Arse into arsenal
At a controversial goal PETE SPENCER takes a look back that followed... celebration from the past – and others
THESE days any selfrespecting Premier League footballer must make sure they have one thing which singles them out as different from the rest – a goal celebration.
With every game played out in front of a multitude of cameras, it is impossible not to notice what each player does to mark a goal.
Down the years there have been all sorts of memorable and infamous celebrations with many of them filling column inches or providing writers with easy material to pad out stories.
Some have even spilled over to news channels where those not normally employed with giving their views on football matters are asked for their opinion, not on the quality of the goal, or the technique required to accomplish such a feat, but purely on whether they should have celebrated in the way they did.
From Nicolas Anelka’s quenelle gesture to Robbie Fowler’s sniffing or his message on a shirt, right through to Wayne Rooney’s recent parody of his own boxing prowess, goal celebrations have become a talking point for days after a match.
But there was a time when they were simply raising an arm or a hand, or perhaps just offering team-mates a shake of the hand as the crowd celebrated more than the players.
This is why Mick Channon stood out on his own with his whirling arm (the windmill) as he turned from goal to signify another one for the collection. Kids up and down the country were soon copying this in a way similar to Fabrizio Ravanelli’s shirt-pulled-over-face version years later.
But an incident in 1979 put goal celebrations on the front page, although not for the reasons many wished for.
Tuesday, April 3, 1979 was the night as Arsenal took on Coventry City at
Highbury. Arsenal were lying in second place, five points behind Liverpool, with Coventry down in tenth.
Both sides were going through rough patches as Coventry had won once in their previous nine matches and Arsenal one in their last six.
Coventry took the lead in the first half through an own goal from Sammy Nelson. Nelson, born in Belfast in 1949, was a firm favourite amongst the Highbury faithful and one of those defenders who may not necessarily have got the headlines other more skilful team-mates did, but was loved by the locals for his hard work and tough tackling.
These were days when many teams had wingers and so full-backs like Nelson were