Archive for March 16th, 2009

Eboue’s God is Great, and so is Arshavin’s Doctor

Add comment March 16th, 2009

When Arsenal won a ninety-second minute penalty against Blackburn, fans in the stadium immediately wondered who might be elected to take it.  There was Kolo Toure (armed with the captaincy), Carlos Vela (who had won the kick), or even Andrey Arshavin (who those in the ground might have reasonably believed to be be ‘on a hatrick’).  Nobody, not even the most seerish and future-seeingy of Arsenal fans, expected the dancing, wild-eyed figure of Emmanuel Eboue to stride forward.  And yet, remarkably, he did.  And even more remarkably, he scored.  Arsene attempts to fails to explain:

“He wasn’t [the designated penalty-taker] … I don’t know, I will have to speak to Kolo Toure about that.  But when you are 3-0 up, of course it doesn’t matter.  He wouldn’t have done it at 0-0, don’t worry … I believe it’s a way for him to be reunited with the fans.”

It certainly seems a bit of a gamble.  Missing would’ve been a hell of a spanner in the works of the reconciliation between Ivorian and supporters.  The player himself, however, was never in doubt:

“I wanted to shoot, but I take my power, and I said to my friends “I want to shoot” – and they gave me the confidence and then I went to shoot.”

Well, I think that’s pretty clear.  He wanted to shoot, he told his friends he wanted to shoot, and then he shooted.  Glory be.

The aforementioned Arshavin grabbed his first goal for the club in spectacular fashion (no fluke, though – see nine minutes into this video to see him score a replica for Russia) before celebrating with a member of the Arsenal medical staff.  The reason for that has now been revealed – it seems the Russian was patched up somewhat at half-time:

“He came to the bench to thank the doctor because he had stitches in his foot at half-time.  He had three or four stitches and his foot is cut on the outside, completely.”

Something as small as a slashed-up foot would never stop our teeny-tiny forward, though:

“There was no question about him playing in the second half. He is not a soft boy at all. He is never in the medical room, he is not that type. He is tough. He works hard too. In fact I am quite surprised how hard he works. I think he is a man of challenges. To leave St Petersburg – where he was the star – and go to England at the age of 27, saying ‘I want to start it all again’ you need to have character and like challenges. And he does it in a very focused way I must say.”

It’s been a great start to his Arsenal career, and I just hope he continues his impressive rate of acclimatisation.

One man who the fans seem less enamoured with is Nicklas Bendtner, but Arsene is confident the goals will come:

“I think when you miss the first chance in the second one he took too much time to take it and after it becomes really a problem for you.  I believe the most important thing is that he creates the chances – once he scores one he’ll score three or four. “

It’s worth pointing out that he is only twenty years old and is already into double figures for the season.  I’m not Bendtner apologist, but at the same time I’m pretty sure he could score twenty-thirty goals for this Arsenal team in a few years’ time.

Finally, thankyou Spurs thankyou Villa for capitulating quite so hilariously in the last few games, allowing us to go from two minutes away from being eight points behind, to ahead on goal difference.  Now that fourth place is back in our hands, we simply have to tighten our grip on it.  Tomorrow, though, is the FA Cup Quarter-Final against Hull.  Must win.


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