“I hope I have a chance to score, that is all, and to help the team,” he said. “Maybe one goal will be enough this time.”
Given Salas’s ability to beat a player on the ground, his spring-heeled aerial threat and his desire to celebrate his 26th birthday on Christmas Eve knowing Lazio have taken a stride towards the quarter-finals, Ken Bates’s players are well aware they face a threatening prospect.
Salas’s scoring record itself is enough: 83 goals in 136 outings in the Chilean first division for Universidad, where he won two league titles; 24 goals in 48 games for River Plate where he collected three championship medals and one South American Super Cup; and 15 goals in 30 appearances in his first triumphant season for Lazio in Serie A. Another goal on Tuesday will be no surprise, but it may not be enough for victory against Vialli’s men of the moment.. A match projected by their own manager as a character test for Arsenal’s title ambitions instead provided Arsÿne Wenger’s heavily depleted team with what became a relative stroll in Leicester’s crisp morning sunshine.

A match projected by their own manager as a character test for Arsenal’s title ambitions instead provided Arsÿne Wenger’s heavily depleted team with what became a relative stroll in Leicester’s crisp morning sunshine.

Whether, considering Leicester were well short of their best, it proves to be a source of more than momentary encouragement remains to be seen but as a statement of intent the outcome will leave Arsenal’s rivals in no doubt of their determination to wrest back the Premiership prize Certainly, their achievement should not be underestimated. Leicester, previously unbeaten at home, had won eight times in 10 starts and were poised to reach the top three had they won.
There was a declaration of commitment, too, from Wenger himself, scotching suggestions that he might be lured away from Highbury to coach the Japanese national side. “Because I have worked successfully in Japan such stories will always be written but I have a contract with Arsenal until June 2002 and I am committed to my club,” he said.
Yesterday, Arsenal had no Dennis Bergkamp, no Martin Keown, no Ray Parlour and, of course, no Patrick Vieira and yet possessed energy and drive in such abundance that their absences were easily overcome. In midfield, where Neil Lennon and Muzzy Izzet have so often given Leicester an edge, Gilles Grimandi and Emmanuel Petit were clear winners. And with Marc Overmars tearing through the opposition, Leicester were reduced to chasing shadows.
So huge a threat did the Dutchman pose throughout that Martin O’Neill was forced to switch from 5-3-2 to 4-4-2 in the hope of limiting the damage. If anything, the manager’s tactical change left Leicester still more exposed as Overmars, sometimes roaming from one flank to the other, tormented both makeshift full-backs in turn.

O’Neill, to his credit, conceded without hesitation that his side had been outplayed.
Given that Leicester, irrespective of their fine record, are seen still as diligent journeymen among aristocrats, this might seem an unsurprising observation but, in fact, Arsenal’s supremacy had more to do with work-rate than flair. They excelled where Leicester are usually unmatched, in being first into the tackle, first to the loose ball, quickest to turn defence into attack.
Arsenal led after 22 minutes, Grimandi rising in a crowded six-yard box to head home Petit’s right-wing corner. The goal was Grimandi’s first for 22 months but he is an exemplary squad man in Wenger’s estimation and was afforded special praise afterwards. “He was outstanding, both in his defensive role and in attack,” Wenger said.
Thereafter, Leicester were always chasing but never sharp enough to haul themselves back. Andrew Impey, let down by his first touch, squandered their clearest chance to equalise. Then again, Lee Dixon and Overmars had twice been closing to increasing Arsenal’s advantage.
The outcome was sealed, effectively, when Dixon, making his 400th league appearance for Arsenal, bundled home their second goal eight minutes into the second period.

Robbie Savage, out of his depth after O’Neill moved him from midfield to right-back, was passed with embarrassing ease by Thierry Henry by the goalline on the left and the Frenchman’s low cross, stabbed at by Dixon, went in off Steve Guppy.
The effect was to force Leicester to commit more players to attack, switching again to 4-3-3 as Ian Marshall joined Emile Heskey and Tony Cottee. But this only left them more vulnerable to the pace of Arsenal’s counter-attack and had Henry and Nwankwo Kanu managed to combine a little more fluently with the rampant Overmars, the scoreline could have been still more emphatic. In the event, a third goal stroked home by Overmars, set up by Stephen Hughes’s pass, was enough to put matters beyond all doubt.
“This gives me big satisfaction because after two wins at home it was important that we showed we could win away,” Wenger concluded. The only disappointment for the Frenchman was another addition to his injury list with the defender Matthew Upson facing at least a three-week absence with a twisted knee.. Let’s put it down to feng shui; the fact that Manchester United could spend 28 midweek hours above the clouds, secure their fourth cup of the year in Tokyo, and still retain a familiar harmony and symmetry. Let’s put it down to feng shui; the fact that Manchester United could spend 28 midweek hours above the clouds, secure their fourth cup of the year in Tokyo, and still retain a familiar harmony and symmetry.

Sir Alex Ferguson might have changed the furniture around here yesterday, but there was still the same design and direction to his team, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, as imposing a gift from Norway as the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree, proving that he is rather more than an honest super-sub Like buses, his goals tend to come along in clusters.

Another four yesterday, just as he managed against Nottingham Forest earlier this year, took his tally to six this season But this was only his eighth start. Typically, the impish striker greeted all of them with a modesty that others might emulate.
Solskjaer was one of the tourists to Japan, too. But jet-lag? Not a bit of it.
Three-one to the good at half-time, Ferguson’s side put Everton to the sword immediately afterwards and indulged themselves only in the final quarter hour by playing out time with exhibition football.
Sir Alex, whose team were given a guard of honour by the visitors as Roy Keane led United out clutching the Toyota Cup, had described the win in Tokyo as his team’s curtain call to last season. The stage lights have flickered a little this season on occasion, but here they played to the gallery, treating Ferguson’s good friend Walter Smith with disdain once the trivial issue of an early goal from the visitors had been overcome.
Arsenal’s surprisingly facile morning defeat of Leicester made them Premiership leaders, albeit temporarily, and applied extra pressure on United to perform. They responded in style, with Paul Scholes fashioning two of Solskjaer’s goals and proving himself a powerhouse on the right of midfield.
It was all a welcome culmination to a trying week for Ferguson, in which the future of Keane continues to be a trial – negotiations start again on Tuesday – while the reported nocturnal excesses of David Beckham and the suggested influence of the winger’s wife, Victoria, in trying to persuade him to move south have dominated the tabloid pages.