The way Arsenal brushed past Wimbledon on Saturday, closing in on a Premiership title which appears theirs for the taking after seven successive wins in an unbeaten run of 15 games, recalled a match at Anfield 10 years ago. Liverpool, then in their pomp under Kenny Dalglish, so outclassed the Arsenal of George Graham that the watching Michel Platini was moved to describe them as the only English team playing truly European football.
When Platini was invited to comment on the losers' style he gave a little smile and offered an up-and-over gesture which said it all. It is safe to assume that Arsene Wenger's multi-national Arsenal might elicit a more flattering response from his fellow-Frenchman, for the football which is promising to bring the championship to Highbury during the next three weeks is as advanced for the game in England of the Nineties as was the way Liverpool were playing in the late Eighties.
There are similarities. At the heart of Wenger's team lies efficient goalkeeping and solid defending, just as Dalglish had Bruce Grobbelaar's clean sheets, and Alan Hansen and Steve Nicol in the back four. In midfield, for Patrick Vieira and Emmanuel Petit, read Ronnie Whelan and Steve McMahon, hardly comparable in style, maybe, but each a partnership able to switch from defence to offence with an economy of effort so important in counter-attacking teams.
That season Dalglish had John Barnes and Peter Beardsley combining to feed the prolific goalscoring habits of John Aldridge while finding the net more than 30 times themselves. This season, with Ian Wright's goals drying up once he had passed Cliff Bastin's Highbury record, and an injury restricting him to one appearance as a substitute since mid-January, Arsenal's scoring has been apportioned along similar lines: 21 for Dennis Bergkamp, 12 for Marc Overmars, 11 for Wright and nine for Nicolas Anelka.
Whether or not Wenger's Arsenal are better than the best produced under Dalglish at Liverpool it is far too early to say. After all, the championship has not returned to Highbury yet and Arsenal have been playing at their present level for less than two months, their excellent form of last autumn notwithstanding. But the promise of the Premiership being represented in next season's Champions League by football of the style and quality the Champions Cup was denied in 1988, when the post-Heysel ban was still in force, is an exciting one.
This is not to diminish either Graham's quintessentially English side that won the championship in 1989 and 1991 or Manchester United's four titles in the past five years, and even if Alex Ferguson's team are not top this time they will almost certainly appear in the Champions League qualifying round as runners-up. But should Arsenal win the championship, and another nine points will be enough, it will be because, to the passion and commitment so highly valued by Ferguson, Wenger has added patience, perception and an emphasis on possession which Highbury was not seeing even last September when PAOK Salonika knocked his team out of the UEFA Cup.
In the end so much is down to personnel. Before Christmas Eric Cantona's retirement and Roy Keane's injury hardly came into the equation at Old Trafford as Manchester United forged ahead at home and abroad. But now, with Arsenal back at the top of the table for the first time in six months and inspired by Bergkamp and Vieira, United's apprentices are badly missing the sorcerer's touch and the ramrod's thrust.
There is about Vieira almost a Brazilian mixture of strength and skill, athleticism and grace, which should make him the Footballer of the Year if Bergkamp, the players' choice, does not get it - and Petit ought not to be far behind either man. Wimbledon had not lost in nine visits to Arsenal but their defence and midfield simply melted away. At least Vinnie Jones would have given the opposition a dirty look.
A looping header from Tony Adams, a soft but well-directed shot from Overmars and a routine finish from Bergkamp had ended the contest by the 19th minute. Early in the second half Petit's overdue first goal for Arsenal rounded off a studious movement set up by David Seaman's extraordinary, if unintentional, pass to Bergkamp up the right-hand touchline, after he had made a Grobbelaar-like dash beyond the penalty area.
Christopher Wreh's impudent postscript, the Liberian coming off the bench to flick Lee Dixon's long ball away from Neil Sullivan and Brian McAllister, head it into the net and then perform his usual somersault, left Highbury ecstatic and even Wenger conceded that "joy and excitement came out of this game".
A sense of recent history demands that on May 6th Arsenal become champions at Anfield, where they pipped Liverpool for the title in 1989. But it may be all over by then.
After Saturday's visit to Barnsley Arsenal's next two games are at home, and Leeds are at Old Trafford a fortnight today. So Graham could again have a final say in the destination of the championship.
Arsenal: Seaman, Winterburn, Vieira (Platt 70), Adams, Anelka (Wreh 76), Bergkamp, Overmars, Parlour, Petit, Garde (Dixon 14), Upson. Subs Not Used: Boa Morte, Lukic. Goals: Adams 12, Overmars 17, Bergkamp 19, Petit 54, Wreh 88.
Wimbledon: Sullivan, Cunningham, Blackwell (McAllister 83), Thatcher, C. Hughes (Cort 45), Roberts, Gayle, Perry, M Hughes, Ardley (Francis 75), Clarke. Subs Not Used: Kimble, Heald. Booked: M Hughes.
Referee: P Jones (Loughborough).
