The German social democrats once thought they had found the post-capitalist holy grail with the slogan “Tax Pollution, Not Jobs”, a plan to cut tax on something we have too little of, namely employment, and shift the burden to something we have too much of, namely pollution. That made it four goals in five League games for their former England midfielder, which was about as much as he could muster in each of his last seven seasons at Anfield. It did not help a suffering Kopite to be reminded either during this time of disaffection with their own manager that the transformation of Barnes from midfield bit-part player, as he latterly became in his career at Liverpool, to goalscoring hero was the inspired work of their much beloved former manager Kenny Dalglish.
The fact that, in the prolonged absence of Alan Shearer and Faustino Asprilla, Dalglish had tried just about every other possible solution to their goalscoring crisis before hitting upon the resurrection of Barnes as a striker will be of no matter to Liverpool fans, who will see this as yet another master stroke by the man they would love to see back in charge at Anfield.”He [Barnes] did not have to score them for Liverpool,” explained Dalglish, “because he had a couple of guys in front of him scoring more regularly. If there was anything that a Liverpool supporter will have found harder to swallow on Saturday than their team’s home defeat to Barnsley, it was the news that John Barnes had scored a match-winning brace at Newcastle. Substitutes not used: Soltvedt, Lightbourne, Hedman (gk).Referee: D Elleray (Harrow).Bookings: Derby: Carsley, Wanchope, Eranio, D Powell, Dailly; Coventry: McAllister, Hall, Boland, Nilsson.Attendance: 29,351.Man of the match: Baiano.. Substitutes not used: Solis, Burton, Hoult (gk).Coventry City (4-4-2): Ogrizovic; Nilsson, Shaw, Breen, Burrows; Telfer, Williams (Boland, 58), McAllister, Hall; Dublin, Haworth (Huckerby, 35). But for some excellent saves by Steve Ogrizovic, a vital tackle by David Burrows and a moment of rare fallibility by Baiano following one of genius by Wanchope, Coventry could have been routed.They escaped largely because Derby lost Jacob Laursen with ligament damage sustained in a tackle with Gary McAllister and because the belated introduction of Darren Huckerby gave Coventry a sharper edge, as well as a second-half goal.Strachan had no argument with the justice of the result but a considerable one with referee Elleray, whom he accused, effectively, of failing to take his job seriously.His anger stemmed from an exchange in the official’s room at half-time when, Strachan alleged, Elleray made a comment so ill-advised he felt obliged to lock the manager in the room with him so he could retract it.Goals: Baiano (3) 1-0; Eranio pen (30) 2-0; Wanchope (39) 3-0; Huckerby (71) 3-1.Derby County (3-4-3): Poom; Laursen (D Powell, 67), Rowett, Dailly; Kozluk, Eranio, Carsley, C Powell; Baiano (Hunt, 89), Sturridge, Wanchope.

They could then have gone five or six down in the wake of Wanchope’s superbly taken goal as Derby discovered a higher gear. He need not have worried.Smith has been criticised for making so little space for native Englishmen at Pride Park but the complaints are flawed. Players who combine the enthusiasm and technical quality that Francesco Baiano and Paulo Wanchope share only enrich the game here.Between them, the Italian and the Costa Rican destroyed poor Coventry, who fell apart after Baiano won a penalty to go with his early opener. Full of positive intent and largely without inhibition, his multi-national team are a pleasure to watch, a credit to a manager who is neither young nor foreign yet is as fluent in the language of the modern game as any in his profession.
Jim Smith was anxious that the shattering experience of seeing a 3-0 lead overturned at Leeds two weeks ago might do lasting damage, instilling fear, discouraging creativity. Substitutes not used: Upson, Manninger (gk).Bookings: Sheffield Wednesday Atherton, Nolan. Arsenal Adams, Platt, Grimandi.Referee: K Burge (Tonypandy).Man of the match: Walker.Attendance: 34,373.. Until Gordon Strachan left his thoughts on David Elleray to swirl around in the evening fog, this was a clear story of the eye-catching impact Jim Smith’s new Derby continue to have on the Premiership.

Substitutes not used: Blondeau, Humphreys, Clarke (gk).Arsenal (3-5-2): Seaman; Keown, Adams, Grimandi (Marshall, 50); Dixon, Parlour (Hughes, 37), Platt, Overmars, Winterburn; Mendez (Wreh, 54), Wright. But we go down to The Dell next week and no one knows better than me how hard that will be.” The true test of the second coming will start there.Goals: Booth (42) 1-0; Whittingham (86) 2-0.Sheffield Wednesday (4-4-2): Pressman; Nolan, Newsome, Walker, Pembridge; Whittingham, Magilton (Hyde, 83), Atherton, Rudi; Di Canio (Carbone, 78), Booth. “Games like the Arsenal look after themselves, the motivation comes from the game. “I don’t think I’ve ever looked forward to a game with as much enthusiasm as this one,” he said “There are things there to work on. It’s certainly a far better side than the one I took over last time.”Then he unplugged his adrenalin.

Two first-time passes and Arsenal were slashed apart, Guy Whittingham finishing with aplomb.It was a splendid finale to a drudge of a game and made Big Ron’s day. I had a feeling that if we had been more creative he would have scored. I’m not concerned about him, I’m more concerned about our collective game.”So he should be. Of all people, the two wing-backs, Lee Dixon and Nigel Winterburn, were the best visiting attackers and, if they had to press forward to get any response, gaps were always likely to appear behind them.Wednesday duly raced into one, finishing off the match with a lovely goal four minutes from the end. The England striker has now gone five matches without scoring and more Arsenal performances like this and he could go another 15.”Today he was sharp,” Wenger said, “and in better circumstances he would have been dangerous.