I know a lot of Arsenal fans don’t buy Myles Palmer.
Don’t like the short paragraphs.
Or unfinished ideas.
But I quite like him – sometimes he gets things. Like the other week when he made this comparison between Ruud Gullit and Thierry Henry, and it was inspired. Anyone whoever watched Gullit, particularly in the great AC Milan days, but even in his dotage at Chelsea, would know quite how special a talent he was. Someone who could literally do anything, and as a result didn’t really play anywhere – just wherever he liked. Centre forward at AC Milan, midfield for Holland, sweeper for Chelsea. Now, I doubt we’ll be seeing our boy slotting in behind Campbell and K-Lo anytime soon, but the comparison is valid. Henry is not as all round brilliant as Gullit was, he’s useless in the air, thoroughly useless, and as Palmer says, he’s still learning how to accept the responsibility of the absolute freedom Wenger clearly wants to give him.
Yesterday was another example of what I said after the Lokomotiv Moskow game. Wengerball seems to be dead, certainly in the top games. And after 7 points out of 9 against United, Newcastle and Liverpool, I’m not complaining. The press seems to be picking up on this – the Sunday Telegraph today suggests the same. That this was a George Graham-team performance with a topping of sheer Gallic class. We rode our luck, Liverpool wasted opportunities, but we won, and won the second half well.
Although the plaudits belong to Edu for delivering probably his best performance in an Arsenal shirt, and a drastic improvement on the gruesome passing display in Moscow; to Toure for another fine performance, and, over the course of 45 difficult minutes, an obviously increased understanding of how to deal with small, swift strikers, it was Henry’s game that gave me the most heart. Aliadiere’s inclusion freed him in the same way Wenger set him free against Southampton and Sunderland in those two mournful thrashings we delivered last season when the title was gone. Those games didn’t matter, didn’t count. They vented frustration. And Thierry played them not as a striker but as a playmaker.
Everything he did started around the halfway line, using the space the fear of his pace and the delicacy of his control forces defenders to give him. It’s a beautiful thing to watch, fear. Zidane instils it - so does Henry. It looks like slow-motion. But it only really happens a long way out from goal, when the threat of his pace and his control makes defenders back off. And it clearly needs someone else playing in front of him, a difficult job that Aliadiere, our second favourite wonderkid in Pennant’s absence, did pretty well in suggesting he might be capable of doing, no matter who Wenger buys in January.
Chemical Ali might think he’s like Henry as a player, but he certainly didn’t show it yesterday. To all intents and purposes he played as a lone striker, with Henry only venturing towards the box when the ball was at his feet. That’s a tough role, particularly against a team as good as Liverpool, particularly on your full debut. But he did well enough. Henry however at moments was exceptional. I don’t believe, as he gets used to this role him and Le Boss have cooked up, he’ll score as many goals as before – if he does my estimation of him will only rise all the higher. But Aliadiere, or whoever it may be is surely going to benefit, because it allows Henry to be the dictator of our attacking play, the cog around which everything revolves.
Partly, that might be an indication of how much deeper Wenger is having us play in this sudden switch to defence-first football. Vieira could dictate the beginning of our moves at the height of Wengerball, moving through the middle thirty yards of the pitch to set us in motion. Henry was making those movements yesterday, as Edu and Silva sat deep. And slowly, slowly we took control, having been overwhelmed by the magnificent trio of Gerrard, Kewell and Owen for half an hour.
It’s quite a unit Liverpool have there, three players as good at their jobs as any in the game. Partly it’s because I’m an England fan, but I really enjoy watching Owen and Gerrard play. They’re direct and lethal, and a useful corrective to Arsenal’s tendency to over-elaborate (which seems to be disappearing as well). And Kewell is some talent. However, I’m glad we didn’t buy him – he’s really shockingly similar to Henry in what he does on the pitch. Sharp as opposed to stylish, better in the air, less expansive, him and Henry may have out-techniqued themselves to death if played together.
And Henry may have disappeared on a few big occasions for us, but he’s never gone quite as willingly absent as Kewell did in the last twenty minutes yesterday. He needs to sort that out. He disappeared partly because of Owen’s painful looking injury, and partly because we had quelled all three of them by then. Having done that we delivered a last half hour that made me proud. Never abandoning the base of defensive concentration that had got us into a position from which to win, Pires, Henry and Edu slowly picked Liverpool apart as Aliadiere, and later Wiltord ran Biscan ragged.
And what a finish from Bobby. Edu’s made quite a demand for first team football in the last few games, but Bobby, most importantly for us, seems to be finding himself again. Parlour’s not adding anything for us on the right in terms of attack, but his filling in on defence is really helping – Freddie might find himself on the bench until the suspensions kick in. But Bobby coming back to form is what we need, to play with and off Henry – to score goals like that.
Whatever it all means for our first choice XI, something we might not see for a while - and I’ve got a sneaky urge to see Lauren on the right wing if Volz successfully comes into the team during the suspension period – we’re evolving pretty fast into the type of team I’d hoped we could be. A Valencia, a France. Silk wrapped in steel. Forget about Middlesborough – that game’s ancient history now, a type of play we’ll only see infrequently again - this was our best performance so far this year. A whole set of new beginnings: for Aliadiere as a leader of the line, for Henry as our pivotal link between deep-midfield and attack, and for Arsenal as a defensive-minded team who can break the opponents will to win apart with patience and skill. It was a new day.
And that.
