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ARSENAL v MIDDLESBROUGH BLAST FROM THE PAST I
Usurped by Chelsea in recent seasons and now a shadow of the team they once were, Arsenal (along with Manchester United) dominated the English football scene for just over a decade. But now they have become somewhat faded, perhaps as a result of their heavy Ashburton Grove investment.
Still, today is the last game the Boro will play in the silence of Highbury (in the League anyway) before the Gooners move to their new stadium - where at least the sound of regular trains will be able to be heard during the match. And Boro versus Arsenal is still a big tie. After all who cannot fail to remember those fantastic results in recent years - the 4-0, 5-1, 6-1 defeats for example! Classic!
For some reason they always seem to hammer us where no other team does. But then amongst all of these is the Carling Cup semi-final victory two years ago, famous for Pires' first (own) goal scored on his debut for the Gooners. And of course the 2-1 victory at La Riv back in September. Let's hope for something similar today...
A Cam Goes Wandering
Arsenal 5-1 Middlesbrough, 20/11/1999
This was a season when I still had a season ticket because I wasn't at Heathrow Terminal 4 more often than I was at the local Morrisons. At the time I was working a lot with a Canadian bloke who had decided to support Arsenal on account of him arriving in the UK in 1998 just as Arsenal were managing a double - the ultimate in glory supporting.
Anyway, with the Arse game coming up and the chances of him getting a ticket at Highbury in the Arsenal end being small I suggested instead that he goes in the Boro end. A friend kindly bought him and me a ticket - she even queued bless her - and we decided to meet her and her mates in the ground.
In the meantime my Canadian mate's wife had their first child one month premature two days before the match. He actually thought about going to the game! He didn't after I reminded him that death and/or divorce might follow pretty quickly. So there I was with a spare ticket for the game. "I know!," I said, "Another of the lads at work is an Arsenal fan, maybe he'll want to go". And he did. To add further irony this guy was at Teesside Polytechnic and was almost a Boro fan himself so he was very happy to be going.
Mindful that I also had another mate living in London - in the same apartment building as Charlotte Church no less - and this a civil servant (so next time you complain about taxes...), I arranged to meet up with her after the game.
So me and the other member of the Cambridge massive headed off to London early in his car with the idea of having breakfast at his mum's. This was confusing enough an experience as the bloke in question is from Zanzibar - although he's as cockney as a Reggie Kray punishment - and his mum is as cockney as they come, more so really. So egg and bacon at his mum's followed by a walk around Spitalfields old market, a call to my Charlotte Church mate and agreement to meet up at her place after the game.
Me and my cockney barrow-boy mate headed to Angel for lunch - food is quickly becoming an integral part of this story. We went to Dôme but it was infested by yuppie types and their loathsome spawn. It was an awful sight. In fact we had to ask a couple to leave as they were dithering about and we were in need of food and Kronenburg. It was here that we had the idea of a "Middlesbrough-service-restaurant", basically where the waiters would go up to yuppie couples such as we'd experienced and would say "I don't want to rush you, but will you fuck off, there's people waiting". You're right, it would never catch on.
I remember being quite confident heading to Highbury on foot, as we'd been having not too bad a season at the time and were eighth in the league. Oh, how wrong I was...
We got up to Highbury and my mate and her mates were already in the ground. We decided not to do the same things as them after the match as they wanted to go and see Chicago or The Miserable Gets or something. We certainly did not.
I have to say I remember little about the game as it was just wave after wave of Arsenal attacks - just where they'd left off after the 6-1 drubbing at the Riverside the season before - bloody typical. In fact the only highpoint was when an Overmars tackle on Juninho resulted only in a rather light-hearted chat with the referee, who was a bit of a homer. That is he favoured the home side and was not large, bald, yellow and would utter "mmm.." at any item edible or inedible - and one wag behind us shouted "my finger's wagging; that's yer punishment" in the broadest Teesside accent imaginable. So amused was my cockney mate that he still mentions that to this date.
