The London Ambulance Service reported an upsurge in emergency calls from the heart of London yesterday with The FA’s collective blood pressure rising to sufficient levels to breathe life into the organisation, asking for television footage of the Rumble in the Jungle Adebayor and Bendtner’s spat on the pitch although early reports suggest that they may be out of luck regarding the ‘head butt’ as the cameras did not catch it, merely the aftermath.

An FA spokesman blustered his way through this by telling all and sundry that the referee would be asked what action he would have taken had he seen the incident. If it has been caught on camera then Adebayor will be the lucky recipient of a three game domestic ban as it is likely to be viewed as violent conduct, very likely a straight red card. If that is the case, the first game that he would be liable to miss would be Newcastle next Tuesday as it seems that The FA cannot complete any disciplinary proceedings in time for this coming weekend.

Significantly, they are asking the referee to review the action in the cold light of day, not in the heat of the night. His reaction now is going to be ‘by the book’ and not a spontaneous reaction to an incident on the pitch where Adebayor’s yellow card might well have influenced the punishment he received, if any at all.

Bendtner’s father had plenty to say on the matter

It’s sad that a great player like Adebayor doesn’t take his head with him on to the field. He was mad

Before defending his son and contradicting himself in the space of one paragraph

I’m sure that Arsenal will take care of this and give him the right punishment. I don’t expect anything to happen to Nicklas as he is innocent in this matter…If you ask me, he’s without guilt as he, unlike others, took his head with him on to the field. I think it would be a good idea for Arsenal to have a long chat with the two players and find out who is really to blame

If he sought to deflect attention away from his son, it failed as the rest of the article goes on to be a character assassination of the Dane. The moral high ground adopted is ripped from under Bendtner Senior’s feet when one recalls the petulance shown in earning his first yellow card at Goodison Park

Until such times as one of the duo breaks cover and ‘fesses up, we will not exactly what was said to cause the altercation although The Sun reckons it knows the answer, this being a direct lift of their headline, “I’m on because you’re s**t”.

‘A Source’ says

He has been on Bendtner’s case for a long time. The pair do not get on and it finally boiled over on Tuesday night when Adebayor came on as a sub with the team 4-0 down. Bendtner ignored him — but when Adebayor said the same thing again later on, Nicklas gave Manny the finger and it all kicked off

Adebayor has apologised for the incident

Overall, I think that we should have been more calm during the game and although I was pleased to get a goal for the team when I came on, I am sorry for the disagreement with my team-mate Nicklas. We are both passionate about this club and sometimes that can be projected in the wrong way. It was a mistake. We want to focus on the games ahead and rely on our squad’s great togetherness to achieve a fantastic season

It will take a few days for this to die down, until the FA reach the end of their process. There will be more pompous ponderings from the media no doubt, the behaviour of players their favourite pastime. The players need to ignore the maelstrom building around them and indeed to some degree, the night in question. Learn the lessons of the defeat but not dwell on it.

It is open season though with Theo Walcott’s poor performance opening up conjecture about his immediate future. According to the Daily Mail, and they are the source of other papers reports, the youngster will be offloaded on loan this transfer window, to another Premier League club. The story is embellished the more it travels, the journey’s end containing the proviso that Arsene insists he be played as a centre forward not on the wing. There is another factor being ignored, namely the lack of fitness of Robin van Persie. For Arsene to utilise the loan he needs the Dutchman fully fit, especially if Adebayor receives a ban. To go into the second half of the season with only three fit forwards is unwise albeit we have been playing with that thus far this season. Any games missed will not allow the rotation that Arsene needs to employ.

However, the FA Cup and the recommencement of the Champions League mean that fixtures are coming thick and fast over the next few weeks. Eboue is in Ghana until mid February in all likelihood so cover on the right is stretched as well. That to me makes the scenario of Walcott going on loan seem more unlikely than anything else. That said, Walcott would benefit from a regular run of games in the central striking role if he is to be considered to be challenging for a starting line-up place in the near future, something that would boost the players confidence at the same time.

The central theme to this though is that it is all conjecture on the part of the media. Until anything happens to either Adebayor or Walcott, it is the fallout from a poor result, a fixture that has left, it seems, deeper mental scars in the stands than in the squad.

The Daily Telegraph is seeking to make a story where there is not one but little interest is being shown thanks to Bendtner and Adebayor. That is the benefit of such an incident - there has been little focus on the poor individual performances, only the headline grabbing result and antics of the two forwards. The other players can get on with life and prepare for Saturday.

‘til Tomorrow.

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