Ally
Active Member
This is a series where I’ll be looking retrospectively at some of the matches which I feel were crucial to the evolution of Arsenal under the leadership of Arsène. The choices I’ve made are a mixture of obvious and perhaps in some cases obscure. This isn’t chronological, either. I’ll attempt to justify my match selections and hopefully you’ll agree how fine the line between success and despair really is - seasons hang on moments that aren’t necessarily visible at first, and these can only become apparent when you’ve taken stock of the situation and thought about the alternatives. At the very least, I hope that this thinly veiled excuse for red-tinted glory-mongering raises a wee smile.
Game 1 - Newcastle 1 Arsenal 1 (FAC Quarter Final, 9th March 2002)
I begin this series with a game that was painful, desperate and, ultimately, in a bizarre series of linked events that may or may not have any significance at all, the key to the double. I’ll explain.
Coming into this one, it was becoming very, very clear that our destiny was firmly in our hands. Unlike the previous season where there was something wrong that at the time nobody could quite explain, (It turned out to be the absence of a pacey, strong defender - easily solved, really.) we’d been going like a train, demolishing Fulham, Bayer Leverkusen and Gillingham. We’d also watched over an astonishingly easy victory over our opponents in a league game the previous Saturday, due in large part to that goal - the fans sang “Can we play you every week”, and matters seemed to be well in hand.
There had been a hiccup in midweek though, unforeseen too - Derby managed to shut out the unstoppable Arsenal stikeforce for 70 minutes, and Pires and Bergkamp had generally run themselves into the floor trying to break through, eventually finding a quite sublime move which ended up with the Frenchman slotting home and eventually proving to be the difference. Not helping either was a three match ban slapped on Thierry for his antics at the end of the 3-1 defeat against the Toon in December - although we’d managed without him in the 2-0 win after all, so this was generally seen as a minor inconvenience; nothing was expected to halt the Arsenal rampage to a third double.
The return of Ljungberg after an awkward injury was a plus point, and it seemed that any disadvantages were being cancelled out.
Behind the scenes, matters were obviously less clear cut and rosy; players were simply knackered, Wenger had resolved to use Richard Wright in the Cup (The fans hadn’t figured this out yet), and what with injuries and the suspension of Thierry, the squad was being severely tested. Just as we were getting ready to savour another dose of free flowing attacking football, the bombshell of the team sheet looked to have blown everything right out of the water.
Arsenal ran out at St James’ and I remember seeing Grimandi. “That’s Grimandi”, I said. “Away” was the general response from the sofa. Then I saw some tall dark-skinned guy trotting out of the tunnel. “Who’s that?” came the uncertain comment from my right. To be honest, no-one had seen much, if anything, of Edu previously and it slowly dawned that Arsenal were being forced to field a shabby, makeshift team worryingly looking like their reserves. This was the team that was being asked to shut out one of the fastest and most prolific offences in English football -
Wright
Lauren Stepanovs Campbell Dixon
Ljungberg Grimandi Vieira Edu
Wiltord Kanu
The bench included Seaman, Bergkamp and Pires, and also someone called Kolo Toure, at the time more or less completely unknown.
The game started and immediately it was profoundly obvious that there was a ridiculous difference in class. Newcastle came pouring forward from the off, and we never got out of our own half in any serious capacity. Straight away, a brutal Shearer free kick was tipped over by Wright, showing characteristic agility that Taylor now provides us with - Wright had one of his better games on this occasion; without him the result could have been dire and I can only speculate on exactly where a series of long range belters and close range bullet headers might have ended up.
Still, a trademark piece of Vieira power play gave us a slight glimmer of hope; he couldn’t produce a finish after an awesome run forward, but the ball broke away and an unlikely source did just that. Wiltord had no right to beat Distin on the touchline but he didn’t let that bother him - a very accurate and technically superb cross saw Edu sliding in at the near post to neatly turn the ball in.
I can’t stress the importance of this goal enough. We had one effort on goal of any merit, and converted it - if Newcastle had struck first the double could very well have fallen away before our eyes. Edu’s involvement was the sole attacking factor in our acquirement of a replay. Now it was all down to how the defence would cope.
As it turned out, they did fairly well, but I must admit that Newcastle contributed to their own downfall as much as we did. The ruthless barrage continued - Robert hit the bar with a bouncing volley and forced an awkward diving save off Wright from an outrageous distance. Distin had an effort hacked off the line by Dixon. Even Nikos Dabizas joined in the shooting practice, failing to score by a hair’s breadth, and even with a lead at half time, no-one was feeling too confident. The advantage had been kept through a rare combination of luck and good positioning on the part of Wright and three of his back four - unfortunately, Stepanovs was being completely shown up by the might of Shearer, meaning Campbell was doubling up trying to mark him and leaving Robert to his own devices.
