Beaker's View

Well, what can you say? It was a great match and worth the price of the entry fee. At times the game resembled a war with both sides totally committed. My own opinion is that a draw would have been a fair result but unfortunately we were treated to moment of "Winterburn" magic, if such a word can ever be used in conjunction with this man.

The match was played in conditions reminiscent of the Serengeti such was the heat in the East Stand, you'll be able to spot anyone who was up there yesterday as they will all be suffering 3rd degree burns!

We fielded the same side, Le Saux excepted, that played on Thursday, which I thought was an interesting decision considering the effort expended against the Slovakian side. Also an interesting decision given the quality and strength of Arsenal's defence. I thought it would be a certainty for Hughes to start and I thought the height and power of Flo would also be of benefit. Perhaps Ruud was attempting to psyche Wenger out! Whatever, hindsight tells us he got this match wrong all the way through, starting with this decision and running all the way through the match, including the decision to leave poor Paul Hughes alone to cope with Overmars; there was a new dish on the menu in Ossies last night "Roast P.Hughes a la Overmars". Hughes will wake up screaming seeing the oncoming Overmars for many nights to come. I just hope his confidence isn't too badly affected.

Other calamitous management decisions included the decision to try and win the game after we had equalised for 2-2 by sending on a third striker. It was a brave decision but backfired almost instantly with Le Boeuf STUPIDLY getting himself sent off 2 minutes after we'd used or last sub. At that moment we all knew the writing was on the wall.

On the subject of Le Boeuf, a German colleague who was a neutral at the game was amazed to hear Le Boeuf applauded from the field "even though he just cost you the game!". He's got a point really, I mean this was the crucial moment in the game and it was lost in his moment of madness. Sometimes I wish Frank would think, and I also believe (Zola excepted) that we should not hire any more players who have the first name Frank ;-) as they are prone to rushes of blood to the head.

The game itself was so intense it's difficult to recall that many clear cut chances outside of the goals. The opener came from Poyet, ably assisted by Doobs who must have known I had the Uruguayan in my fantasy team as he should have scored himself, heading the ball across the goal for and easy finnish. The equalizer followed very swiftly afterward, you just knew we wouldn't be able to hang on to the lead, courtesy of a suspected handball and a debatable offside decision, Dennis Bergkamp notching easily.

Half time was spent angrily discussing the shortcomings of the officials and practising our sign language skills with the help of the Arsenal fans sitting directly below us. What a lovely bunch they are! They regaled us in the second half with their huge song repotoire that ran to such demanding lyrics and "one team in london" "Ni Gel Win ter Burn" and "Your not very good". Obviously criteria for supporting Arsenal do not stretch any further than knowing the answer to the question "What's your name?"

The second half saw the Dennis Bergkamp show get firmly on the road, resulting in sweeping changes, the first having already taken place at half time with Mark Nichols chucked in the deep end replacing the (IMO) ineffective Petrescu. Next to make way was Vialli, replaced by Hughes, which was swiftly followed by some chaotic defending mainly thanks to Le Boeuf that presented the ball to the un-marked Dennis Bergkamp (unmarked because 3 chelsea players were fighting to present the ball to him on a plate) who scored easily.

At this point there was quite a bit more, not so good natured banter between ourselves and the away fans beneath us, culminating in my highlight of the afternoon; With verbals and visuals still in full swing with those below us, Hughes was played through completely on his own, hostilities between us and the Arse fans momentarily suspended as Hughes crossed perfectly for Zola to finish, rather unconvincingly. Well at this point I rather lost control of myself and spent the next 2 minutes screaming all sorts at our tormentors beneath us. Happy days were here again, but not for long.

I can see what Ruud was thinking, the game was there to be won and we were the home side, Bobby D had not been in the game and the extra striker might have made all the difference, but now we'll never know. Beefy's moment of madness lost the game and we were left to wait till the 88th minute for their Cart horse to administer the killer blow, ably assisted by the ref who probably thought that he hadn't done enough to help Arsenal. We were defending very deep and the ball was played across to Winterburn, Wise was running to cover, and looked like making it, when he was tripped by the ref, providing the extra time necessary to steady himself and hit an unstoppable shot past "Land" De Goey.

