Silverware at last

By Boris Mellor
August 4 2008

Wenger put out the strongest team so far in his pre-season preparation. His first 11 for the Real game was almost entirely made up of first team regulars. His two strikers were Adebayor (half booed and half cheered at the start, with both the cheers and boos half hearted) and Robin Van Persie. His back four could have only been made stronger by the inclusion of the recovering Kolo Toure.

  Clearly the midfield would have been stronger with Cesc, but Denilson played very well, Diaby less so, but this was his first full match back since last season's injury. Nasri looked promising as the most likely replacement for Hleb, meanwhile Walcott had a solid enough game, but the player who really shone was Adebayor.

 

This was not a game played at high tempo; indeed by the second half both teams seemed heavy legged. The few chances that each side had were, for the most part, either missed, or saved by very good keeping.

Ade keeps his nerve

RvP, who is yet to reach full sharpness, forced the Madrid defence into bringing him down on 50 minutes. Although the defeat against Juve was meaningless the press had a field day gloating on its imagined meaning and consequences. Therefore failure to beat Madrid could have made Wenger's life, if not a misery, somewhat awkward. Therefore there was quite a bit riding on the penalty.

I couldn't help thinking as I watched Ade step up that this was quite a gamble, miss and the ensuing boos would be the media story. The man was coolness personified and took an excellent penalty. Even though the keeper went the right way he had no chance. Having won his gamble he preceded to celebrate in front of the singing section. There were no boos, but there were no songs either, just a general cheering of the fact that the team was 1-0 up.  The badge kissing was ridiculous, but you have to admire his nerve.

Not much of any importance happened after Adebayor scored. The crowd enjoyed tormenting Ruud van Nistelerooy, but the clock ran down to an inevitable 1-0 victory.

Martin Joll's Hamburg, worthy winners of the Emirates Cup, half heartedly collected their trophy to a now almost empty stadium. Clearly Arsenal fans were in no mood to celebrate any trophy win by their old enemy.

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Adebayor has a nerve

Discussion started by Arsenal Times , 04/08/2008 10:01

Arsenal Times
04/08/2008 10:01

Adebayor has a nerve

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no1 gazza fan
04/08/2008 10:13

very nice penalty but agree the badge kissing was cringe-worthy



no, put your wallet away Jack, that was too easy

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no1 Grimandi Fan
04/08/2008 10:16

what u have to understand Gazza is that he claims that all the s.hit over the summer was not said by him - before he left he said he was happy - he went on holiday and all the s.hit came out - u either believe him or not.

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80'sGoona
04/08/2008 10:31

I dont believe him.
But also dont care anymore.

Funny, fans were right back to singing his name after his run and near miss.

">Highlights. Ade's run at the end. And Diaby's tackle

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Padre Pio
04/08/2008 10:54

I agree 80s G. We just have to get over it. I am amazed how good his pen was in the circumstances

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AJ The Gunner
04/08/2008 12:54

kissing the badge was phoney!!!

denilson was great and will be better with cesc.diaby got tired too easily.but for me denilson was ahead of him.

djourou was really ahead of senderos until we made the mistake of sending him on loan to birmingham and he lost it big time.now he has a lot of work to do.

theo is really improving but i hope the pressure of the the no.14 jersey won't make him try too hard.it comes easy.

bendtner needs to work on his link up.if he is to get the ball from the midfield then he must do that.or just wait in the box for theo etc to get the service he needs to score.
van persie has improved his linking up.it was very tidy.

all in all.too much passing and around and not shooting when clear on goal got me abit dizzy.

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ArsenalForever
04/08/2008 13:45

A really stupid and disgusting move by Adebayor but ppl will forget about this when he starts scoring the goals for us

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Optimistic Gunner
04/08/2008 14:34

Yes the badge kissing was as arseblogger put it, "a truly vomitous spectacle, shameless, clueless and transparent".

One goal from a penalty in a friendly match isn't enough.

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Merlion96
04/08/2008 15:09

You know the excuse for joining BArca next season?

"No, it is not the money. Arsenal fans hated me and therefore I got to leave."

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Optimistic Gunner
04/08/2008 18:58

True.

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weedz
04/08/2008 19:31

Good article though Padre

Since the end of WW1, 1919, when the FA restarted its 4 tier football league, with Arsenal fc in the 1st div, there’s only ever been one club to have never been relegated from Div 1/ EPL.

Arsenal fc

Let’s keep making history

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PKGooner
04/08/2008 20:33

Adebayor's still a greedy c*nt.

Instead of badge kissing (Which hopefully everyone knows means f*ck all) he should keep his head down and work hard and score goals. Ideally he should've picked the ball out of the net and put back in the centre cirlce without much celebration.

He needs to work his @#$%& off if he wants to win the fans back. (Bad thing is though that 98% of the fans there were applauding him (Sm35))



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008:08:04:20:49:34 by pk_gunner.

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Optimistic Gunner
05/08/2008 00:12

Agreed pk.

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Padre Pio
05/08/2008 00:21

AJ Diaby has only just returned after long term injury, Denilson didnt look that good in his first game back. Diaby will improve as Denilson did.

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