The **** finally hit the fan five minutes into the second half, and it did so in emphatic style. Stepanovs committed himself and was taken out by a headed Shearer flick-on - Robert chested down and hammered a low drive inches past the fingertips of Wright (At full stretch) and into the corner. It seemed now that Newcastle had to win. They had the momentum, the skill and the rapidity to punish us, potentially severely, but Pires and Bergkamp were swiftly brought into play and immediately had a slight calming effect - not much, but enough to tip the balance back towards us a fraction. Their hold-up work in the Newcastle half took the sting from the incessant home attacking and gave our back line some respite and time to compose themselves - while they were never going to get a second goal, there was a very interesting indication here of just how they compare to the players on the books of other Premiership teams - they just have to be on the field, not necessarily even touching the ball, to make an intense difference on how a given game is conducted. Little did we know what was around the corner for the French genius.
This isn’t to say that the onslaught was halted, because it wasn’t. The breathtaking awful Carl Cort had two glorious chances to win the tie - taking a fresh air shot from an unmissable cross at the back post brought some (at the time, what seemed like) gallows humour to a day that most gooners chose to forget.
This game makes pretty grim viewing. In my humble opinion, it was an absolute miracle that Arsenal managed to crawl away limply clutching a draw - by rights, Newcastle should have won by about five goals against the weakest Arsenal team that has taken the field in a non-Worthington Cup game overseen by Arsène Wenger.
Just thinking about what might have happened last season if Cort had connected to win the game late on...it’s horrible. Would we have gone on to storm the league anyway, free of fixture worries? Or would the stuffing have been knocked out of us mentally, resulting in a capitulation without Thierry?
We all know what happened in the replay. Newcastle fielded the same team, barring McClen who was replaced by Dyer, and were completely taken out by Dennis Bergkamp.
More significant was of course Pires’ injury. Now, think a minute. If Pires and Bergkamp had played from the start at St James’, would Arsenal have won? It seems more likely - Dennis would have replaced the anonymous Kanu to partner Wiltord, while Pires would have gone on the left, with Edu swapping with Grimandi to make a first class midfield and strikeforce. Hypothesis maybe, but hear me out. Now, no replay equals no injury to Pires.
What does this mean? Perhaps no place for Freddie on the left wing....from where he scored the goals to win the league. It’s a fascinating thought - that the absence of Robert Pires allowed Ljungberg the position he favours, resulting in those strikes which started on April 1st and of course continued up until the FA Cup Final.
While not a goal that directly won Arsenal anything, I would rank Edu’s goal as the most significant from last season, purely because of the repercussions it threw up. And it’s for this reason I think of this game as one which shaped last season, and therefore shaped Wenger’s Arsenal as a whole.
Ally Winford
Game 1 - Newcastle 1 Arsenal 1 (FAC Quarter Final, 9th March 2002)
I begin this series with a game that was painful, desperate and, ultimately, in a bizarre series of linked events that may or may not have any significance at all, the key to the double. I’ll explain.
Coming into this one, it was becoming very, very clear that our destiny was firmly in our hands. Unlike the previous season where there was something wrong that at the time nobody could quite explain, (It turned out to be the absence of a pacey, strong defender - easily solved, really.) we’d been going like a train, demolishing Fulham, Bayer Leverkusen and Gillingham. We’d also watched over an astonishingly easy victory over our opponents in a league game the previous Saturday, due in large part to that goal - the fans sang “Can we play you every week”, and matters seemed to be well in hand.
There had been a hiccup in midweek though, unforeseen too - Derby managed to shut out the unstoppable Arsenal stikeforce for 70 minutes, and Pires and Bergkamp had generally run themselves into the floor trying to break through, eventually finding a quite sublime move which ended up with the Frenchman slotting home and eventually proving to be the difference. Not helping either was a three match ban slapped on Thierry for his antics at the end of the 3-1 defeat against the Toon in December - although we’d managed without him in the 2-0 win after all, so this was generally seen as a minor inconvenience; nothing was expected to halt the Arsenal rampage to a third double.
The return of Ljungberg after an awkward injury was a plus point, and it seemed that any disadvantages were being cancelled out.
Behind the scenes, matters were obviously less clear cut and rosy; players were simply knackered, Wenger had resolved to use Richard Wright in the Cup (The fans hadn’t figured this out yet), and what with injuries and the suspension of Thierry, the squad was being severely tested. Just as we were getting ready to savour another dose of free flowing attacking football, the bombshell of the team sheet looked to have blown everything right out of the water.
