Alan Smith: Beat the offside trap

By Ben Welch
published

He found the net more than 100 times for Arsenal, now the Gunners' legendary striker Alan Smith tells you how to time your run to perfection

Ranked 27th in the list of the Gunners’ 50 Greatest Players, Alan Smith is an Arsenal legend.

‘Smudger’ struck 115 times in 347 appearances for the Gunners, making him one of the club’s all-time greatest goalscorers.

Unlike Filippo Inzaghi, who Sir Alex Ferguson claims was “born offside”, Smith knew how to time his run as to not trigger the linesman’s flag.

And let’s face it who better to learn from than Smith? Day-in-day-out at training he worked on springing the famous Arsenal offside trap, with Tony Adams, Steve Bould, Lee Dixon and Nigel Winterburn raising their arms in unison.

Also see:
Ruud van Nistelrooy: Time your run to perfection
Alan Smith: Score one-on-ones
Alan Smith: Score from crosses

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Ben Welch