September 15, 2001
Match report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/1543519.stm
Arsenal traveled to Craven Cottage to play Fulham who had returned to the Premier League after a 30 year absence thanks to their talented but fiery manager Jean Tigana. Tigana was manager of Monaco after Wenger left for Grampus 8 in Japan and took the Monegasque to the Ligue Un title in 1997. Tigana has also coached a young Thierry Henry at the time. And to cement the Arsenal ties in this match, Fulham started with former youth academy player Luis Boa Morte and Steed Malbranque – who had rejected Arsene and Arsenal as a 17 year old.
Fulham started their Premier League revival sponsored by Pizza Hut which looked hilarious to me for some reason. But Pizza Hut in 2001 was on a brand re-imaging super campaign, which included sponsoring Fulham and sending a “pizza” to the cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Pizza Hut’s ads at the time promised a “new stuffed crust” pizza for $9.99. Today that same pizza costs $24 in my neighborhood, which may be cheaper or more expensive in your area depending on conditions. Cumulative inflation is up 78% over the same time across the USA so that just about checks out in terms of price. Especially considering that minimum wage here is $16.28 and in 2001 it was $6.28: a 159% increase in wages.
You really do need to watch these old matches. They are not at all like I remember and simultaneously exactly like I remember. What I remember most vividly was the tackling. If you watch any of these matches you will see a ton of players going to ground to tackle. This is how we played back then and as I transitioned into an older player playing with younger players that technique was totally refereed and coached out of the game.
“Oi Keown you fucking wanker” – 8:40
And for good reason; because it’s bad football. As Wenger himself would point out a few years later: when you go to ground, you take yourself out of the game and you break up your team’s shape because someone else has to cover for you while you get back up off the ground and scramble back into position.
So I remember this part of the game vividly and the remarkable transition of Wenger from a manager who coached a team to play like this to a manager whose team played Barcelona-like football and stayed on their feet (mostly).
Wenger’s ability to change over the years is what makes him one of the best managers of all time. Just look at Mourinho. Jose came along at a time when everyone was playing more “total” football, more one-v-one duels, and said “hey, let’s play more like football from the 18th Century. Get into two banks of four, stay compact and hit the runners with long out balls” and it crushed (because Abramovich also supplemented that simple and effective tactic with huge outlays for the best players in the world). The problem is that football has moved on from that, hard. Teams play organized like Mourinho but higher up the pitch. Teams are organized in both phases of play and the ability to play out the back is now something every team can do. And teams trigger pressures in small areas, cause overloads, have automatisms. All things that Jose never adapted to. He’s an australopithecine manager in a homo sapiens game.
Vieira was booked shortly after 8 minutes had gone and almost immediately made another slide tackle, which missed by miles. He continued slide tackling for the full match committing several hard fouls that should have seen him dismissed. It occurred to me that Vieira just loved living on the edge. I don’t know if he thought he could get away with more (he was Arsenal captain that day) or if he just didn’t change the way he played when he was on a yellow. My memory isn’t that clear. It’ll be interesting to watch the season and see.
Ljungberg gets his 2nd of the season when Arsenal win a corner and get the ball to Henry. His audacious shot is fired back in and blocked but falls to Ljungberg, who is in the right place at the right time. It’s his second goal from an incredibly high xG position this season.
Fulham fight back a bit and watching Louis Saha dance around and frustrate the Arsenal players, plus play with a spiky temperament – getting under the skin of all the Arsenal defenders – you can see why Siralexferguson paid £17m to take him to Manchester the next summer.
Francis Jeffers got his first Premier League start for Arsenal and he was wearing the number 9. I have no need to speak ill of him. He has admitted that he didn’t give his all for Arsenal but he got to wear the number 9 for Arsenal for one season. He wasn’t up to the level of the other attackers around him and it really shows. But that’s not his fault: Wenger shouldn’t have played him. But Wenger believed in giving young players a chance, even if it meant playing Henry on the left and Pires and Ljungberg in more traditional winger roles. Still, Jeffers should have scored in this match when Henry was played clean through on the right and played a caviar ball right outside of van der Saar’s reach and across an open goal. Jeffers was late and the cross fizzed off his studs.
Henry tried to put the game out of reach but was just off. He had another one of his trademark turns and shots but van der Saar was there for the stop before Jeffers could pounce. He also had another dancing move in the Fulham box and again was just off by a cm.
Fulham equalized after a good start to the 2nd half thanks to a Steed Malbranque goal from short range. Virtually every action in this match has been some sort of individual duel and Cole lost out on a dribble-drive by Boa Morte who crossed to Steed, who had beaten both of Arsenal’s central defenders to the ball. Fulham probably should have taken the lead a few minutes later but Seaman stopped a point-blank header on the line.
Fulham had quite a few more threatening shots and positions but just a slight lack of quality up front and some decent last-ditch defending by Arsenal made the difference. Late on Wenger went for the win and took Jeffers and Pires off for Bergkamp and Wiltord. The difference in CF play was immediate. Henry scored on a mirror run that Jeffers had done but Jeffers missed and Henry slotted home. And the two subs added the cherry on top in stoppage time; Wiltord rounded his defender and dragged the ball back to the top of the box where Dennis was waiting and just pumped the ball into the top corner. It was the final kick of the match and sent Arsenal to the top of the table for the first time that season.
