- guardian.co.uk, Friday April 7 2000 23.06 BST
Arsène Wenger always insists before Uefa Cup ties at Highbury that he would be happy with a victory and a clean sheet. The Arsenal manager got both last night but he must have been less than pleased with a poor performance that lacked fluency and a cutting edge.
After Dennis Bergkamp had given them the perfect start, scoring inside two minutes, Arsenal stuttered against a hard-working, defensive Lens. The return in a fortnight does not promise to be easy and would have been far trickier had Pascal Nouma not wasted a glorious chance near the end.
Wenger must have expected a victory to avenge last season's Champions League defeat by Lens at Wembley. The Arsenal manager regards that as one of the most disappointing moments of his time at Highbury, along with October's defeat by Fiorentina and losing to Leeds at Elland Road last May.
Everything had pointed to an Arsenal win. In their three previous Uefa Cup ties at Highbury Wenger's side had scored 10 goals and conceded only one. A run of five successive victories suggested that they had finally recaptured their best form after a season riddled with injuries and inconsistency.
Arsenal, deprived of Thierry Henry because of suspension and Tony Adams through injury, were not at their strongest. But no sooner had a botched attempt at a one-minute silence for the dead Leeds fans passed than they took the lead. Only 96 seconds had gone.
Emmanuel Petit was the creator deep in the midfield, sliding through a pass for Bergkamp to accelerate on to. Showing a cool head and his usual impeccable technique, the Dutchman clipped the ball beyond the reach of the oncoming goalkeeper Guillaume Warmuz and stroked it into the empty net.
Quicker than you could say Lens, never mind anything more complicated, the French side's gameplan had been ripped up. They had arrived hoping to keep a clean sheet, as they had at Celta Vigo in the last round, by getting as many bodies as possible behind the ball. Now they had to be more adventurous.
There was no mistaking Arsenal's adventure. With Marc Overmars making encouraging ground down the left flank and Bergkamp flitting around dangerously, they should have increased their lead inside the first 25 minutes. Nwankwo Kanu, free to play after getting dispensation to arrive late for Nigeria's World Cup qualifier against Eritrea, had two good headed chances.
The first came in the 10th minute. Picked out by Silvinho's left-wing cross, the tall striker was less than six yards out with only Warmuz to beat but headed down to the keeper's left rather than back across goal and the Lens captain plunged to keep the ball out.
Yet Arsenal were not at their fluent best. Passes regularly went astray and, as Lens recovered and gained momentum, they gave Wenger plenty to worry about. As the first half drew to a close they were on top, playing with great determination and knocking the ball around quickly and neatly.
Kanu and Bergkamp both drop deep to look for the ball and Arsenal missed the outlet that Henry's pace offers them up front. And although they began the second half in brighter fashion than they ended the first, the spark still seemed to be missing. Bergkamp showed his annoy ance by hauling back Coridon, earning himself a booking.
Lens's yellow shorts, which clashed with Arsenal's yellow shirts, may have had something to do with home side's unusual tendency to give the ball away. This was not the Arsenal side who had scored 18 goals in their previous six matches in this competition. Indeed, when Ray Parlour picked out Overmars at the far post, the Dutchman shot over.
Arsenal should have been made to pay when Lens broke quickly, but from Philippe Brunel's cross Nouma shot against the bar from close range with only Seaman to beat.
Arsenal (4-4-2): Seaman; Dixon, Grimandi, Keown, Silvinho; Parlour, Vieira, Petit, Overmars (Ljungberg, 74min); Bergkamp (Suker, 83), Kanu.
Lens (4-1-3-1-1): Warmuz; Sikora, Coly, Mawene, Queudrue; Nyarko; Moreira (Sakho, 79), Blanchard, Brunel; Coridon; Nouma.
Referee: G Benko (Austria)
