by Amy Lawrence
ALAN SMITH:
As a footballer you’re thinking, we’ve just got to tick over and we’ll be led by the authorities. Whatever they think is best, we’ll follow and we’ll try and pick up where we left off. But you’re conscious that you might not be able to. First game back you’re hoping to hit the ground running again. We played Norwich at Easter. Another game on the telly and I got quite a spectacular goal for me. John Lukic pumped one upfield and I chested it, thighed it down, swivelled and rifled it in the net with my left foot. I really caught it sweetly. It was a good game for us. It was like, OK, we’re back in business. Let’s do it.
LEE DIXON:
Four games to go. We went to Middlesbrough and it was a bad game, one of those scramblers on a terrible pitch where it didn’t look like it was happening. It was a really hard game to get any flow going. Every time you passed the ball it hit a bobble. It was windy at Ayresome Park. It was a horrible grind. But the make-up of the team was such we knew that if we could score one we should win the game. The vital one came from the subs’ bench. The goal that Hayesey scored was typical for that kind of game – bobbling and scrambled in. It didn’t matter. When we scored we knew how important it was.
PAUL MERSON:
Three games to go. I thought we’d won it. I seriously thought we’d won. We’ve got Derby at home. We’ve got Wimbledon at home. We win both games it’s all over.
DAVID O’LEARY:
Oh don’t … I could have sleepless nights now just thinking about it.
JOHN LUKIC:
I suppose there’s an air of expectation in the camp that you’re in touching distance and you know it’s a fatal place to be. It’s a subconscious thing.
LEE DIXON:
The game against Derby was quite weird because we knew we had two home games and it was in our hands. I don’t remember being particularly nervous going into it because I genuinely thought then that we would win the league.
PAUL MERSON:
I remember the team-talk. We met at South Herts Golf Club and I remember George always used to go through all the opposition’s players. That’s how thorough he was and he said, ‘Peter Shilton. He was a great goalie. He’s gone. Just keep on peppering him.’
LEE DIXON:
I remember driving in. Coming down the hill, Avenell Road, and there was a bloke selling the enamel pin badges and he had one saying ‘Champions 89 Arsenal’. I remember just going, God, that’s a bit premature. It snapped me with a reality check. We might not win it. I was thinking about that bloke. How much money he was going to lose if we didn’t do it because he’d had all these badges made. So I wasn’t complacent on the day. He was taking it a little bit for granted so I remember going into the dressing room going, come on, lads, this is a big one.
ALAN SMITH:
I mean we just didn’t get going. I remember I had some friends down from Birmingham. It was almost like, come and see us, this is one step towards the league. It was a big occasion and we fell flat on our faces. Dean Saunders was a top striker, great finisher, and said afterwards that it meant an awful lot because he wanted Liverpool to win. He was a Liverpool fan. I got our goal. A header at the near post. We thought, well what happened there? Why were we so bad? Obviously nerves were coming into it. We were beginning to fluff our lines but at the end of that game you think, right, that’s a one-off. Come on, lads, we were crap but let’s make sure that doesn’t happen again, and that’s the message off the gaffer. We’d been superb, lads. Let’s forget about that. Bad day at the office. On to the next one.
MICHAEL THOMAS:
Very frustrating. That was a big downer. I think the pressure of it all got to us. We went there thinking we could beat these. Dean Saunders, my old team-mate, crucified us.
PAUL MERSON:
There were nerves. Arsenal haven’t won the league since 1971. We should have won that game by ten. It was that one-sided and if it wasn’t for Shilton it would have been a cricket score. You come off and you just think it’s not meant. Not meant to be. You think that’s it.
LEE DIXON:
I do remember going home and I just stayed in and I had a glass of wine. I felt guilty about drinking a glass of wine so I only had half. I remember thinking, this is the time now that you really roll up your sleeves.
ALAN SMITH:
Wimbledon was next, the party spoilers. The old boom box in the dressing room thumping out the music and them slamming across into the doors and the walls. You can hear them. Always different when Wimbledon visited. You know the hallowed halls of Highbury? They didn’t have much respect.
PAUL MERSON:
It was bizarre. Wimbledon were a hard team to play against and one ground they loved playing at was Highbury. Because it was lovely and tight. They could lump the ball forward.
NIGEL WINTERBURN:
I knew what it’s like from my time with Wimbledon. We always felt as if teams hated us. Supporters hated us. We didn’t care less. Most of those players came from lower leagues. We were all put together, free transfers. When I signed for Wimbledon my transfer fee was a bottle of Scotch. Ha ha ha. That is a true story. Just thinking about that now is ridiculous. If you ever wanted to try and win at a big ground at a big club, you didn’t want to be playing against Wimbledon.
LEE DIXON:
Nigel hit an absolute screamer with his right foot into the top corner. He smashed it straight into the top corner. Nigel? Right foot? It felt like it was meant to be.
