By Myles Palmer

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THIS WAS a bit more like it.

A 2-0 win with both goals by skipper Sol Campbell.

Two headers from two Reyes freekicks in 11 and 30 minutes.

Good goals plus an awesome recovery tackle, when Toure made a ridiculously sloppy pass.

That tackle was good as the goals.

It's a massive season for a defender who had starred in the last two World Cups.

Sol was 31 on Sunday and was not picked for the FA Cup Final. He felt that very deeply and was furious with Arsene.

The manager may have reckoned Campbell was cruising, as Vieira had been.

Vieira set the tone, I'm afraid, that's why he was sold, a development which left Patrick shell-shocked, unable to believe his club had accepted Juventus's offer.

Campbell should score more goals than he does.I have said that for years.

The delivery was good here, suggesting Arsenal have been working on that, at last.

What does it take to get Arsenal to score from set-pieces?

A six-week injury to Thierry Henry that forces them to find a new way of scoring, which they have neglected for eight years ?

FREDDIE hit the bar once, but was appalling.

HLEB, replacing the injured Pires, was excellent. Very strong on the ball, very constructuve, linking well with Ashley Cole at high speed, already a reliable performer.

GILBERTO has really stepped up to the plate since Vieira was sold, making more tackles.

Ball-winning in the conventional sense is not his game, but Gilberto now has to do more of that in this redcurrant season. And he has done.

Phil Neville's vicious assault on Pires (21) was one which immediately looked sure to put him out of the game.After 29 minutes he limped off.

In between the injury and the substitution was a lightning raid : Gilberto-Fabregas-Reyes to van Persie, who took the ball brilliantly in his stride and slammed his shot against the outside of the post.

On 65, Reyes kicked Neville on his achilles, giving him a dose of his own medicine. Reyes was booked, but it was worth it.

Teenager Alex Song came on for Reyes at the end and ran around for five minutes.He is 18 and on loan from Bastia.

ON THIS FORM, Sol Campbell should be back in the England team.

I'm told Michael Hart wrote a two-page Sol feature in the Standard on Monday night, but there were no quotes from Sol in it.

Indeed, after Thun, Sol, a notoriously slow changer who is always the last out of the changing room, insisted on not coming out till after the press had all gone, even though he knew that reporters wanted to talk about his comeback.

The World Cup is Sol's priority, as he let slip on a TV interview last night.

Still, maybe he should keep the armband. He has come back at a time when the team really needed a boost, and a new goalscorer.

If he plays like this in the next five games, Sol should be captain for the rest of the season

EVERTON?

Villareal and Bucharest were devastating blows for a team who have many injuries.They miss the leadership of Alan Stubbs

Collina turned them over with an appalling display of refereeing. Having read bits of Collina's book recently, it's clear that his philosophy is the opposite of Anders Frisk's.

Frisk did no homework on players and did not watch games on TV. He just called each decision as he saw it, regardless of who it was.

Collina's decisions against Duncan Ferguson were decisions by a ref who knew Big Dunc's reputation.

Getting Villareal, the third best team in Spain, in the CL Qualifying Round, was really bad luck for Everton.

And losing 5-1 in Bucharest puts them out of the Uefa Cup, even though the second leg has not been played yet.

Those are severe blows to any team : psychologically, financially, any way you look at it, those defeats are damaging.

Getting into Europe too soon got Ipswich relegated from the Premiership and ultimately cost George Burley his job. David Moyes knows that.

WEST HAM v Arsenal will be interesting on Saturday.

The Hammers will not be as defensive as Everton.

They will make a game of it and believe they can score against Arsenal.

But striker Marlon Harewood may not have played against a defender as formidable as Sol Campbell.

September 20th 2005.

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