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Arsenal 1 - 0 WBA

Eboue. You’ll probably have already read one of my rants about the headless idiot marshalling Arsenals right hand side, I’m the mans harshest critic and was gutted when he stayed at Arsenal - I just didn’t think I could take any more of his ‘interesting’ runs that always resulted in a loss of possesion. However he had one of his best performances in an Arsenal shirt yesterday. He tackled well and didn’t try to overcomplicate anything. He did have 3 wild shots from considerable distance, but credit where credit is due, at least he shot unlike most of the rest of the team.

Adebayor however had a stinker. Its hard to see how he is worth the extra money to be honest this season, and so far since he signed again its hard to see an offer of £30m coming in again. If the noise coming out of the club is correct and that he was willing to sign 6 weeks earlier than he did because Arsenal were shopping around for his sale, it seems the rest of football regained their senses.

Walcott didn’t have a great match but he was man-marked throughout. Sagna got the best out of that though because it left the wing clear for him.

Nasri however - its early days, but could he be the Pires that Arsenal need? A goal four minutes into his league debut seemed a dream start even if it was laid on a plate, and he looked energetic and dangerous throughout. It didn’t result in much at the end of the day but he looked like the kind of player that is always ready to try and with a bit of confidence could be the man Arsenal need to run into the centre a la Ljunberg and Pires in their best periods.

All we’ve got left to do now is buy a defensive midfielder before the transfer window closes.

Filed by Kieran at August 18th, 2008 under Football

1. At 7:50 pm on August 18, 2008, Joel Cairo wrote:

Do the stats. Adebayor shoots less, and score more often per shot or shot on goal than Ronaldo, Rooney, or Tevez. One in six is a bad day at the office for him, but if you think he is really a poor finisher, please make the factual case.

2. At 9:13 pm on August 18, 2008, Kieran wrote:

Joel, please don’t get me wrong Emanuel Adebayor has scored some of the best goals I’ve seen at Arsenal, but he is not a born finisher. I don’t have access to in depth stats on attempts etc but I know in the Champions League he had three nailed on opportunities that he missed against Liverpool. And having seen the majority of Arsenals games last season I can vouch for the fact that if he had been a little less wasteful last season he would of scored 45 goals rather than 30.

30 goals a season is a great return from a striker, unless you consider they could have scored 45! Some of his goals seemed impossible at the time, yet the easy ones always went wide or straight to the keeper. I really hope for Arsenal’s benefit and his that he gets a bit more ruthless in front of goal.

On a separate note: Adebayor does not really give much in the way of support up front. I’m the first to admit he holds the ball up well, but last season he managed just 5 assists in 49 appearances all season. Nik Bendtner managed 7 assists in 40 appearances, nearly all of which were last twenty minute runouts as a substitute.

Adebayor is a good player, but he’s not a great player just yet. Lets see how well he performs after a summer of discontent.

Thanks for your comment though fella and thanks for reading :)

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