Oh, the match finished 5-1 to the Arse, Christ knows who scored because we were so second best that day it didn't matter. So we said goodbye to the girls and headed back to Angel and an Aussie bar as we still had ages before meeting up with my civil servant mate.
Then off to the South Bank to meet up and what a drive from Bethnal Green it was - these Londoners are loonies! I always find the idea of an arty area of London being called South Bank most amusing. For the benefit of Arsenal fans, South Bank is one of the less desirable areas of Teesside.
Any roads, Charlotte didn't invite her neighbour and guests in for a cup of tea so we went out to a Cuban bar - which resulted in one too many rum related drinks; one. And off to a restaurant, a Turkish one in Southwark. Now when my civil servant friend mentioned this I was thinking "great we're going for a kebab", but I wasn't. In fact the food was very nice. Not only was it good Turkish food, but the bloke at the next table was Efan Ekoku, then of Wimbledon...
The rest of the day really is a blur on account of the various Turkish wines and ethnic spirits I downed.
Andrew Morgan
Middlesbrough 1-6 Arsenal, 24/04/1999
So carrying on from my Chelsea memory a couple of weeks back, this game against Arsenal was the second of the final three home games of the season against the 'big three'. Having gained a credible 0-0 draw against the West Londoners a fortnight previously, plus a 2-1 away victory at Highfield Road the previous Saturday, we were confident that we could get an equally positive result against the South Londoners moved north. How very wrong we were.
Again my apprehension before this game was quite high - this was the first time I had ever seen the mighty Gooners and I was looking forward to it, despite the spectre of my forthcoming GCSE's weighing heavy in my mind. Still, it was a break from all the revision, the day was warm and sunny and I was getting to see an array of international talent on show. And Steve Vickers.
And it was a Steve Vickers cock-up that set the scene for the match. When playing against the Arsenal team circa 1998, the tactics of the first twenty minutes always were one of containment. So when Vickers clumsily conceded a penalty in the third minute, that pretty much ended the context there and then. The crowd booed as the penalty was struck but we all knew that it was going in and that we would then be chasing the tie. And indeed it did and indeed we were.
After that we started to panic and chase shadows. We were battling to get back into the game, particularly in midfield, but Arsenal were more composed and this allowed their quality to shine through. Put simply, they were just better than us, tearing through our midfield at will with passes of pinpoint accuracy. Twenty minutes in, another goal and by half-time it was three. The game was over. We were being given a master class in how to play football. The only motivation we now had was to win the second half. And in the end we couldn't even do that.
After four the crowd started to lighten up. We knew we were being beaten by the better team and that it wasn't particularly through a lack of effort- it was through a lack of class. The tension dissolved into a carnival atmosphere as both sets of fans started to goad each other merrily, with the Arsenal fans singing 'Can we play you every week?'- a song that was greeted with sardonic applause from the Boro faithful.
And this joviality only increased as the fifth and sixth goals went in, the Boro fans thinking they might as well just enjoy the day out and the thumping the lads were receiving. Arsenal were clearly taking the piss with how easy it all was, particularly in front of goal, as Kanu's much repeated back-heel was one of the six goals they scored that day. I remember screaming at the defence once the fifth went in mind, I was just a frustrated teenager pissed off with the drubbing, I guess. But I soon lightened up and joined in with the banter, particularly with the 'we want seven' chants that both sets of fans started singing towards the end.
The Arsenal fans were revelling in their victory, with chants of 'Shall we sing a song for you' preceding their singing 'Come on Boro, Come on Boro'. Sarcastic admittedly but we all joined in - it was like new bonds were forming between the two football clubs.
In the end we did score - an Alan Armstrong header in the 90th minute and both ends went wild, particularly the Arsenal end who celebrated as if it was their team that had scored. Even Mark Page entered into the fun and played Pigbag, which only added to the good vibe that was permeating around the stadium.
So even though we got hammered that day still holds good memories for me. The banter, the support, the morbid resignation of the Boro fans making the best of a bad situation. It was the day that I felt all football fans were equal, that football was the one thing we had in common and that all most fans wanted to see was an entertaining game. It was a classic day.
