Morning all, the dust is well and truly settled now after the Sp*rs game but the fallout is still falling. Or something.
The FA have requested television footage that might show Emmanuel Adebayor’s clash with Nicklas Bendtner. It seems like those two had a dispute, Adebayor may have clobbered him one and when Gallas came over Bendtner’s ire was because he’d been clobbered. Or something.
Whatever happened it was enough for Adebayor to apologise in an article on the main site, saying:
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.
And if it’s just down to passion and frustration at being 4-1 down then it’s no bad thing. If there’s more to it than that though it could be a worry. William Gallas who tried to act as peacemaker, said:
They know they made a mistake. Maybe they will speak with the boss to see why they did that.
Nicklas Bendnter’s father has weighed in with his tuppence worth, saying:
It’s sad that a great player like Adebayor doesn’t take his head with him on to the field. He was mad. 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.
There are more details of what allegedly happened in that article linked above. The Sun claims that Adebayor came on and told Bendtner “I’m only on because you’re shit” which prompted Bendtner giving Adebayor the finger then Adebayor said “Are you a benny tied to a tree?” to which Bendtner said “No” so Adebayor ran around going “Benny on the loose! Benny on the loose!”
Whatever has happened I’m sure it will be dealt with internally and dealt with properly. I would hope it doesn’t cause any kind of friction in the camp, although you don’t need to be best mates with someone to play football with them. I’m sure most of us have had a teammate or two we haven’t gotten on with. However, Bendtner Sr’s comments are not very helpful at all. It’s almost as if he’s hinting Arsenal should punish our leading goalscorer which might leave an opening for his son. Not nice. He’d do well to keep quiet in future and if Bendtner Jr could replicate half the passion and committment Adebayor shows he’d be a player and a half.
Hopefully the FA won’t seek to dish out a fine or a ban to Adebayor. If he did something wrong then the punishment should come from the club, we really don’t need him serving FA induced time at the moment. If Adebayor is guilty of headbutting Bendtner then a hefty fine is in order, however much we appreciate Adebayor’s desire you can’t go loafing your colleagues. Unless it’s Eboue. The manager’s comments on this will be interesting.
William Gallas, who had probably his worst game in an Arsenal shirt on Tuesday, now has to show some real captaincy skills. It’s relatively easy to lead a winning team that’s happy and full of confidence. A big defeat, some belief taken away and the fractious incident between teammates means there’s work to do ahead of the two Newcastle games. He says:
We just have to be strong and forget everything because, on Saturday, we have another big game which will not be easy. Newcastle have a new manager and they want a result at the Emirates. We have to win that game because we have ambition. But the fans are upset and we are upset.
This will be a measure of his captaincy now to some degree. Obviously the manager is the one who will focus the players off the pitch and on the training ground but on the pitch Gallas has got to show leadership and guidance. He knows the fans are upset, he says they’re upset, pride has been wounded, it’s time to bite back.
The Mail reports that Arsenal will send Theo Walcott out on loan. I’d be surprised to be honest but stranger things have happened. With van Persie in a nursing home for the foreseeable future any injury or suspension could see our striking options very limited and as much as Theo’s struggling at the moment he can score goals when he’s given a start up top. Isn’t it better for him to struggle with us than go to some other shitkickers and struggle there?
Finally for today Arseblog has been nominated for Best European Weblog in the 2008 Bloggies. You might remember Arseblog won Best Sports blog in the 2007 awards. Thanks to everyone who nominated the site and if you could take 2 minutes to vote for Arseblog that’d be great. Click here to vote.
Congrats also to my old pal Diamond Geezer for his nomination in the same category, and making it three blogs of the five with a London connection is Londonist. Well done, chaps, and good luck.
Right, that’s that. More plus Arsecast tomorrow.