Arsenal ran out at St James’ and I remember seeing Grimandi. “That’s Grimandi”, I said. “Away” was the general response from the sofa. Then I saw some tall dark-skinned guy trotting out of the tunnel. “Who’s that?” came the uncertain comment from my right. To be honest, no-one had seen much, if anything, of Edu previously and it slowly dawned that Arsenal were being forced to field a shabby, makeshift team worryingly looking like their reserves. This was the team that was being asked to shut out one of the fastest and most prolific offences in English football -
Wright
Lauren Stepanovs Campbell Dixon
Ljungberg Grimandi Vieira Edu
Wiltord Kanu
The bench included Seaman, Bergkamp and Pires, and also someone called Kolo Toure, at the time more or less completely unknown.
The game started and immediately it was profoundly obvious that there was a ridiculous difference in class. Newcastle came pouring forward from the off, and we never got out of our own half in any serious capacity. Straight away, a brutal Shearer free kick was tipped over by Wright, showing characteristic agility that Taylor now provides us with - Wright had one of his better games on this occasion; without him the result could have been dire and I can only speculate on exactly where a series of long range belters and close range bullet headers might have ended up.
Still, a trademark piece of Vieira power play gave us a slight glimmer of hope; he couldn’t produce a finish after an awesome run forward, but the ball broke away and an unlikely source did just that. Wiltord had no right to beat Distin on the touchline but he didn’t let that bother him - a very accurate and technically superb cross saw Edu sliding in at the near post to neatly turn the ball in.
I can’t stress the importance of this goal enough. We had one effort on goal of any merit, and converted it - if Newcastle had struck first the double could very well have fallen away before our eyes. Edu’s involvement was the sole attacking factor in our acquirement of a replay. Now it was all down to how the defence would cope.
As it turned out, they did fairly well, but I must admit that Newcastle contributed to their own downfall as much as we did. The ruthless barrage continued - Robert hit the bar with a bouncing volley and forced an awkward diving save off Wright from an outrageous distance. Distin had an effort hacked off the line by Dixon. Even Nikos Dabizas joined in the shooting practice, failing to score by a hair’s breadth, and even with a lead at half time, no-one was feeling too confident. The advantage had been kept through a rare combination of luck and good positioning on the part of Wright and three of his back four - unfortunately, Stepanovs was being completely shown up by the might of Shearer, meaning Campbell was doubling up trying to mark him and leaving Robert to his own devices.
The **** finally hit the fan five minutes into the second half, and it did so in emphatic style. Stepanovs committed himself and was taken out by a headed Shearer flick-on - Robert chested down and hammered a low drive inches past the fingertips of Wright (At full stretch) and into the corner. It seemed now that Newcastle had to win. They had the momentum, the skill and the rapidity to punish us, potentially severely, but Pires and Bergkamp were swiftly brought into play and immediately had a slight calming effect - not much, but enough to tip the balance back towards us a fraction. Their hold-up work in the Newcastle half took the sting from the incessant home attacking and gave our back line some respite and time to compose themselves - while they were never going to get a second goal, there was a very interesting indication here of just how they compare to the players on the books of other Premiership teams - they just have to be on the field, not necessarily even touching the ball, to make an intense difference on how a given game is conducted. Little did we know what was around the corner for the French genius.
This isn’t to say that the onslaught was halted, because it wasn’t. The breathtaking awful Carl Cort had two glorious chances to win the tie - taking a fresh air shot from an unmissable cross at the back post brought some (at the time, what seemed like) gallows humour to a day that most gooners chose to forget.
This game makes pretty grim viewing. In my humble opinion, it was an absolute miracle that Arsenal managed to crawl away limply clutching a draw - by rights, Newcastle should have won by about five goals against the weakest Arsenal team that has taken the field in a non-Worthington Cup game overseen by Arsène Wenger.
Just thinking about what might have happened last season if Cort had connected to win the game late on...it’s horrible. Would we have gone on to storm the league anyway, free of fixture worries? Or would the stuffing have been knocked out of us mentally, resulting in a capitulation without Thierry?
We all know what happened in the replay. Newcastle fielded the same team, barring McClen who was replaced by Dyer, and were completely taken out by Dennis Bergkamp.
More significant was of course Pires’ injury. Now, think a minute. If Pires and Bergkamp had played from the start at St James’, would Arsenal have won? It seems more likely - Dennis would have replaced the anonymous Kanu to partner Wiltord, while Pires would have gone on the left, with Edu swapping with Grimandi to make a first class midfield and strikeforce. Hypothesis maybe, but hear me out. Now, no replay equals no injury to Pires.
What does this mean? Perhaps no place for Freddie on the left wing....from where he scored the goals to win the league. It’s a fascinating thought - that the absence of Robert Pires allowed Ljungberg the position he favours, resulting in those strikes which started on April 1st and of course continued up until the FA Cup Final.
While not a goal that directly won Arsenal anything, I would rank Edu’s goal as the most significant from last season, purely because of the repercussions it threw up. And it’s for this reason I think of this game as one which shaped last season, and therefore shaped Wenger’s Arsenal as a whole.
Ally Winford