A view from the opposition now as Gooner Matt Tointon highlights two contests with the Boro that are foremost in his mind.
Arsenal 1-1 Middlesbrough, 29/11/1998
Arsenal 5-3 Middlesbrough, 22/08/2004
When I think of Arsenal versus Middlesbrough, two games in particular come to mind, and for rather different reasons. The first, a one-all draw at Highbury, was not an inherently memorable encounter in terms of quality football, but it sticks in my mind for the simple reasons that I was at the match and it was one of the tensest I have ever seen.
Sat in the upper tier of the North Bank, I saw Boro score in the goal just below me against my double-holding team after only three minutes, and hold the lead for almost the entire match. The ground had already begun to empty - a trait common to all clubs and one that irritates me intensely - when Nicloas Anelka stepped up to score from close range as the game neared injury time. The relief was immense, and I must also admit to some satisfaction that it had been missed by the idiots that left early.
The second game I remember, with Arsenal again taking on Middlesbrough at Highbury as champions, is last season's eight-goal bonanza. On the surface it appeared to reinforce the aura of invincibility that surrounded Arsenal at the time, as they convincingly headed towards their record-beating fourty-nine game unbeaten run, despite having been three-one down at home.
However with hindsight it should have posed as a grave warning of what was to come later that season. On this occasion, sloppy defending was excused by some breathtaking attacking, but unfortunately for us even "the invincibles" of the previous season could not rely on the strikers to come through in every game.
Even out of context, this game was indeed memorable for all concerned and whilst the quest to retain the title may ultimately have been unsuccessful, Arsenal versus Middlesbrough 2004/05 is still one of the most entertaining games the Premiership will ever see.
And finally Harry Haverton takes a look at some more personal connections between the two clubs.
This week, I am going to focus on two people who have connections with both clubs. We'll start off with Bruce Rioch, one of our best ever managers.
Brucey took over from the ill-fated Willie Maddren in February 1986 and faced an uphill battle to keep the club in the then second division. Defeat at Shrewsbury on the final day sent Boro down to the third and we thought that it wouldn't get much worse. How wrong we were...
Bankruptcy followed and with the club effectively out of business, it was looking like the end. It is down to Steve Gibson that MFC rose from the dead and carried on but the contribution of Bruce Rioch should never be underestimated.
Bruce kept the players' spirits going through that summer and although they were training on Albert Park, he gave them the belief that they could return to winning ways and he moulded the miniscule squad that he had into promotion winners in two consecutive seasons, taking us back into the top flight in the shortest time possible.
Relegation from the first division in 1989 hit hard though and with confidence gone and Boro languishing, Bruce's time was up. A sad ending to a legendary manager.
Bruce resurfaced at Arsenal in the summer of 1995 and pulled off a major transfer coup when he brought Dennis Bergkamp to Highbury. Bruce had replaced George Graham as manager after Graham had been caught with his fingers in the till and new regulations at Highbury meant that Bruce's role was marginalised.
He was fired after just one season, a season in which he had dramatically improved the side (Arsenal were relegation contenders the season before) and that was pretty much the end of a great career. If you didn't already know, he was replaced at Highbury by Arsene Wenger.
In the simmer of 2004, Boro pulled off a spectacular transfer coup of their own when Ray Parlour arrived on Teesside. I don't know whether asylum in Teesside gave Ray immunity from the wife who had very publicly cleaned him out just before he moved, but it certainly guaranteed him regular first team football, something that he wasn't going to get under Arsene Wenger.
Parlour had christened Wenger 'Clouseau' and before one game the Frenchman ushered his players out into the tunnel before excusing himself to go to the toilet. A security alert followed and the players were told to return to the dressing room.
When Wenger re-emerged to find his squad milling around, he asked them what was going on. Up piped Ray Parlour, in his finest Peter Sellers impersonation, "There is a burm", to which Wenger replied, classically, "A burm?"
As everyone dissolved in laughter, Parlour continued, "Yes, a burm." When the laughter had stopped, Wenger said, "Raymond... I do believe you are having a joke with me."
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