Emmanuel Adebayor. If ever there was a player who epitomised the adage that you cannot please all of the people, all of the time, it is he. Top scorer for the club in the Premier League with nineteen in twenty seven appearances (including substitutes), he is labelled for wont of a better phrase, “A Billy Big Nuts”, scoring only against lower teams in the division and when it does not matter.

[Pauses for a second to don anorak]

Well, as is always the case, those who shout loudest do not always give the true picture. The table below gives you a quick comparison between the top two scorers in the Division this season.

		Adebayor		Ronaldo
Goals		19		21
Appearances		27		24
Goals Per Game		0.70		0.88
Games Scored In		14		13
Points Won		10		11
Games Impacted		4		0
Games Not Impacted		4		6
Goals At Home		9		14
Goals Away		10		7

A quick explanation:
‘Points Won’ is the number of additional points gained by their goals, i.e. draws to wins, defeats to draws;
‘Games Impacted’ is the number of games where their goals can arguably described as influential, i.e. the first goal in a victory margin of more than two goals or the second goal in a three goal win;
‘Games Not Impacted’ is the number of games where if their goals were ignored, the outcome is unaffected save for goal difference

There is not much to choose between the two in terms of their seasons. The biggest difference between the two is that Adebayor scores more often away from home, ten times to Ronaldo’s seven. The other key difference is that Ronaldo scores two or more goals in a game far more frequently than Adebayor, seven matches to Adebayor’s four. An accusation levelled at the Togolese striker is that he does not score in big games. If it is true of Adebayor, it is equally as true of Ronaldo. Adebayor scored in both local derbies and Ronaldo against Arsenal. That’s it; neither netted against Chelsea or Liverpool.

The simple fact is that Adebayor is effective at his job and his record stands comparison to his peers this season. His fundamental problem is the player that he is replacing who could generally score against all-comers. Even then he only scored once in the Premier League at Old Trafford and Anfield, twice at Stamford Bridge. The point is that all goalscorers make hay against weaker opposition. Adebayor has a good decade left at the top and the expectations placed on his shoulders this season are too high. Forget Henry. His time at Arsenal is finished. He is in the history books as the clubs greatest goalscorer. Even if he is desperately unhappy in Barcelona, he will not be coming back to Arsenal. More importantly, stop expecting Adebayor to be Henry.

[Removes anorak]

Talking of forwards, good and bad news concerning Robin van Persie. Let’s get the bad out of the way first; he has been called up by the Dutch into the provisional squad for their upcoming friendly in Austria. If ever there was a reason for Arsene to delay his comeback slightly, this is it. Van Basten’s timing is ludicrous, although not as bad as FIFA in designating the last week of the month as an international week.

One hopes that RvP will be a dropout when the squad is reduced to twenty three next week. There is no sense in him being called up for if an injury is suffered now by the Dutchman, he probably will not go to Euro 2008, an altogether more damaging prospect for his national manager than him missing a senseless friendly.

The good news? He is chomping at the bit

I have missed many games – but I am thinking positive at the moment and I want to end this season good with the team. I am happy to be back and am quite positive that we can win the league and the Champions League. We have to get in there again and come back stronger because we still have nine games to play and it is vital. If Manchester United win their game in hand then we are one point behind them and we have to be sharp.

Arsene commented on RvP,

He can make a difference. How much? I don’t know. He has played eight games, we have played 28. To have him back for the last 10 would be patience rewarded. [Before he was injured] he played eight games and scored five goals. When you lose a player like that you think of course we are in trouble but we compensated well.

Flamini and Fabregas are considered the best partnership Arsene has had under his control

Going forward they [Fabregas and Flamini] are technically good and very mobile. Before we had players with impact and now the players’ strength is in mobility. Maybe they are less physically strong in the challenge than Vieira and Petit but they have a good understanding and they cover each other well

He observed the key to the success which will grate at one or two

We build a team over years being very restrictive about our spending and you are only rewarded if you can keep the team together

The media make a big play of how much cash is available at the end of financial year. The senior officials at the club play on that but it should be treated with some scepticism. Figures can be massaged to look good but at the end of the day unless Arsene spends it, there is not much point in speculating on whom it will be spent. Well, OK, it is part of the fun but not where it is detrimental to supporting the current squad. Take Adebayor as an example…[thwack]

If you want to speculate, you might consider Metz’s Miralem Pjanic. Why? He’s seventeen and the media think we’re interested. Why not? Because it is the player who seems to be talking it up.

‘til Tomorrow.