Two-goal Adebayor atoned after his apology, as Ian Grant has suggested.
Apology is one thing, atonement another.
After his tiff with Bendtner on Tuesday night, Adebayor had apologised to everybody.
What happened on Saturday was predictable.
At home to Newcastle, after last week, a dodgy first half was probably on the cards.
But Adebayor owed a performance to his manager.
He owed a performance to his team
He owed a performance to Arsenal fans.
So, after a sloppy first half, the powerhouse scored two goals and Arsenal beat Newcastle 3-0, which was what I expected. Newcastle are not very good. That’s why they’re 12th in the table. There’s no reason why Arsenal shouldn’t beat them again on Tuesday night, perhaps more easily with Sagna and Hleb starting of the match.
On Saturday’s Match of the Day we saw Keegan still talking about a role for Alan Shearer at the club. That was always ridiculous and now its boring. The crowd sacked Allardyce and hired Keegan, who can’t get good players in now. He should have said to Ashley : Get a caretaker, I’ll come in the summer.
Instead, being a wonderful, gutsy romantic who lets his heart rule his head, Keegan took charge again. We need guys who let their hearts rule their heads because they make life more interesting and colourful but we don’t want to see them grovelling to a shrewd retired superstar.
Shearer doesn’t want to be tainted by Keegan’s failure and doesn’t want to help Keegan be a success. Icons don’t apply for jobs as assistant-icons.
I’m reliably informed that Shearer’s career was mapped out years ago and it was mapped out till he is 50. It doesn’t include being No.2 to Mighty Mouse . Next ! Can we please move on? This is a pathetic and annoying non-story.
Shearer’s not a coach and neither is Keegan. But this is England, where we award jobs according to personality, not qualifications. Mike Ashley isn’t running Newcastle : the Toon Army is.
On Sunday morning I saw Ryan Giggs talking about the Spurs-Arsenal games and he said, “I thought they were unlucky at their place.” Meaning : Spurs should have won at the Emirates as well.
Manchester United played Spurs at 2pm and when I saw that Chimbonda and King weren’t playing I had £20 on United to win by two goals and I got very lucky when Ronaldo made it 3-1 after 88 minutes. His shot deflected off the shin of Malbranque and squirted under Cerny’s body.
Evra and Giggs were hopeless. Evra wasn’t tight enough on Lennon, who crossed for Robbie Keane to score a cute, early goal.
When you look at Robbie Keane, and see what he can do compared to 99% of footballers, you think that the 99% are overpaid. He’s a thinking, moving, creative sharpshooter.
Spurs are now guided by someone with a real football intelligence. Next season Ramos might put Spurs where Everton are now, even if they lose Berbatov.
Match of the Day Live had a panel of Hansen, Shearer and Mark Hughes, which is over-manning. Why let Shearer mouth banalities when we could be learning something from Hughes?
The first time I ever saw Ryan Giggs was at White Hart Lane, where he scored an electric goal with a ferret-fast powerglide into the Spurs penalty area. And I recall talking to my sports editor, George Barton of The Scotsman, about Giggs after that game in 1992.
Conversations with George, a former news editor, were few and short. This was one our long chats, which is why I remember it.
Myles : “This kid is the best eighteen year old footballer I’ve ever seen.”
George : “Do you really think he’s that good?”
Myles : “Yes, and you could also play him as a striker. And ten years from now you could play him in a Bryan Robson position because he can tackle.”
Frankly, I didn’t think Giggs would still be playing for United in 2008 at the age of 34. He is on course to play more games for Man United than any other player ever.
Man City deserved to lose 2-1 at Sheffield United because keeper Joe Hart was too dim to burst the sky blue balloons in his penalty area. The balloons distracted his defenders and the ball actually hit a balloon and allowed a ridiculous early goal.
Some readers have complained about my refusal to review Roxy Music 36 years ago !