Ian Wright was shocked by the appearance of his former Arsenal and England teammate David Platt after spotting him in the crowd on Monday night.
Wright was at the Kassam Stadium working on ITV ’s coverage of Arsenal’s match against Oxford United in the third round of the FA Cup. And he was delighted to see his former club run out 3-0 winners and book a place in the fourth round against Manchester City.
The occasion also saw Wright catch a glimpse of Platt, who he played alongside at Arsenal between 1995 and 1998 and with England. Having not seen the ex-midfielder for some time, he was taken aback by his appearance.
After Platt popped up on the monitor, Wright reacted by saying: “Wow! He's changed a bit." Platt was sitting in the stands at Oxford’s home ground wearing a black flat cap and a black coat.
Wright obviously had not seen Platt for quite some time, but likely has fond memories of the midfielder, given the success they enjoyed together. They were regulars in the side which won the Premier League and FA Cup double in 1997/98 under Arsene Wenger.
Wright and Platt both left Arsenal in 1998 and took different paths from thereon. While Wright played for West Ham, Nottingham Forest, Celtic and Burnley before retiring in 2000 and moving into the media, Platt pursued a coaching career.
The 56-year-old had stints in charge of Sampdoria, Forest and England under-21s before working as a coach alongside Roberto Mancini at Manchester City. In 2015 he went to India to manage Pune City and three years later he worked as a consultant for Italian side Palermo.
There was an Arsenal reunion of sorts at Oxford on Monday night, with two other members of that 1997/98 side present at the Kassam Stadium. Right-back Lee Dixon was on co-commentary for ITV, while his defensive colleague Martin Keown, who was born in Oxford, was also spotted in the stands.
After a keenly-contested and relatively action-free first half, Arsenal ran out comfortable winners in the second period. They broke the deadlock when Mohamed Elneny headed in Fabio Vieira’s teasing free-kick in the 63rd minute.
Eddie Nketiah made it 2-0 when he latched onto Vieira’s through ball and rounded goalkeeper Eddie McGinty for a simple finish. He added a second with a composed dink over the Oxford keeper from a tight angle to make it five goals in his last six games.
Wright was full of praise for Nketiah, who has stepped up to fill the shoes of the injured Gabriel Jesus. “Obviously it’s sad to lose Gabriel Jesus but Eddie has taken his chance, he’s come in, we know what he’s capable of in terms of being in the box, if he’s in there he will take them, and that’s what he’s done,” he said.
“He’s filled the gap, and all you want now in this situation is the momentum of this game to keep it going into the next games and the next games.”