At this point we have to be fair to Arsenal and admit that Bergkamp is a genius and given his ability to stay fit, might lead the Gunners to a title this year especially with Wright to partner him.

So to the ratings:

• De Goey 6; made a couple of decent saves retrieved the ball from the back of the net well.
• Le Saux 7; Competent if unspectacular
• P Hughes 5; Roasted alive by Overmars
• Le Boeuf 0; Poor performance that cost him the match.
• Doobs; 7; Generally pretty good. We're going to miss him
• Poyet; 8; Very sound notched as well, suits situations where there is little space it seems
• Wise; 7; Not anywhere near his best, booked as usual though was still the key in our midfield
• Bobby D; 6; I'm afraid I only realised he was on the pitch when he was subbed
• Vialli; 7; Playing quite well I thought but a view not shared by Ruud
• Zola; 8; Thought he was playing well, hopefully the goal will get him going
• Petrescu; 6; Been quiet for 2 games now, lets hop he can snap out of it.
• Subs; Hughes 7 good cross for the goal and the other 2 didn't really make meaningful contributions.

Overall; 7, I though we were unlucky though contrived to make life very difficult for ourselves thanks to Frank Le Boeuf.

"A great game, marred only by a bad result, Brian" (Priesty's view)

Nigel Winterburn. Nigel Winterburn. Nigel Winterburn. Gaaaaaaah. I don't, to paraphrase Victor Meldrew, believe it. If that third Arse goal had been scored by, say, Bob Di Matteo, I'd have surfed over the top of the Shed Upper with sheer ecstasy. As it was, I had to look down at my feet for 30 or so seconds, to avoid seeing the gooner scum capering around the East Stand for all they were worth (not much)

How, you may be asking, (I am) did it happen ? We had dealt with virtually everything the afternoon could throw at us, even scoring first, and then, in the final 3 minutes, Nigel bloody Winterburn had to happen.

Now my mate Beaker says that "a draw would have been a fair result" (see above), and I'd have to agree with him, but I can't help wondering at the wisdom of replacing a midfielder and a defender with two strikers when you're 2-2 in a finely-balanced match. ... And that's the closest you'll get to a complaint about Ruud's tactics from me. If it had come off, people would have been saying he was the biggest tactical genius since Rommel. That's life.

Let's deal with the more controversial aspects of the match first:

• Dennis Wise's two-footed tackle on that git Vieira. Bit out of order going in with two feet, but considering Vieira's contribution to the game had thus far consisted of kicking the crap out of any Chelsea player who came near enough, you'd think that he could look after himself, wouldn't you. Anyway, the video evidence clearly shows that Den actually missed him with his feet, and caught him with a dangerously sharp thigh, causing Vieira to go down as though he'd caught a couple of AK47 rounds in his chest. My missus Jennie commented that "he was a better diver than Jacques Cousteau". How right she was.
• Ray Parlour kicking Le Saux's calves as he went past: a more blatant sending off offence would be difficult to imagine, all ginge gets is a talking to. Let's just say that honours were even. On the other hand, ask yourself how Frank Sinclair felt about being sent off for trying to AVOID getting chopped last week.
• Whatsisname Petit: What a dirty, mouthy, horrible little turd. 'Nuff said.
• Franck Leboeuf's sending off: He got booked twice, which means you get sent off. What else do you want ? Pity, though, we would have had a better chance of winning or at least drawing if he hadn't.
• "land" De Goey. We've got four other keepers waiting in the wings, you daft sod. Try coming out of the six yard box occasionally. The second goal was down to you, not the 2 defenders getting in each other's way. If you'd been commanding your box it would never have happened. I forgive you, but not for much longer.