NIGEL WINTERBURN:
You should have seen the shock on my face. I remember my team-mates running up to me and shouting in my ear. ‘It’s your right foot!’ If you asked me if I would ever take that shot on again with my right foot? No way. Not in a million years would I have tried that. Then I suppose you tend to think, maybe we are going to be crowned league champions. But you know what Wimbledon are like. Spoilers. Complete and utter spoilers.
ALAN SMITH:
They equalised; Alan Cork was great in the air. And then Merse got a really good goal. Do you remember who scored the equaliser for them and he went off on a little mazy run celebrating? They all piled on top of him. Paul McGee, who I hadn’t heard of before and I don’t think I heard of after as well. It was the final whistle I remember. It was the last home game of the season so we did the traditional lap of the pitch, clapping the fans. And it was kind of: thanks for staying with us, sorry that we couldn’t do it this time. Hopefully next year. It was that kind of vibe around the ground. We were just so deflated that we’d had these two games at home and we’d absolutely messed it up. We were low. I thought it was over.
NIGEL WINTERBURN:
When you look back that tells you what the pressure’s about. It’s the pressure of trying to achieve something that you dream about. That would have been my first league title. We had a couple of games to do it really and we didn’t do it. It’s particularly annoying when you didn’t do it at home in front of your own supporters. Just shows you what pressure can do to a team.
STEVE BOULD:
We were a really young group at the time and really inexperienced, and it was a big ordeal. We’d played so well up until Christmas and just after, and then we very nearly pulled up and faltered and fell at the last hurdle.
MICHAEL THOMAS:
Oh gosh. We all thought it was over then. That was a big downer.
LEE DIXON:
It would probably have been easier if everybody had been all honest with each other at that point during the lap of honour and we’d have gone, ‘I’m really sorry we’ve messed it up’, and all the fans would have gone, ‘You’re rubbish.’ We’d basically just thrown it away in those two games. I honestly thought: that’s it, we’ve blown it. We’re not going to beat Liverpool at Anfield. Especially with what’s happened at Hillsborough. Especially with how we’ve thrown the league away. Especially with all the things that have been mounting up against us. Especially that we weren’t experienced enough and everyone was going to say yeah, it’s Liverpool and you’re jus
t a bunch of kids and you did have it and now you’ve lost it so well done you. That was the feeling after the Wimbledon game. What’s the point?
TONY ADAMS:
God, you non-believers. We’re all doomed! I didn’t feel like we’d blown it at that point.
GEORGE GRAHAM:
What did I think? I’ve got the words but I can’t say them. Very disappointed? That sounds very polite that. Very disappointed. Losing and drawing at home. Games we were expecting to win. I was gutted. It was awful. God, it was never meant to be easy. Football in this country, it’s so unpredictable at times. This is English football. This is why it’s loved all over the world. But that was awful. We had one game to put it right.
ALAN SMITH:
The press was saying, come the crunch the pressure got to us. We weren’t ready for it. Liverpool, with their experience, had made a run up on the rails and pegged us back. They were the team. They were going to win it once again. That’s what everybody thought, I think. Then they had one more home game, against West Ham, who had been relegated. It was the same night as the football writers’ dinner actually. I got invited so I went along and the scores were coming in. What’s the score at Anfield? 1–0. What’s the score? 2–0. 3–0. And I’m going, oh my God.
NIGEL WINTERBURN:
I sat in the room on my own. Put the radio on. I just sat on the floor, listening to that game. Praying that they wouldn’t win and then suddenly the realisation’s come in of our task as they keep scoring. I’m sitting there with my hands over my eyes praying and shaking my head and thinking, blow the whistle! Your emotions are going through you. In my own head I’m thinking, if they score again we’ve got to win by three. Phew. We might as well just give them the league title now. It’s just not going to happen, is it? No way, not with a team like that. How can it be a relief when the final whistle goes that you’ve got to go to Anfield and win by two goals? That’s just crazy.
LEE DIXON:
I didn’t want to watch it, didn’t want to listen to it, so I went for a meal with my ex-wife, middle of Hertfordshire, in a restaurant way away from everything. Went in. Table for two. Thank you very much. The waiter comes over and he’s got this little grin on his face, so I think, oh, he’s clocked who I am. He goes, ‘All right there, la,’ in a Scouse accent. He was in the kitchen and every time a goal went in the kitchen door would open and he’d give a thumbs up. Yeah, thanks for that. It absolutely ruined my night. All night long he kept giving me the score. I couldn’t even work it out and then the waiter came and told me, ‘So you’ve got to beat us now 2–0. It’s not going to happen is it?’ And I went, no.
MICHAEL THOMAS:
Liverpool scored five. You are thinking, what do we have to do? It’s over. What do we do?
PAUL MERSON:
Oh, the goals were rolling in. It was like, you’ve got to stop! I remember ringing Grovesy. I think I was in an Indian restaurant. I said to Grovesy, ‘Oh my God. What chance we got? That’s it.’
