It is surely time to change the record regarding Ian Wright. Not only Cliff Bastin's Arsenal record of 178 goals which Wright, now one short, is expected to equal or even break at Southampton this afternoon, but the accompanying hullabaloo.
It would be unfortunate, both for Wright and Arsenal, if a milestone became a millstone. While the feat Wright stands to achieve is considerable by any statistical measure, the pressure on him to score at The Dell today will be unreasonable.
For more than a week, given the absence of Premiership matches, the football columns have struggled to hold the attention. Kenny Dalglish's apparent desire to set up a Liverpool museum on Tyneside is a curiosity, nothing more.
From the point of view of sports page headlines, therefore, Wright has been manna from heaven. And should he fail to score at Southampton, then presumably the whole business will be repeated on Wednesday at Leicester City, which was where Wright scored his first Arsenal goal.
What neither player nor team will want is for Tottenham to visit Highbury a week today with Bastin's record still intact. North London derbies are already tense enough.
As it is, David Elleray, the referee at Southampton today, has been quoted as cautioning Wright against excessive celebrations should he score. Apparently somersaults are allowed but there is to be no cavorting in front of the stands in case the fans want to join in.
Details are sketchy, given the distance in time, but it seems safe to assume that Bastin was not given a similar warning as he approached the previous Arsenal scoring record of 137 goals, set by Jimmy Brain between 1924 and 1931. To judge from those who saw Bastin play, moreover, it is unlikely that he was ever in need of rage counselling.
In fact descriptions of Bastin's detached demeanour, and in particular the icy calm with which he took penalties, suggest a forerunner of Cantona, though without the dark flaws. It has been suggested that to exalt Wright for breaking Bastin's 50-year-old record does the latter an injustice. Bastin, it is argued, played in fewer competitions and was a winger anyway, whereas 43 of Wright's 177 goals have been scored in League Cup or European games.
Certainly Bastin scored more times in the league than Wright has done so far - 150 goals compared to 121 - but Wright has made 192 league appearances, seven of them as a substitute, compared to Bastin's 350.
Bastin became the cutting edge of a triumvirate built on Alex James's vision, Joe Hulme's speed on the right wing and Bastin's calm judgment on the opposite flank.
Temperamentally, Wright and Bastin are clearly polarised, but from the point of view of tactical acumen they may be closer than many realise. Wright's disciplinary record betrays a lack of control which he claims to have conquered through counselling, but the footballing decisions he makes during the course of a match can rarely be faulted.
The comparative time scales of the two careers make an odd contrast. Generally speaking, the modern footballer reaches his peak earlier than the players of 50 years ago but in this case it is the reverse.
Wright was 22 when he began his professional career with Crystal Palace, Bastin 17 when he signed for Arsenal. Bastin, his playing days truncated by the second world war, retired at 34. Wright, who will celebrate his 34th birthday on November 3rd, expects to go on rather longer.
By the end of this season he may have passed 200 goals for Arsenal. Either way a championship medal would add meaning to his prolific record. For from this point of view, whatever happens at Southampton today, the score will continue to read Cliff Bastin 5, Ian Wright 0.
Guardian Service
