For those who live in monasteries, some football news. Arsenal are one match away from an historic unbeaten season atop the Premiership. Leicester will become their 38th unsuccessful opponents on Saturday. Put your brightest red shirt on it.
According to the pundits (I am not one of them, I’m an expert, me), it’s all down to that nice chap Thierry Henry, who has became the first man to win two successive Footballer of the Year awards in England. Top scorer and arch-goal-assist-maker, he alone is responsible for this incredible unbeaten success.
But that’s not quite true is it? Do fancy-pants strikers with incredible pace and quick feet really win titles? As a lifelong defender, I can categorically state: Not on their own they don’t. He may be talented, photo-bloody-genic and carefree as a Queen’s corgi but just look at Arsenal’s defensive record.
Their unsung foursome of Lauren, Sol Campbell, Kolo Toure and Ashley Cole (with Martin Keown, Gael Clichy and Pascale Cygan in reserve) have simply come of age this winter, conceding just 25 goals in 37 games so far. That’s five goals better than Chelsea and better than any Arsenal side since the Premiership began in 1992.
Now look carefully at La Liga in Spain. Real Madrid are full of Henry types. Luis Figo, Ronaldo, that blond geezer with the pop-star wife and Raul are all wonderful to watch. But they’ve conceded 48 goals in 36 games. Top dogs in Spain? That’ll be Valencia with their miserly defensive record of 24 conceded in 36 … they’re seven points clear of Madrid and have eased away to win the title.
In the Bundesliga, Bayern Munich are the big boys. But they’ve conceded 36 in 32 — which leaves them a massive nine points adrift of unfashionable Werder Bremen, who have condeded 29 in 32.
As the French found during World War II, it doesn’t matter how your attack looks, if you’ve got the unwieldy, ageing Maginot Line as your defensive formation, you haven’t got a chance.
Arsenal had just that when Arsène Wenger took over. For more years than this correspondent cares to remember, they stood firm across the narrow Highbury pitch: Lee Dixon (born 1964) and Nigel Winterburn (1963) at full-back, Steve Bould (1963) and Tony Adams (1966) at centre-half, with Martin Keown (1962) in reserve.
Wenger, from German-speaking Strasbourg in France, knows all about the Maginot Line. It was a huge defensive monolith built by the French to defend against the type of German aggression that led to World War I. Sadly, when the Germans produced their revolutionary blitzkrieg, the heavy weaponry and deep trenches of the Maginot Line simply couldn’t cope with the speed of the advancing Wehrmacht. They danced around the lot and France surrendered.
The non-surrendering Frenchman Wenger said when he arrived at Arsenal in September 1996: ‘It will be very difficult to dismantle a defence like this. It will take time.â€
It did. The old guard won the double in 1998 and most of them (apart from Bould and Winterburn) were still there for a second double in 2002. But it couldn’t last forever.
In 2000 Winterburn (429 league games) went off to West Ham and Cameroon midfielder Lauren Etaime Mayer, who arrived from Real Mallorca at the end of 1999, eventually filled his number 3 jersey. He’s played 30 of the 37 Premiership games so far this season.
Lee Dixon (439 league games) was next, stepping down at left back in 2002 under pressure from home-reared midfielder Ashley Cole. He’s not a great defender, but a quick and effective counter-attacker who walked in to the England side and has rarely looked back.
Bould (272 league games) left for Sunderland in 1999, then Tony Adams (exactly 500 league games) decided to retire after lifting his second championship in four years at the end of the 2002 season.
By then, of course, Sol Campbell had arrived after a highly controversial free move from Spurs in July 2001. He was the perfect replacement for the north London legend called Adams.
Then came the master-stroke from Wenger. Martin Keown (283 league games) stepped up after Bould’s departure but, by the start of this season, injury and age had taken their toll on the quick defender.
Kolo Touré, the utility man signed from ASEC Abidjan in Côte D’Ivoire for nothing at the end of the 2002 season has gradually been transformed into a centre-half of international class.
With players like Oleg Luzhny, Pascal Cygan, the unlamented Oleg Step-anovs, curly Gilles Grimandi and young Philippe Senderos all falling by the wayside, Wenger has kept faith in Touré, lanky, loose-limbed but very, very effective.
And now Wenger has a back-four which appears to be every bit as solid as the 2002 title-winners (36 goals conceded) or the 1998 double team (33).
Mind you, in 1991 Arsenal won the league with that old back four conceding just 18 goals in front of the young David Seaman —minus the horrific ponytail — who emerged as a hero. My argument is strengthened here: Jens Lehmann, the current goalie, is no Seaman. The German is slightly bonkers, argumentative and, the worst goalkeeping sin of all, he’s inconsistent.
But despite his less-than-perfect presence, Wenger has welded together three makeshift defenders and sometimes sluggish Sol to create the watertight defensive unit which has enabled Henry, Robert Pires and Patrick Vieira to thrive as they push forward.You’ll see it again on Saturday as Leicester succumb to a side which must now rank up with the best of them.
Chelsea, burdened by the imminent departure of boss Claudio Ranieri, have secured second position and will give Arsenal a terrific run for their money next season. But amid the current furore over their new boss (Porto’s Jose Mourinho is now behind Monaco’s Didier Deschamps in the running, I’m told) I can see Leeds grabbing a point in a disappointing farewell to Claudio at Stamford Bridge.
Thing is, all those Leeds players need to move on, and they’ll be playing really, really well hoping for a decent transfer when the window opens at the end of the month. Or am I just a cynic?
Decaying Manchester United go to upwardly mobile Aston Villa, David O’Leary’s surprise European contenders. Villa will win this one and keep Sir Alex Ferguson down in the dumps after United’s worst season in a decade.
Watch Nolberto Solano dominate. Why, oh why did Newcastle let the Peru captain go?
The Geordies go to Liverpool after lsong a protracted battle for that final European place. I can see the honours being shared as Liverpool celebrate Champions League football and the possibility of hanging on to Steve Gerrard and Michael Owen.
With relegation settled, little rests on Wolves vs Spurs, though I’d love to see Spurs take another shock beating. Portsmouth have managerial unrest — Harry Redknapp is furious with his chairperson, Milan Madaric, who is threatening to fire the assistant manager, Jim Smith — so they could tumble to Middlesbrough.
Manchester City and Everton, two of the season’s worst performers, will probably draw 0-0, let’s just hope England’s young striker Wayne Rooney doesn’t get injured before Euro 2004.
Blackburn need to make up for an awful season with a win over visiting Birmingham, while Bolton would love to see off Fulham and Charlton should be too much for Southampton at The Valley.
And that’s it. Season over. FA Cup final to come. Not to mention those division one play-offs. The play-off semifinal on Saturday should see Ipswich edge West Ham but I go for the Hammers over two legs. They should join Norwich and West Brom in the top flight next season.
But that’s another story.