Saturday, 29 September 2001.
The number one song in the UK is Kylie Minogue’s Can’t Get You Out of My Head. A snappy tune that is still getting play today, mostly on TikTok but that is today’s biggest radio station. I had heard the song before (many times, many places) but didn’t know who the singer was. Minogue seems like a good person and she’s a breast cancer survivor so I won’t be making any jokes at her expense.
On TV in the USA Samurai Jack was just making waves on Cartoon Network. While on TV in the UK on this date, Robert Brydges would be the third winner of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? The previous third winner of Millionaire was the infamous Charles Ingram who would later be found guilty in court of cheating to win. Apparently, there was some coughing scheme enacted with his wife and an accomplice.
In the movies the number one film in the USA is still American Pie 2 and it’s hard to stress how much of American and UK pop culture is dominated by film, television, and radio. The early 2000s were a time before streaming services. We had internet but it was mostly used for pirating music (Napster started in 1999 and shut down in July 2001) and porn. In September 2001 Wikipedia was just 9 months old. Netflix was 4 years old but wouldn’t start streaming services until 2007. The signs were there that folks wanted more individual choices and were probably willing to pay for them but the systems to make that possible wouldn’t be in place for several more years. We didn’t even have smartphones. The most popular cell phone on the planet was a Nokia stick phone.
And going back through the list of films in theaters and shows on TV at this time reveals a sick culture! A few days before this match, the sitcom “Ellen” debuted. That was followed by the sitcom “Emeril” and unless you are over 30 you probably don’t know much, if anything, about either of these people. Emeril was a celebrity chef known for his love of gahlic and saying “bam”. After taking the TV chef game by storm, Emeril had completely saturated American culture to the point that Futurama (Matt Groening’s other animated TV show) had a recurring character styled after Emeril named Elzar who would “knock it up a notch” with a spice weasel.
I’m not suggesting that the current, fractured, echo chamber, conspiracy theory soaked culture of white supremacy which vomited up Donald Trump and Boris Johnson is any better (it isn’t) but just explaining why a movie that is as bad as American Pie 2 (the sequel to the movie about a teen who fucked a pie) was box office gold. The box office returns for this film suggest that people watched it multiple times in the theaters, which is astonishing if you’ve ever even seen it once.
In the real world we are just 8 days away from the US and UK invading Afghanistan, a war that the US and UK are pursuing because (checks notes) the Taliban supported the Saudi terrorists who suicide bombed the World Trade Center and Pentagon. We are promised this war will be over quickly. The USA pulls out (to much controversy) of Afghanistan in August, 2021.
Twenty years earlier: Arsenal started the day in 6th place behind Bolton, Villa, Newcastle, Man U, and Leeds. Leeds topped the table because they were hard at work trying to “pull a Leeds” before anyone even knew what pulling a Leeds meant.
Arsenal started the match without 38 year old David Seaman who pulled up with an injury. This handed an Arsenal debut to goalkeeper Richard Wright. Wright would play 12 times for Arsenal this season, earning him a winner’s medal before being sold to Everton in the summer 2002.
Starting up front was the odd team of Henry and Jeffers. Once again Jeffers doesn’t do much but Wenger gives him a chance. Jeffers would pull out of the game at half time and spend the rest of the season out with various “injuries”. Many years later, Jeffers would admit that his attitude was fucked:
“I was out partying, living life, tossing it off in training because I always thought I wouldn’t play Saturday anyway. Now, I look back with a lot of regrets. That is where I should have been putting it in more. Wenger gave me a fair crack of the whip. I haven’t got a bad word to say about him. He tells you how it is, one of the only managers I played for who did. He said there were things going on in my head that shouldn’t have been and that it was an important time in my career.”
Jeffers would go on to say he didn’t throw away his career but the numbers suggest that he did: he played less than 8,000 league minutes (all leagues, all teams) over the next 10 years of his career. About 9 matches a season.
The match starts out pretty quiet but Martin Keown picks up an early yellow. Arsenal supporters who are currently enjoying the 2024/25 Arsenal season will be happy to know that Martin Keown’s first yellow card was for “preventing a quick free kick”. Keown was called for a foul, then got in Christie’s way as he was trying to put the ball down, then chest bumped Christie as he was trying to take the free kick the second time. Since football refereeing is entirely vibes I think it’s fair to say “well that’s probably a yellow card”. But in a twist of fate the British Broadcasting Corporation, a company which takes taxpayers’ money with the explicit intent of pissing everyone off with their terrible reporting, said that the first card was harsh! It’s a wonderful illustration of how much the laws of football really are just vibes and that the vibes change over time.
Thierry Henry scored the opener with a beautiful, direct free kick. I think Jeffers drew the foul on the edge of the box. Then Henry set up and the way he lifts the ball while kicking it is just amazing. Really hard to explain other than to say that the ball seems to stick to his foot momentarily, then rocket straight, then curl perfectly around the keeper’s fingers.
In the second half, Jeffers was replaced and would almost never be seen again. Arsenal were cruising but then Keown got sent off and once again I’d say it’s 100% more fair than almost any yellow card or red card that Arsenal have seen this season. Once again Christie beats Keown and the Arsenal defender just tackles the man from the side while the ball is a meter away from Christie. Just an asinine tackle. “No real play on the ball” kind of stuff.
Up stepped the White Feather Luca Ravanelli who was deep into the sunset of his career. His free kick shot was saved by Wright. Funny story about Ravanelli: he was an Italian international and played for Juventus during their successful 1995 and 1996 campaigns (Serie A and Champions League winner). He got a transfer to Boro in 1996 where he was the highest paid player in the League at £47k a week. He scored 17 goals for Middlesbrough that season but wasn’t at all happy with the conditions and regimen:
“Here there is a different culture and a different mentality. The English have tons of money but they lack the organisation of Italian soccer. The training facilities are not adequate. The stadiums are nice but the rest is just not there. For example, there are no gyms and you don’t practice very much. I am forced to train by myself, using charts that the Juve trainer faxes to me. English players have a natural gift for running but as for explosiveness and reaction time, they can’t match the Italians. In soccer you have to do more than run.”
Ravanelli’s statements weren’t well received at the time but he was correct: English football was decades behind their continental counterparts in terms of tactics and even fitness and diet. If you watch these old matches the lack of organization – even at Arsenal who were accused of playing too pretty a football – is shocking. Players are constantly out of position, there are huge gaps, and passing is often just a scramble to win the ball. Arsene Wenger would use all of that to his advantage literally the year that Ravanelli arrived, improving diet, fitness, and tactics and exploiting the English Premier League’s stubbornness and xenophobia to win Arsenal three League titles.
Arsenal went on to win the match from the penalty spot after the referee determined that Kanu was fouled by the keeper. There was some discussion among the commentators about DOGSO but the ref chose to show a yellow only. Henry stepped up and took a very mid pen which the keeper got a hand on. But the shot had enough power to beat his palms and sail into the net.
Arsenal won 2-0 and after, Henry said that maybe playing with 10 men was sometimes easier than playing with 11.
lol. It probably was, Thierry, back in the Premier League 2001.
