Morning all, somewhat *boilky* due to it being Mrs Blogs birthday today and being out last night eating and drinking and drinking some more then having some more drinks then another drink or two. I’m sure you know the story.
So yesterday, interesting eh? Let’s start with the good stuff. A win, which was the most important thing. The goal was not a thing of beauty by any means. A corner was cleared, it fell to Alex Song who vaguely waved his foot at it and if deflected into the path of Emmanuel Adebayor who finished well past Kirkland. He might have had another but Kirkland saved a shot which then hit the post.
In the second half we had a lot of chances to make the game safe. Robin van Persie fired two just wide, we threatened from a series of really good corners with Adebayor heading one just wide when he should at leat have hit the target, Denilson hit the post, Sagna had a header saved and a close range shot bobbled over and I’m sure there were other opportunities to get the second goal. At the other end Manuel Almunia made a brilliant save from Melchiot which kept the scores level.
It was far more nervy than it should have been and I’m sure that contributed to what happened later on. Which was all about Eboue. He had come on as a substitute for the injured Samir Nasri and he was utterly dreadful. Yes, I know he has been out for 5 weeks with an injury, and I know he’s not a left midfielder but criticisms of him being played out of position are only relevant if you want to take him to task for not doing things a left midfielder should. For example, if Eboue was getting a hard time for not skinning the fullback and getting crosses in then you might say it was a bit harsh.
But it was the sheer ineptitude of his performance on a very basic level that had the crowd on his back. No matter where you’re playing the least that should be expected of you is that you can find a teammate with a pass. Eboue must have given the ball away, straight to Wigan, 5 or 6 times. He hit rock bottom when Kolo Toure took the ball out of defence, then shouted and gestured for his fellow Ivorian to move down the left hand side to take a pass, only for Eboue to tackle him in midfield then casually pass the ball into midfield straight to a Wigan player. Honestly, it was below Sunday league stuff.
That was enough for Wenger who, with just a couple of minutes to go, substituted Eboue. As his number came up on the board there was a loud cheer. It wasn’t for Silvestre coming on, it was for Eboue going off. Obviously he was upset, it wasn’t nice to hear an Arsenal player get that kind of reception, but I think the decision to take him off was the right one. The manager said his confidence had gone and said he was ‘a danger’. Which he was. With us hanging on you could have no confidence in Eboue doing even the most simple thing right.
Now, fans will forgive someone for being crap if they can see that the player is trying. At the end of the day we don’t pick the team so if a player is having a bad game but is, at least, putting in the effort then I don’t think he’d get a hard time. There’d certainly be nobody too happy to see him back in the side but he wouldnt get the kind of stick Eboue got yesterday. I suspect the crowd was so happy to see the back of Eboue yesterday was because of his lack of effort. Not only did he put in one of the worst performances in an Arsenal shirt that anybody had ever seen but his attitude was appalling. He gave the ball away and stood with his hands on his hips not even trying to get it back. He was lazy, there was one attempt at a tackle in the second half for which the word pathetic doesn’t even come close, and he barely even tried.
It was so bad you could see other players deliberately choosing not to give him the ball because they had no idea what he’d do with it.
As I said everyone can have a stinker of a game, it happens to the best players, but if you’re having a game like that at least try. Work harder, run more, do the best you can. People pay a lot of money to go to Arsenal. Whether its season ticket holders or the fans who come from all over the world every week the very least they expect from players is that they give 100% when they pull on the Arsenal shirt. Eboue clearly didn’t and the paying public made it quite clear what they thought of that.
I felt sorry for him though, I have to say. I’m no Eboue fan. I thought his performance yesterday was truly abject and to be honest it’s the kind of performance that finishes careers at football clubs. But you can’t help but feel for someone subjected to the kind of stick he got yesterday. However, the bottom line was he didn’t really care and you can’t have a player like that in your team. When you play like he did yesterday then I’m afraid you have to expect criticism and in a public arena there are only a couple of ways that can be expressed.
I wonder as well if some of the dissatisfaction expressed was aimed at the manager. Eboue is his player after all and this was just another day in the steady decline of his Arsenal career. After starting reasonably well at right back he has never really convinced anybody that he has what it takes. Frustrating to many fans because of his antics, he doesn’t do much of anything very well yet he continues to be part of the team. The manager is the one who picks him so perhaps what happened yesterday was a message to him as well.
It’s a subject that will be argued about all day long, I’m sure. It began yesterday shortly after the match and I’m sure it will continue for days to come. People have made suggestions that blogs, such as this one and the many others, are to blame for the fans being on Eboue’s back because they have been critical of him in the past. I call bunkum on that. It suggests that people are unable to have opinions of their own, that they take their lead from websites. It’s nonsense, in my opinion. Websites allow people to come together, they generate discussion, but ultimately this blog, or any other, is just the opinion of one person. And the comments that follow each article allow anybody else to give their point of view. As will happen to today and tomorrow and ad infinitum.
What happened yesterday to Eboue wasn’t nice but the only one to blame for that is Eboue himself.
A quick round-up of some of the other Sunday stories. New CEO Ivan Gazidis will try and negotiate new sponsorship deals, according to the News of the World. Good luck to him there. If true, that is not going to be easy.
Arsene Wenger talks about how football is living ‘in fear’ of the Webster ruling. I think he’s right. At the moment nobody has really challenged it, although I’m told they were convinced Hleb was going to use it in the summer. I suspect when the first high profile Webster transfer takes place then we’ll see the floodgates open and after that the transfer system as we know it will be absolutely shattered.
Beyond that not much else so I’m going to enjoy the fact that we’ve won two league games in a row. For me that’s the most important thing about yesterday, if not the most debatable.
Have a good Sunday, more tomorrow.
