da betsul： Arsenal have always been accused of trying to score the perfect goal.
da dobrowin： The Gunners were often mocked throughout Arsene Wenger’s time in charge for attempting to walk the ball into the net, for trying to ensure that every single player had a touch of the ball before it nestled into the old onion bag.
As the likes of Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira, and Dennis Bergkamp faded away from the club, the likes of Cesc Fabregas and Mesut Ozil perhaps became emblematic of that exact joke, of the perfect football Arsenal attempted to play.
Yet, they didn’t always used to be that way – and you don’t even have to span as far back as the George Graham era to find a time when the north London outfit weren’t quite so obsessed with the means justifying the ends. During the first portion of Wenger’s tenure, when silverware flooded into Highbury at incredible velocity, Arsenal possessed a perfect balance between style, flair, grit and physicality.
Take Marc Overmars’ goal at Old Trafford from the 1997-98 season for instance, the winner in a 1-0 win that proved to have an intrinsic impact on the title race as Arsenal claimed their first of the Premier League era; finishing just one point above Manchester United. No doubt, the single-goal affair in Manchester wasn’t one for the neutrals, but it was a massive three points nonetheless – sourced by perhaps the most un-Arsenal goal of Wenger’s lengthy tutelage.
Rather than falling into the age-old Arsenal trap of trying to play the ball through the most delicate of spaces in the middle of the park, allowing the opposition to sit deep and sucker them in before launching passes into space out wide on the counter, Lee Dixon decided to bypass the midfield completely, pumping the ball straight to the forward line. A few rounds of head-tennis later and Overmars had found his way into the penalty area, speeding around the United defence to set up a simple pass into the bottom corner.
No rocket science, tactical ingenuity or world-class quality was required for Overmars to provide one of the most important victories of Wenger’s career, a goal that grabbed only his second win over Sir Alex Ferguson, his first ever win at Old Trafford and put Arsenal firmly on course for his first ever English title. Had Dixon not booted the long diagonal that the Dutchman eventually latched onto, that season and indeed Wenger’s entire Arsenal career could have panned out incredibly differently.
Of course, at this point Arsenal still contained traces of the old one-nil days, not least including their famous back four which – including David Seaman – was still intact. But fast forward five years to unquestionably Wenger’s greatest achievement as Arsenal manager, the Invincibles season, and the Gunners still had that unique mix of technical and physical qualities.
In fact, Patrick Vieira and Gilberto Silva formed arguably the most defensively resolute and physical title-winning engine room in Premier League history, until Jose Mourinho ushered in the era of three-man midfields the season after.
While silverware often eluded Wenger in his latter years – particularly the Premier League title – he can perhaps chuckle at the fact that his first title was all but secured with a passage of play he then sought to eradicate from his teams.