"Awesome Arsenal take top spot"
"Six-goal
Gunners blast out title warning"
Arsène
Wenger before the match: "Without Dennis Bergkamp it is more difficult
to score goals."
Sat. 24 April,
1999
Middlesbrough
(0) 1 Arsenal (3) 6
Arsenal:
Seaman, Dixon, Bould, Adams, Winterburn, Parlour, Vieira, Petit (Hughes 86),
Overmars (Diawara 70), Anelka, Kanu (Vivas 79). Unused: Lukic, Grimandi.
The goals
one by one
Anatomy
of a goal
What the
papers said: Breathtaking
Arsenal
What the
fans thought: Boring, boring Arsenal
Farewell
to the Riverside
All material in
these pages is from media, Arsenal and Boro sources, as indicated below
|
3 mins:
0-1
|
"Patrick
Vieira bamboozled Andy Townsend by flicking the ball casually over his
head and when he slipped a pass through to Nicolas Anelka, Steve Vickers
mistimed his tackle and Marc Overmars converted the penalty."
|
|
38
mins: 0-2
video
clip
|
"Anelka
took the pressure off with Arsenal's second, a masterpiece of simplicity.
Dean Gordon fumbled, Vieira pounced, and slid a precision diagonal pass
to the teenager. He finished with the combination of accuracy and arrogance
which is so Nicolas Anelka."
|
45
mins: 0-3
video
clip
|
"Kanu
began the move, beating Gordon to put Anelka free on the right flank.
His low cross was nudged by Overmars and Kanu neatly side-stepped Gordon
to ram home his shot."
|
|
58
mins: 0-4
video
clip
|
"a goal
of beautiful simplicity, economy and selflessness. Vieira started and
finished this one. He played a one-two that freed Anelka on the right
and then hurtled towards the box. Anelka cut inside and teed up Overmars
who shaped to shoot but passed the ball square to Vieira instead and the
Frenchman stroked it past Schwarzer."
|
|
60
mins: 0-5
Anatomy
of a goal
video
clip
|
"There
was one hour on the clock, four goals in the Middlesbrough net and Arsenal
were on the march again. Ray Parlour had the ball on the edge of the Boro
area and was confronted by a couple of by then exceedingly indecisive
defenders. Parlour swatted the ball nonchalantly into space with the outside
of his right foot, leaving the Boro players Vladimir Kinder and Dean Gordon
unsure whether to make the first move for it.
By the
time they had thought about it Lee Dixon was in possession and measuring
up a cross to Nwankwo Kanu lurking near the penalty spot. Duly the ball
was centred, but it was at an unpromising height, Kanu had a marker,
and besides he was side-on to goal. Maybe he would lay it off.
No. What
Kanu did was rush at the speeding ball, accept it first time and initiate
a sort of airborne Cruyff turn all in the one liquid move. With a flick
cum drag-back he dispatched a back-heel volley into the bottom corner.
It probably had back-spin on it."
|
|
79
mins: 0-6
video
clip
|
"Anelka
sent three defenders for an early cup of tea before blasting home number
six. "
|
