Adebayor The Key At The Lane
Feb 6th, 2009 by 'holic
The trip to the other end of Seven Sisters Road is always much anticipated. “What’s it really like?” I was asked the other day. “Do you really hate them?” Living outside of London these days it helps to sometimes be reminded that not everybody has lived the North London rivalry for as long as I have.
I will never forget reading a section of the Sunday Mirror called the angry column back in 1981. Peter Shaw fielded letters from fans and either agreed with them or dismissed them, often abusively. Just after Tottenham had won the FA Cup (yes, they really did that in the last century!) a gooner wrote in to say that people had made much of the fact that Tottenham had won the trophy in the Chinese year of the cockerel. Personally, he wrote, I think it is more to do with the fact it is also the international year of the disabled!.
Not politically correct, I know, but worse insults are regularly traded between supporters of the big club in North London, and the occupants of the former marshlands in what was once the northern suburb of Middlesex. What is at stake on Sunday is much, much more than just three Premier League points.
In fact this meeting has more meaning than most for the hosts. An away win would increase the chance of this being the last meeting of the sides for a while, given that Tottenham currently sit just a point above the relegation zone. I’m fortunate enough to have witnessed them being relegated before, but a whole new generation of Gooners deserves to see it too.
In all honesty though we will have to improve on our finishing in recent weeks if we are to get revenge for the astonishing 4-4 drubbing we handed Tottenham at the Grove back in October. The two injury time goals with which they snatched a point that night should be motivation enough for an Arsenal side that pretty much picks itself this weekend.
Goalkeeper and full-backs are given, and the only real poser for Le Boss is which pair to perm from Gallas, Toure, and Djourou in the middle. I would play Djourou, but I suspect Arsene won’t. With Diaby suspended, and Fabregas, Walcott, and Rosicky all ruled out by injury, the midfield quartet will probably be Eboue, Denilson, Song, and Nasri. (Sorry, Arshavin isn’t match-fit. Best we can hope for is he makes the bench.) Adebayor and van Persie must surely start up front.
The key for me will be Adebayor. We will create opportunities for him. We set him up with two very good chances against West Ham which sadly he let slip. However, he joins a list of Gunners who have feasted on the Tottenham defence down the years. He has picked up where the likes of Alan Sunderland, Charlie Nicholas, Thierry Henry, and Robert Pires left off. On Sunday, ‘Give him the ball, and he will score’.
I have to believe that. I have to pump the ‘holic pound on an Arsenal win. Regardless of the circumstances, regardless of the fact we may not be at our best, we cannot contemplate losing a North London Premiership derby for the first time since 1999. It might just be a tight old contest with many twists and turns, so I am going for an old favourite bet this week. Tottenham to lead at half-time, but Arsenal to win in ninety minutes is on offer at 33’s at Sportingbet. I’ll have some of that.
So that’s it. If you are going wrap up warm in something you can burn when you get home. If you are stuck with television or internet coverage let’s pray they don’t ‘do an ITV’ and miss Adebayor’s winner. And don’t forget to wave goodbye to the Lane, just in case we don’t go back there for a while.
18 Responses to “Adebayor The Key At The Lane”
Cheers ‘holic. Be nice to see you for a pint sometime soon, if at all possible.
Good to see you Esso. We’re hoping the management is on the mend. I am targeting Blackburn for my return. I will feel like Rosicky when I walk into the bar again 😉
Blackburn you say?
*Makes a note*
ah, Robert Pires, …. he was FANTASTIC, absolutely FANTASTIC
Nice one holic. There’s no way we’re losing to the Scum, 3-0 to the Arse!
COYG!!!
god help us if we are depending on ade bad player. hes fukin useless
Yeah ‘Holic, despite his lack of form recently and what all Gooners are saying, I think Ade might just be motivated enough to play a blinder against the Spuds! 😀
Do us a favour, nif. Pop back when you have bought the other half of that keyboard.
Aaaah, another great blog, ‘holic.
I’ll have another glass of Haut-Médoc.
Cheers!
Cheers ‘holic. A bit nervous about this one, but have faith in the boys. I live in South Yorkshire and it’s also a derby this weekend between Sheffield United and Wednesday, the last time I remember a weekend of these two derbys was the ’93 FA Cup Semi Finals. I’m hoping that history repeats itself..
Brilliant to read something so positive. We may be struggling but if we can win at Hull we can win at spurs. Let’s do it!
How can Wenger claim we were good enough before Arshavin is on some sort of Happy drug, because he sure is delusional.
Hoping the boys in Red ‘n’ White don’t disappoint tomorrow. I think the hurt of letting the Scum snatch 2 late goals at the Grove will inspire us on to victory.
Arshavin to come off the bench and score the winner.
Its payback time……
That would be wonderful, Neasden.
Have a good one, Gooners.
Typical of the roll of the ball this season really. Hull have two shots against us, they both go in (one a once in a lifetime wonder strike by Giovanni). We score one. We lose. Fast forward to Chelsea today. Hull have at least four great efforts. None go in. Chelsea don’t score. They draw.
15 minutes to go and Tony Adams thinks he’s on a winner. Distin goes to sleep. Twice. (Some nitwits wanted AW to buy him!). Never mind, Kuyt still has to beat Calamity at the near post. He can’t. Surely. He DOES because James doesn’t move anything other than his left shoulder. “Power drive beat the keeper” says Satanta numptie. When Gallas scored with a good header from a great Denilson free kick, same Setanta numptie said “keeper is a flapping failure”. Lpool go on to win 3-2 with an equally poorly defended third.
Pirlo injured so Flamini’s on for AC/DC Milan. Swiss Tony is back on the bench. One game for him was enough this season apparently. Stadium is empty. Atmosphere is flatter than last night’s pally ally. Anyone with half a brain would rather be at the Emirates. They’re playing Reggina (the WBA of Seria A). Beckham outshone Flamini in a poor, poor effort by Milan that ended 1-1. Flamini huffed and puffed but did little else. ball distribution and defence were very poor. Denilson, Denilson!
So, from all of that, I deduce that, as long as the wind is blowing north off the Thames Estuary, we’ll win 3-1 tomorrow. Come on you Gunners.
Given the recent reliability of the ‘holic £ I’d feel a lot happier if it was on 10-0 to the scum.
Props to Mustard though for the ’93 parallel.
I should have made the connection as it was the 1st semi for my sons.
The image of my youngest, 7 at the time and standing on one of the Wembley tea trays, screaming along with everyone else, “Blow your fucking whistle” as we suffered 2 hours or whatever of injury time is indelibly etched on my mind.
Happy days.
Don’t want to be negative but I’ve got a really bad feeling about tomorrow.
There again they really are crap so . . . . . .
Cheers Garrett. I have a feeling it will be just as close as it was back then…
Without wanting to jinx anything, but if the omens are to go by, it’s worth noting that Wednesday beat United today by the same score as in ’93.
Loved the post Holic. Long time Arsenal supporter but not english nor british, I love these rivalry stories of which there is so much I can understand.
Berkamp TM: I feel really sorry for big Phil. I don’t think I can remember a player that has been so hammered for his style of play. Even when he is tidy as a Swiss, all comments will mention the “insecurity” about his performance. Honestly I would be happy if Milan let him come back. It would be like a new signing, a good one at that 😉