First half good, second half not so good. It was Sven Goran
Eriksson who made the phrase his own as he tried to pigeon hole
England displays with his unique blend of blissful bewilderment and
understated charm.
Now it is Lawrie Sanchez who is struggling to understand exactly
how a team can perform so differently either side of their
half-time cuppa.
Sanchez said: "I looked at the paper after last weekend's results
and saw that in the 90th minute and beyond, Everton scored twice,
we got one in our win over Reading and then there was
Arsenal.
"Every point is so important in the Premier League that teams who
are a goal down are just going hell for leather at the death as
they might as well lose by two than not try for that point.
"The opposition drops deeper and deeper into their own penalty
area, trying to hold on, the ball gets knocked in and the defenders
make one mistake..."
Ahead of last weekend's win against Reading, Sanchez watched
Arsenal play Manchester United and paid close attention when the
clocked ticked past 80 minutes with Sir Alex Ferguson's team 2-1
up.
The Fulham boss explained: "I sat down and thought: 'OK, let's see
how United deal with it'. They are the best team in the country, if
they can't deal with it, who can?"
Arsenal struck with a late equaliser from William Gallas and
Sanchez said with a shrug: "United can't set out a game plan and
they control the ball so very well and they concede, so what
chance do we have?
"If it happens to Manchester United, the rest of us are just as
vulnerable. It just happens that we have been hit by the syndrome
more than any other team."
