Tottenham Hotspur
0 - 0
Arsenal FC
A nil nil draw against our north London rivals was enough to continue our unbeaten league run, not to mention our 9 year unbeaten league run against spurs. That result would have been welcome under normal circumstances, unfortunately it does nothing to help our current target of fourth place.
It is sad that fourth place is the height of our current aspirations, even sadder that our cause is being sabotaged by utter stupidity from a so-called professional.
Eboue is a player I’ve had a lot of time for. Time and time again he has been detrimental to the goals of the team, and time and time again I’ve stood up for him.
Looking past his obvious faults it’s easy to see what he could bring to the team. Yesterday for 30 minutes it looked like he was intent on showing us exactly why he is in the squad, with pace and power, his surging runs unsettled Tottenham. He was easily the outstanding player on the pitch until he lost the plot.
How can a person take this long to see the error of their ways is beyond me, Eboue has been given enough chances to prove that he can get his head right. Yesterday was the last straw, there comes a time when you must cut your losses and move on, the time to cut Eboue adrift has come. I would not even want him as a back up right back, putting him there will be even more dangerous for the team.
Currently it seems to me that Eboue has his place in the team simply because of the lack of bodies, I sincerely hope that once we have players back fit that Wenger will see it fit to leave Eboue out, and sell him as soon as he can.
One player who has seemed to get his head in the right place is Gallas. Since being relieved of the captaincy, William Gallas has been liberated and has turned into the solid centre half that we thought we were buying from Chelsea. He has quietly gone about his business and turned in some exemplary performances for the team.
It is remarkable how much difference not having the captain’s armband has made to William, as captain he probably felt that he was compelled to show how much it meant to win, sadly the way he chose to demonstrate that winning mentality was all wrong. Luckily for us Gallas only has to concentrate on his performance and it shows. I only hope that he is not just playing well to bump up his value in the summer transfer market, as it would be nice to keep the current Gallas for a few years still.
The result yesterday was acceptable given the circumstances, there was a small chance to actually get all 3 points, equally we could have come out with nothing but the trauma of losing to Spurs at a time when we cannot afford to lose to anyone much less to Tottenham.
What do you think? Was it 2 points lost? should Eboue get another chance? Is Gallas finally coming good? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
Fabio
9 Feb 09 at 1838hr
eboue has to go, i totally agree with everything you said about him. i always try and stick up for arsenal players regardless of how they perform,i try to see it from wengers point of view and find some good in a performance. but eboue just isnt top 4 material. he would probably flourish somewhere like blackburn or west ham but not in a club with title aspirations.
Gallas has been transformed since he was dropped as captain and i hope it carries on.
i also wanted to hear your views on Nicklas Bendtner. all my mates and every other arsenal fan i speak to says hes useless and we need to sell him. the media seem to be jumping on the bandwagon as well.
i really rate him though, i think that for a 21 year old hes got a very mature head on his shoulders and give him a couple more years we could have a real talent on our hands.
dfunkydog
10 Feb 09 at 0101hr
I think we already have a huge talent on our hands in Bendtner.
The problem is we tend to think of Bendtner as this big target man in a similar vein to Adebayor, when in fact Bendnter is better with the ball to feet and has an excellent eye for a pass.
Also we tend to forget that this guy is still only 21. Ofcourse he will not have the consistency of a mature pro. We tend to compare our players to the best but hardly remember that while there are exceptions these “best” players were not at their best when there were 19, 20 and 21.
It’s a pity that due to injuries and misjudgement in transfer negotiations that we have to depend on players that while talented are not quite ready to be full time 1st teamers. And I hope that this season doesn’t stunt their growth.