PERRY GROVES:
West Ham had their flip-flops on, their rubber rings and their snorkels up at Anfield. I said to Merse, ‘We’re done. We’ve done all right. We’ve come second. You know, it’s not bad. We’ll go again next year.’
PAUL MERSON:
I’m a professional footballer and a compulsive gambler; I thought it was fucking impossible. Here’s one for you. It was 16/1 for Arsenal to win the league in pre-season and we were 16/1 to win 2–0 at Anfield 37 games later. Ha ha. I don’t think they’d lost a game since January. We’d just been beaten by Derby and we couldn’t beat Wimbledon at home. We’d let in four goals in those two home games. Now we’ve got to go to Anfield and win by two clear goals. Seriously? No.
ALAN SMITH:
It was really only when we came into training the next time that, in my memory, Mickey Thomas said, ‘We’ve got to win 2–0, lads.’ He’d done the maths. Oh, is that all? We’ve got to win 2–0 at Anfield? So a part of you is thinking it’s not un-doable, but then the other part is thinking, at Anfield? Really? Against them on their own turf? I can’t see it.
PERRY GROVES:
I remember the gaffer pulling us all in and he sat everyone down at London Colney on the little benches. He said, ‘Lads, I fancy our chances. We’re going to go up there, they’re going for the Double as well, they’re going to think that it’s done and dusted. We’re going to spoil the party. We’re going to play three at the back.’ Everybody just looked round at each other and just thought, has he gone mad? It didn’t make logical sense. We should be playing an extra forward. But I can remember him saying this to this day: if we go there and we concede first it is virtually impossible. But if we’re 0–0 at half-time then we’ve got half a chance.
GEORGE GRAHAM:
We had just had a couple of big disasters at home. So it was tough. Changing shape was a tough call because Liverpool were dominant for so many years and especially at Anfield they were magnificent and they usually won all their home matches in the first 20 minutes and then enjoyed playing football the rest. Managers always look at your own team, your own structure, the way you play and the way the opposition play. What are their strengths? What are their weaknesses? You try to exploit their weaknesses and you try and force your strengths on to them and that’s the way most coaches sort the game out when they are planning beforehand. I had it all organised to play Liverpool. Even though they had won by scoring five goals the previous match I still thought it was the right way to go. Did it cross my mind to go with a back four having planned it with three central defenders and the full-backs pushing on? Never. I was very confident in the boys. I was very confident we could go up there and get a result.
BOB WILSON:
I do remember clearly one day I was blowing up the footballs before training and the guys started to come out and I remember Alan Smith in particular looking over and he can have quite a serious face anyway, Alan. The guys weren’t their usual selves. ‘What’s the matter with you lot? This is the week you’re going to win the league, be the champions of your country.’ There was a look. I mean, where it came from I can’t tell you and it probably wasn’t with the greatest belief but somehow, I said it with confidence. No doubt about it, you know. 2–0 at Anfield. Not a problem.
ALAN SMITH:
We were sitting on the benches just outside where we’d have a team meeting, and we must have been looking a bit down in the mouth and Bob Wilson popped his cheery head round the corner and said, ‘Cheer up, lads. This is the week we’re going to win the league.’ I said nice one, Bob. Good try.
BOB WILSON:
Even to this day Smudger does say to me, ‘I’ll never ever forget you saying that. I would have loved to have truly believed it but I’m not sure that I did.’
MICHAEL THOMAS:
Bob came in very happy. But that wisdom from Bob and George came in very handy. Don’t worry about it, boys!
ALAN SMITH:
As the week got on and you’re training and bubbly, you’re gaining a little bit of belief. As the situation settles into you, you kind of grasp it and get a grip of it and then you’re thinking about how you’re going to do it and you’re looking towards your tactics and how we were actually going to approach the task.
NIGEL WINTERBURN:
Sitting there in the pit of your stomach, knowing that you probably should have won the league title two or three games before, is pretty annoying. Everybody is writing you off, saying it’s a fitting end to the season what with the Hillsborough disaster; Liverpool are going to do the Double. You realise that if you can pull it off you’re going to upset a hell of a lot of people.
ALAN SMITH:
Nobody fancies you and it is a free hit to a certain extent. Go up there, do your best. If we don’t win, well, nobody is going to blame you.
NIGEL WINTERBURN:
You’ve got to have the belief. Nobody apart from maybe a few Arsenal supporters are realistically going to believe it. But you’ve got to believe it. That was where
George, from that moment, was sensational. Because he’s got to make the team believe that they can win. It’s just the confidence he puts within the team. The way that he studies the game. The organisation. The trust that he had in the group of players he had.
LEE DIXON:
George’s game face was on. He was like, ‘Right, we’ve got to beat them 2–0. We can do that.’ I don’t think they’d lost by two clear goals since 1971 or something. It was just a ridiculous ask. But it was plausible and that was because of George: let’s just give it a go. No pressure.