FA PREMIER LEAGUE
Saturday 14th November, 1998
ARSENAL 0(0) TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 0(0)
Attendance:- 38,278
Referee:- Mr. A.B. Wilkie
Teams:-
Arsenal:- Seaman; Dixon, Keown, Adams, Winterburn; Parlour, Vieira, Petit, Overmars; Ljungberg (sub Wreh, 62), Anelka (sub Boa Morte, 79)
Subs not used:- Manninger; Hughes, Grimandi
Booked:- Winterburn
Spurs:- Baardsen; Carr, Scales, Vega, Campbell, Edinburgh; Anderton, Calderwood (sub Sinton, 78), Nielsen; Iversen, Armstrong
Subs not used:- Walker; Clemence, Ginola; Allen
Booked:- Armstrong, Nielsen
NO MORE HIGHBURY BITTERNESS, INSISTS GRAHAM
George Graham has buried the hatchet with Arsenal and
insists there is no more bad feeling left.
Now that his much-hyped return to Highbury as Tottenham
manager is history, he just wants to concentrate on the task
of rebuilding his Spurs side - in the quality image that
Arsene Wenger has achieved with the Double-winning Gunners.
Graham welcomed Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood's
invitation to step into the Highbury boardroom for a
kiss-and-make-up drink after Saturday's goalless draw.
It was the boardroom, where just under three years ago,
Hill-Wood told him he was being sacked over the `transfer
bungs' scandal which tarnished Graham's glittering career
there.
His dismissal came just 24 hours before the Football
Association's bungs commission found Graham guilty of
accepting illicit payments from Norwegian agent Rune Hauge
in two transfer deals and he was subsequently banned for a
year.
And although he felt that Arsenal should have stood by him,
he now insists: "That's all water under the bridge. There
is no more bitterness.
"My return to Highbury with Spurs was blown up out of all
proportion by other people and it's good that it's over even
though I never believed it would be much of a problem.
"I still have a lot of good friends at Arsenal and when I
spoke to the directors David Dein and Danny Fiszman
everything was fine.
"The only problem I had in meeting everybody was finding
enough time because I had family and friends to see after
the game and also interviews with the press.
"But I honestly don't think it is the real issue. Some
people in the crowd gave me stick before and during the game
but it is part and parcel of the game these days. Players
get it all the time when they move from one club to another
but you can't have people choosing what jobs you take.
"This one at Spurs became available for me and it is a big
one. Now my ambition is to bring to Tottenham the kind of
quality that Arsenal have. Arsene Wenger's team are sheer
quality. They pounded us at Highbury and it was quite an
achievement to get a result.
"The Spurs players have shown a great attitude and desire
to improve things since I arrived. They are not scared of me
but they respect me and I believe they are glad that
somebody has come in who can give them a bit of
leadership."
Graham also believes his coaching methods can make
Tottenham's England centre-back Sol Campbell into an even
better player, just as he helped Tony Adams become a
colossus of the English game with Arsenal.
And he has vowed to get another Spurs' England
international, Darren Anderton, back to his sparkling best
on a regular basis after three years of injury anguish.
But Graham knows he does not have a magic wand to completely
transform players who struggled against relegation last
season into a team capable of winning titles.
He said: "They've shown me they have the spirit to do
better both on the pitch and on the training ground. There
are some good players in the squad and good players don't
want to be scrambling around near the bottom of the league.
"But the hardest thing is to add the extra quality we need.
I want to sign lots of players and I have the spending power
at Tottenham to do it. But just show me where the available
quality is to buy. I think more than a few clubs are facing
the same problem."
Arsenal's particular problem is patently obvious. Unless
manager Wenger can find another goalscorer to take the
weight off the fast-emerging Nicolas Anelka, they will lose
their Premiership crown and flounder in the Champions'
League.
They are averaging just one goal a game in the Premiership,
despite having hit Manchester United and Newcastle for a
combined six. That's not good enough for champions.
At times on Saturday, Spurs were hanging on by their
fingernails to resist Arsenal's sweeping football. But there
were no shots strong enough in the locker to defeat splendid
goalkeeper Espen Baardsen who pulled off a string of
impressive saves.
Maybe if Dennis Bergkamp had recovered in time from a
damaged ankle to play, he would have snapped up the kind of
chances that Fredrik Ljungberg and Ray Parlour missed but
even the Dutchman's form in front of goal has been poor this
season.
And, familiarly, despite all his awesome raw talent,
teenager Anelka let a good opportunity slip, too, after
outpacing Campbell in the first-half and then shooting wide
with the goal at his mercy.
But before he limped off with cramp in both legs in the last
10 minutes the young Frenchman was having to create his own
chances against a Tottenham defence which covered every
crack.
None looked more solid than Ramon Vega, the big Swiss
centre-back who had become number one butt of the Tottenham
crowd before Graham's arrival six weeks ago.
Vega looks a class act at last in a triple centre-back
system, flanked by the talented Campbell and the solid John
Scales - a system, to be fair, which former Spurs manager
Christian Gross envisaged when he bought him from Italian
club Cagliari at the start of last season.
"I have a lot more confidence playing in this system,"
said Vega, "I am able to read the game better and it is
more organised.
"This was one of my best performances since I came to
Tottenham, but it is due to every other player in the team
working hard and showing great spirit."
Although Steffen Iversen missed two good chances which might
have given Tottenham a win they would not have deserved it
was perhaps inevitable that, after five of the previous 13
meetings between the two North London giants ended goalless,
this latest clash should go the same way.
Graham saw the irony in that and joked: "It's a great
satisfaction to see two teams I coached draw 0-0."
But the reality is that he wants much more than survival
football for Spurs. And he knows he will have to buy it.
He said: "There's still a lot of hard work to be done. I
won't be happy until Tottenham are up there challenging with
quality with the likes of Arsenal and Manchester United.
"Until we get that quality it's still nice to enjoy a few
good results along the way."
· Read Brian Judson's preview of this game
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