Last season Didier Drogba hit screamers from outside the box. Assured knockdowns came from his head. He jumped high above goalkeepers to head in at the near post.
He was the best centre forward in football and he scored 33 goals.
Frankly, Adebayor never looked in the same class.
But when Arsenal beat Spurs 3-1 at White Hart Lane on Saturday, Adebayor scored two Drogba goals.
The first was a header where he got in front of Paul Robinson to head in a Fabregas free-kick to make it 1-1 after 65 minutes. And in 94 he nudged Fabregas’s pass up and then lashed it past Robinson for 3-1.
In between, Fab4 blasted in a shot from 25 yards to make it 2-1.
After 15, Gareth Bale had scored with an excellent free-kick round the wall. Last man in the wall was Hleb, who ducked. Flamini should have been on the end of the wall, not Hleb. He jumps and blocks shots better than any other Arsenal player.
At 1-0, Adebayor played Hleb into a promising position.He might have taken the ball on but instead he fired feebly and straight at Robinson. Diaby hit one shot six yards wide and then spooned another effort against the bar from a very good position.
Berbatov is a class striker who doesn’t want to be at Spurs When he was played through at 1-0 he went round Almunia five yards outside the box when he could have slipped the ball past him, or maybe even lobbed him, since Almunia was well out of his area. If he’d handled, it was a red card. Having gone round the keeper, Berbatov could have slipped his shot past Toure to make it 2-0. But he tried to go round Toure, who tackled him.
Then Sagna did very well to set up an open goal for Adebayor, who shot wastefully over the bar.
Then Spurs midfielder Huddlestone had a silly tiff with Almunia and ref Mark Clattenburg spoke to both players without booking them. Very soon after that incident Sagna whacked Huddlestone near the halfway line. Sagna sent Huddlestone a clear message : don’t fuck with my keeper. Clattenburg was only six yards away and his yellow card sent Sagna a clear message : Don’t do that again or you’re off ! No Arsenal defender would have done that last season when Gandhi was captain. The apostle of non-violence set a different tone.
This season, Fabregas is the man. He’s not captain but he’s the man. He’s just a boy but he’s the man.
Van Persie was anonymous and Denilson replaced him and missed a one-on-one, shooting feebly at Robinson.
For the last two weeks I’ve expected Arsenal to beat Spurs by one goal. I was sure it would be 1-0 or maybe 2-1.
Overall, a very good team effort by the boys. Toure was immense, Sagna was good again, Clichy chested a Berbatov shot off the line, Gilberto was good considering he played for Brazil in midweek.
There’s no visible spirit at Spurs, no cameraderie, no effective leader. Behind the scenes, Robbie Keane runs the show, I’m told.
Hoddlestone can’t run, so he should be a playmaker in a slower league, playing a Guardiola- Pirlo role, placing sweet passes here and there.
Darren Bent embarrassed himself late on by going through one-on-one against Almunia and scuffing his left-foot shot horribly.
Paul Robinson, alas, is always going to be found out on set-pieces and shots from distance.
Spurs Chairman Daniel Levy looks lost. He doesn’t know what to do. You can see that he doesn’t know what to do now.
Arsenal v Sevilla will be a better contest.
Like Arsenal, Sevilla have a good work rate and a multi-national team.
Sevilla have won back-to-back Uefa Cups. Arsenal couldn’t even win it once.
Arsenal’s 3-1 win puts them top of the Premier League, Sevilla’s 4-1 demolition of Recreativo puts them second in La Liga.
Manchester City are second after young midfielder Michael Johnson’s classy run and shot gave them another 1-0 win. Assist by Elano, as usual. The Brazilian rarely wastes a ball.
Rafa Benitez rested Torres and Gerrard at Portsmouth and it was a 0-0 draw.
Hansen says Fergie is smarter because he rotates at home against weaker teams, not away against strong ones. Torres came on and almost provided Voronin with the winner.
Everton held Man United’s Latin attack in check for 83 minutes. Then Vidic headed in a Nani corner at the near post, a towering header by the six foot four Serb. His five goals for United have all been headers.
Chelsea 0 Blackburn 0 was not a big surprise. Kalou had a neat goal disallowed for offside. A tricky call for the linesman and he got it wrong.