As Myles Palmer might say.
Is that.
Don’t like the short paragraphs.
Or unfinished ideas.
But I quite like him – sometimes he gets things. Like the other week when he made this comparison between Ruud Gullit and Thierry Henry, and it was inspired. Anyone whoever watched Gullit, particularly in the great AC Milan days, but even in his dotage at Chelsea, would know quite how special a talent he was. Someone who could literally do anything, and as a result didn’t really play anywhere – just wherever he liked. Centre forward at AC Milan, midfield for Holland, sweeper for Chelsea. Now, I doubt we’ll be seeing our boy slotting in behind Campbell and K-Lo anytime soon, but the comparison is valid. Henry is not as all round brilliant as Gullit was, he’s useless in the air, thoroughly useless, and as Palmer says, he’s still learning how to accept the responsibility of the absolute freedom Wenger clearly wants to give him.
Yesterday was another example of what I said after the Lokomotiv Moskow game. Wengerball seems to be dead, certainly in the top games. And after 7 points out of 9 against United, Newcastle and Liverpool, I’m not complaining. The press seems to be picking up on this – the Sunday Telegraph today suggests the same. That this was a George Graham-team performance with a topping of sheer Gallic class. We rode our luck, Liverpool wasted opportunities, but we won, and won the second half well.
Although the plaudits belong to Edu for delivering probably his best performance in an Arsenal shirt, and a drastic improvement on the gruesome passing display in Moscow; to Toure for another fine performance, and, over the course of 45 difficult minutes, an obviously increased understanding of how to deal with small, swift strikers, it was Henry’s game that gave me the most heart. Aliadiere’s inclusion freed him in the same way Wenger set him free against Southampton and Sunderland in those two mournful thrashings we delivered last season when the title was gone. Those games didn’t matter, didn’t count. They vented frustration. And Thierry played them not as a striker but as a playmaker.
Everything he did started around the halfway line, using the space the fear of his pace and the delicacy of his control forces defenders to give him. It’s a beautiful thing to watch, fear. Zidane instils it - so does Henry. It looks like slow-motion. But it only really happens a long way out from goal, when the threat of his pace and his control makes defenders back off. And it clearly needs someone else playing in front of him, a difficult job that Aliadiere, our second favourite wonderkid in Pennant’s absence, did pretty well in suggesting he might be capable of doing, no matter who Wenger buys in January.
Chemical Ali might think he’s like Henry as a player, but he certainly didn’t show it yesterday. To all intents and purposes he played as a lone striker, with Henry only venturing towards the box when the ball was at his feet. That’s a tough role, particularly against a team as good as Liverpool, particularly on your full debut. But he did well enough. Henry however at moments was exceptional. I don’t believe, as he gets used to this role him and Le Boss have cooked up, he’ll score as many goals as before – if he does my estimation of him will only rise all the higher. But Aliadiere, or whoever it may be is surely going to benefit, because it allows Henry to be the dictator of our attacking play, the cog around which everything revolves.
Partly, that might be an indication of how much deeper Wenger is having us play in this sudden switch to defence-first football. Vieira could dictate the beginning of our moves at the height of Wengerball, moving through the middle thirty yards of the pitch to set us in motion. Henry was making those movements yesterday, as Edu and Silva sat deep. And slowly, slowly we took control, having been overwhelmed by the magnificent trio of Gerrard, Kewell and Owen for half an hour.
It’s quite a unit Liverpool have there, three players as good at their jobs as any in the game. Partly it’s because I’m an England fan, but I really enjoy watching Owen and Gerrard play. They’re direct and lethal, and a useful corrective to Arsenal’s tendency to over-elaborate (which seems to be disappearing as well). And Kewell is some talent. However, I’m glad we didn’t buy him – he’s really shockingly similar to Henry in what he does on the pitch. Sharp as opposed to stylish, better in the air, less expansive, him and Henry may have out-techniqued themselves to death if played together.
And Henry may have disappeared on a few big occasions for us, but he’s never gone quite as willingly absent as Kewell did in the last twenty minutes yesterday. He needs to sort that out. He disappeared partly because of Owen’s painful looking injury, and partly because we had quelled all three of them by then. Having done that we delivered a last half hour that made me proud. Never abandoning the base of defensive concentration that had got us into a position from which to win, Pires, Henry and Edu slowly picked Liverpool apart as Aliadiere, and later Wiltord ran Biscan ragged.
And what a finish from Bobby. Edu’s made quite a demand for first team football in the last few games, but Bobby, most importantly for us, seems to be finding himself again. Parlour’s not adding anything for us on the right in terms of attack, but his filling in on defence is really helping – Freddie might find himself on the bench until the suspensions kick in. But Bobby coming back to form is what we need, to play with and off Henry – to score goals like that.
Whatever it all means for our first choice XI, something we might not see for a while - and I’ve got a sneaky urge to see Lauren on the right wing if Volz successfully comes into the team during the suspension period – we’re evolving pretty fast into the type of team I’d hoped we could be. A Valencia, a France. Silk wrapped in steel. Forget about Middlesborough – that game’s ancient history now, a type of play we’ll only see infrequently again - this was our best performance so far this year. A whole set of new beginnings: for Aliadiere as a leader of the line, for Henry as our pivotal link between deep-midfield and attack, and for Arsenal as a defensive-minded team who can break the opponents will to win apart with patience and skill. It was a new day.
And that.
As Myles Palmer might say.
Is that.
