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As Arsenal prepare to take on Port Vale in the League Cup third round on Wednesday night, fans making their way from London to Stoke-on-Trent will be hoping history can repeat itself. Twenty-seven years ago Arsenal supporters – including this writer – made the same journey at the start of a cup run that would end in celebrations. But the Wembley sunshine seemed a million miles away in January 1998.
The first of Arsène Wenger’s seven FA Cups as Arsenal manager was far from straightforward. In all, Arsenal played nine matches on their way to lifting the trophy, a run that involved three replays, two penalty shootouts and narrow victories over second-tier teams. The third round tie against Port Vale was a microcosm of Arsenal’s road to Wembley.
The mood at the club was far from positive when Port Vale visited Highbury on 3 January. The fine form at the start of the season felt like a distant memory, with the team sitting sixth in the Premier League and missing the influence of Tony Adams, who had not played since a 3-1 defeat at home to Blackburn on 13 December – a game that ended with Ian Wright leaning out of the dressing room window to argue with Arsenal fans on Avenell Road.
Despite their shaky form in the league, Arsenal were expected to brush off the second-tier strugglers Port Vale. John Rudge’s team had lost six on the bounce, dropping to 18th in the table. They had sold the key players Jon McCarthy and Steve Guppy the previous summer and were struggling to cope without them. However, a combination of resilient defending from Port Vale and lacklustre football from Arsenal resulted in stalemate and more discontent at Highbury.
“There was to be no escape from the storm for Arsenal’s players,” wrote Russell Thomas in the Guardian. “After enduring howling wind and driving rain, they left the pitch at Highbury to a barrage of booing, their frailties exposed by those proven cup fighters of Port Vale.”
“You’re never happy when people are unhappy,” Wenger said, who was facing criticism for letting Paul Merson and John Hartson depart. A win against West Ham in the League Cup quarter-final three days later brought respite but, with Arsenal facing a trip to Port Vale for the replay, fans were wondering if they could do it in Stoke on a cold Wednesday night.
Having watched Arsenal lose to various lower-league opponents in the FA Cup – Wrexham, Bolton, Millwall and Sheffield United – Arsenal fans were taking nothing for granted. The possibility of a giantkilling led to Sky Sports showing the match live. “This one could go all the way; don’t rule out the lottery of a penalty shootout,” wrote Richard Alan in the Observer. As the match progressed, his words became wiser by the minute. Both teams huffed and puffed, but neither could land the knockout blow.
Although Lee Dixon and Wright returned to Arsenal’s team, an injury to Emmanuel Petit stretched resources further, with the young midfielder Stephen Hughes taking his place. Arsenal tested the Port Vale keeper Paul Musselwhite in the early exchanges through a Dennis Bergkamp free-kick and a Ray Parlour shot that almost squeezed in, but the home side gradually grew into the match.
The striker Tony Naylor squandered a great opportunity, unable to curve his attempt past David Seaman from just 10 yards out. Arsenal survived another scare shortly before the break. After fine work from Wayne Corden, his cross fell to Gareth Ainsworth on the edge of the six-yard box. But Port Vale’s record signing was unable to keep his shot down. “You won’t get a better chance than that to put your side ahead in an FA Cup tie against a team from a higher league,” said Andy Gray on Sky.
Arsenal’s class began to tell in the second half. Wright had a goal wrongly ruled out for offside – no need for any lines on screens for this one – and he blazed over when through on goal. With 10 minutes to go, two fine saves from Musselwhite thwarted Wright and Steve Bould, as the match moved towards extra time.
It was a bad night for Wright, who limped off in the 84th minute with a hamstring injury and would not start a match again until May. Taking his place that night was the 18-year-old Nicolas Anelka, a player who had shown signs of his talent during his first full season in English football. Arsenal’s immediate future had arrived.
The deadlock in the tie was finally broken by a typical piece of Bergkamp brilliance. Ten minutes into extra time, the Dutchman collected a pass from the substitute Gilles Grimandi, shifted the ball to the right and created enough space to curl a beautiful effort past Musselwhite. It was becoming Bergkamp’s trademark goal, as Sunderland, Leicester and Barnsley fans could confirm. But Port Vale refused to go quietly. After Martin Foyle combined well with Ainsworth, Corden arrived at the back post to sweep home past a helpless Seaman with nine minutes remaining.
A penalty shootout was required to see who would make the trip to Middlesbrough in the fourth round. It started badly for the visitors, when the former Stoke player Dixon saw his poor penalty kept out by Musselwhite. Andy Porter, Parlour, Ainsworth and Bergkamp all scored, before Ian Bogie was denied by Seaman. When Luís Boa Morte, Mark Snijders and Hughes were successful, Allen Tankard stepped forward to keep Vale alive. To the huge disappointment of the home fans – and the relief of the away end – his attempt cleared the bar. Arsenal had won the shootout 4-3.
“The red-faced ghosts of past embarrassments in the FA Cup gathered to haunt Arsenal at Vale Park last night until David Seaman turned exorcist in a penalty shootout that the Premiership team should have avoided,” wrote David Lacey in the Guardian. It was unconvincing but Arsenal were through. Despite the disappointment in the Cup, Port Vale kept fighting in the league and stayed up on the last day thanks to a win at Huddersfield.
As Arsenal fans made the trip home, no one was suggesting they would go on to win the league and Cup. I thought some of my friends were mad to take odds of 70-1 on Arsenal winning the Double before the fifth round replay at Crystal Palace in February.
Bit by bit the pieces fell into place. Petit and Patrick Vieira formed an almost impenetrable shield in front of the already rock-solid base; Bergkamp’s guile and the pace of Overmars and Anelka terrified opposition defences. Even unlikely heroes such as Alex Manninger and Christopher Wreh emerged.
But one man in particular illustrated the revolution under Wenger. Come the end of the season, Ray Parlour’s progression from unfulfilled talent to key component was complete. Man of the match at Vale Park and at Wembley four months later, Parlour’s performances mirrored the fortunes of the team. Glenn Hoddle may not have appreciated his talents, but Arsenal fans knew his true worth.
This article is by Steven Pye for That 1980s Sports Blog
