definitely did – that style gives players like Henry space to exploit, which is why it was abandoned as the standard model for football teams when Puchkas and co ripped England to shreds with a 4-2-4 formation much like our own fifty years ago last week. By the injuries to Cannavarro and Materazzi they unwittingly did. You can’t regulate for that. Unlucky for them, but it did not shift the pattern of our play one iota, nor change their ability to respond to it.
Actually, forget it, none of that reduces the excitement a bit. Let’s just wrap it up. Eleven heroes, the best player in the world, our best ever performance in the Champions League, a chance to go forward.
Screw it:
Arsenal 5 – Inter Milan 1. Magnificent.
Keep on reading that everyone, because it can’t get any better. To win 5-1 is massive, to win 5-1 against one of the best and biggest teams in the world, with one of the great defences, on their patch, when it matters most, is almost as big as Everest. When you score 5, looking for reasons why can seem fatuous. For the last three goals I could get pedantic, point out that by then they had only two defenders left on the pitch. But that would be stupid, and more importantly it wouldn’t even begin to diminish quite what was achieved by Arsenal Football Club. The material circumstances of the match melt away under the glare of the magnificence of the match, and the scale of the redemption it brings with it.
Arsenal 5 – Inter Milan 1.
It’s been rolling over and over in my head ever since, probably will for a few days yet.
Arsenal 5 – Inter Milan 1.
Too damned good. Simply too damned good.
This season has been awaiting an explosion, where all the things we’re capable of as a team finally knit together and annihilate the opposition. I had a feeling it might be against Fulham on Sunday, or against Lokomotiv Moskow in two weeks time, explosions that come from frustration at what I expected to be a terminal failure tonight. Only dimly did I think we would win tonight. And not once did I think I’d be writing:
Arsenal 5 – Inter Milan 1.
There’s one strange fact about this evening, one that occurs to me occasionally. Arsenal play their very best, not when the pressure’s on in the need to win, but when we need to win under the burden of injuries, suspensions and selection choices by Wenger. Think Anfield or Old Trafford 2001-2002. Ten men for the former, no Henry for the latter. Our greatest games in that magnificent season. Think Old Trafford in the cup last year, with Jeffers and Wiltord magnificent up front. Or think Birmingham on Saturday, possibly our best result this season, with half a team gone missing. I can’t explain that, but if we must suffer for our great achievements I’m willing to take the pain.
The other thing I wondered before tonight was how Henry would respond to this leak that he’s to be crowned World Player of the Year. We all know the hoodoo that surrounds essentially meaningless prizes in football. Win Manager of the Month, lose your next game. Seal up Player of the Year like Pires, get crippled by injury. It’s not set in stone that Henry will get it, but if ever he deserved it, it was tonight. This was his greatest performance in an Arsenal shirt, and possibly the greatest in total during my lifetime.
What did Henry do tonight? Simply, he played at his limits. Nothing new – no diving headers, or crunching tackles in his own six yard box. But he ran through the entire repertoire of all the ways of hurting opposition teams he and Wenger have developed over his career. And for once in a Champions League game everything worked. Well, nearly everything. If I was to be brutal, he should have had four. But let’s not quibble. Two goals, two marvellous assists – asking for anything more would be churlish.
Henry was the centre from which Arsenal flowed, and, as I’ve said before, the way he’s made himself the heart-beat of the team this year, combined with the combined excellence of Campbell and Toure, has meant that for the first time ever in Wenger’s reign, Vieira’s absence doesn’t undermine us. Edu and Parlour should not be strong enough, or technically able enough to dominate a top class midfield. With Henry bringing the pain like they did tonight, all they need to do is give him the ball, which they did.
What’s been best for us this last month, beyond the exceptional form of our superstar has been the reawakening of Ljungberg and Pires. The goals have come back, and so, most vitally has been the positional sense which sees them operate as forwards breaking into the box, feeding off of the passes of Henry and his partner tonight, the rejuvenated Kanu. With Bobby I thought it was just a matter of time. He’s simply too good to lie dormant for long. But with Freddy, I’d really thought it was over, that his perfect running into the box, bettered only by Scholes in the Premiership, had deserted him – and because he’s not technically able enough to contribute as thoroughly across the rest of the pitch, I felt his time at Arsenal might be ending. If he’s really back, as three goals in three suggests, then we have the extra part of our team in place we’ve needed: the pest who you know will be there, six yards out to bury the loose ball. It doesn’t solve the problems on the wing, or resolve the long-term partner for Henry, but it is a mighty help in the goals-for column.
This job’s not done though. Let’s not forget that amongst the superlatives. Moskow still need to be defeated, but the players know what they have to do, and a mental block has been lifted tonight. This game is a signal to redemption of the failures of the last 6 years. Yes we beat Eindhoven, Juventus and Roma just as thoroughly, but never under this pressure. This was about overcoming pain, and using it to build a platform from which we can go on to really prove ourselves in this competition.
To help quell the excitement, so that we can all keep the final part of the task in mind, it might be worth asking if Inter helped us tonight. By the absence of Emre they certainly did, but that only balanced out Vieira’s absence. By the 3-4-3 formation they deployed they definitely did – that style gives players like Henry space to exploit, which is why it was abandoned as the standard model for football teams when Puchkas and co ripped England to shreds with a 4-2-4 formation much like our own fifty years ago last week. By the injuries to Cannavarro and Materazzi they unwittingly did. You can’t regulate for that. Unlucky for them, but it did not shift the pattern of our play one iota, nor change their ability to respond to it.
Actually, forget it, none of that reduces the excitement a bit. Let’s just wrap it up. Eleven heroes, the best player in the world, our best ever performance in the Champions League, a chance to go forward.
Screw it:
Arsenal 5 – Inter Milan 1. Magnificent.
