Look who's coming to Porto

eboue2

Eboue is going to play against Porto. Which should settle all this debate, right? The boss is playing the player and unless there are extraordinary circumstances, I seriously doubt that the traveling Arsenal supporters will boo Eboue. In fact, he’ll certainly get a warm reception and with all the press brouhaha over the incident at the Emirates on Saturday he’ll probably even get a ton of leeway.

I just want to answer a couple of things that have come up here and in other forums so that we can put this to bed once and for all. 1. Where the fans a “disgrace?” 2. Is this a witch hunt? 3. Where do we go from here?

To the first, I say no. Look, I see this stuff here in the comments all the time. Fans, short for fanatics, are passionate about their club. Sometimes they are passionate beyond reason and so, I applaud the supporters who can sit through the performance that Eboue put in on Saturday and not get vocal: that takes a combination of compassion and self restraint.  I couldn’t do it, especially not in that game.

This was a very tense match, the fans and the players were desperate for Arsenal to get a win so as not to follow up a big game win with a “lesser” team draw, or worse. As the game progressed, the tackles got harder, and as the Arsenal pinged balls off the post and generally started letting Wigan get some belief in this match, our tension level rose. There we sat, on the knife’s edge between heartbreak and joy and when Eboue stole the ball from Toure and passed it to Wigan, I think a large number of us broke and saw heartbreak looming. Then when Wenger yanked him, they broke down and acted out their baser instincts.

People ask what would happen if Fabregas did that, or is this just irrational Eboue hatred? Well, I can’t see Cesc doing that, but if he did, I think he would get some stick: he hasn’t been playing up to his high standard this season and I’ve already heard some grumblings. But it’s still not the same: Fabregas has never been labeled by his own manager as a cheat.

Eboue has a long, long history of on-field histrionics which makes him excruciatingly frustrating. One game he’ll be incredible, the next game he’ll be lazy, diving, feigning injury, or stealing the ball off Toure and passing it to the opposition. It’s not a witch hunt, but there is a long history here of bizarre behavior by the player which makes it even easier for the fans to get on his back when he’s had another of his poor performances.

But so what now? It doesn’t do any good to boo him, as Yogi’s Warrior points out, and may even hurt team morale. Given that Wenger is going to play him and play him in whatever position he feels best, there really isn’t a choice: we support Eboue. We tone down the rhetoric a bit, back off him, let him play and get on with the season.

Arsenal still have a lot of work to do this year, next up is taking top marks in our group by securing at least an away draw against Porto. I’ll be there rooting for Eboue to bounce back and put in the type of performance that the club, the fans, and he all deserve.

Enough of this story, right?

News Roundup

The boss has said that Rosicky will be back in March “at the earliest.” So, now it’s March, don’t be surprised if you see April mentioned and then next month, “next season.”

Eduardo is going to play for the reserves on December 16th which is another step closer to first team action. I wonder if he’ll be our Christmas miracle in the Boxing Day away match to Villa?

I don’t know what to think of the fact that Simpson, Hoyte, and Gibbs all might go on loan. There’s not much cover at the full back spot so I’m kind of surprised that he’d loan out those players. Simpson is a no-brainer, with Eduardo coming back there’s no room for him and I’d hate to see him rot in the reserves — he’s got a lot of class and I think a bright future. Maybe Wenger has a defensive target in mind for January?

We’re being re-linked to Alonso, but I’d be shocked if Liverpool allowed that switch to take place. Their midfield is humming along very nicely right now and Xabi is a crucial part of that. That same article mentions that Arsenal are looking to buy Yaya and Kalou, so take it with a HUGE grain of salt.

Heh, I bet Arsene loans out all the youngsters and doesn’t buy anyone in January. Just to piss us all off.

I’ve got to go to work now and I’m going to try my hardest not to boo my coworkers when they screw up. I’ll report back on my success or failure tomorrow.

0 comments

  1. I would like to see a move for “Chubby Alonzo”, but it seems to be the typical transfer posturing that leads to nothing.

    There seems to be a large difference in how fan behavior is interpreted here (USA) and there (England). I am not in favor of piling on abuse on a player or anyone else, although players need to hear about mistakes they make as much as when they succeed. If we cannot boo or voice the occasional contrary point of view, we are not being honest as fans.

    Fans have the right to express their feelings about the team. If they cannot, who’s to say that visiting fans are not considering the feelings of the home fans and players when the visiting team is winning. How dare they cheer and applaud!

  2. I agree, this club is far from the histrionics that occur in, say, Philadelphia.

    Sport is demanding, fans are demanding, we pay a lot of money and invest a huge amount of time following a team, it’s only natural to get frustrated when you see something as insane as what Eboue did on Saturday and react in the moment.

    Now, if we keep harping on it and opening it up and keep booing him well, then there’s a problem. But this was a one off, I’m not worried that Arsenal are going to become Philadelphia any time soon.

  3. bullshit
    if fabregas played that badly no one would care, people would say he just had a bad game
    look at walcott, hes had tonnes of poor matches,
    gives the ball away all the time, doesnt track back, makes wrong decisions
    at least eboue tracks back, its just his decision making in the final third
    and i wouldnt say that booing walcott is the right thing to do obviously, but thers just no consistency
    and if u people had watched the games properly instead of these stit-stained spectacles, ud have noticed that eboue had been one of the better players in the team this year until his injury
    its not so unusual for someone to have a bad game when theyv been out for 6 weeks and clearly arent quite fit, less surprising that he started playing worse when ppl started booing him
    get off his back, he actually plays for the team, unlike some of the players in the squad

  4. It reminds me of that Simpons episode, the one with the Springfield Film Festival:”Are you saying “Boo” or “Boo-urns?”. That said, I’d like to see Yaya at the club. No footballing reason, just like to see the Toure brothers together again.

  5. It reminds me of that Simpons episode, the one with the Springfield Film Festival:”Are you saying “Boo” or “Boo-urns?”. That said, I’d like to see Yaya at the club. No footballing reason, just like to see the Toure brothers together again.

  6. So, just to clarify, it’s ok to rag on Walcott but not Eboue, because you see the game the right way and those of us who disagree watch the game with shit stained glasses?

    Right…

    Also read yesterday’s post before you start talking about Eboue being injured or less than 100%.

  7. this whole comparison with fabregas is nonsense.

    the reason why our own fans won’t currently crucify cesc is because 1) even at his below best current form he is still a very important first team player 2) he’s a fans favourite for his attitude and work ethic 3) he is younger and booing him would be more damaging probably 4) he hasn’t been shit for the last 18 months.

    look it’s true eboue had been acceptable so far this season. not really that good, but better than half our team and a bit more consistent. but if you take the average standard of him over the last 18 months he has been truly awful. embarrassingly bad much of the time. combine that with a bad attitude and one of his worst performances ever and it’s not so surprising that the fans reacted so strongly, even if it was still the wrong thing to do.

    cesc wouldn’t get that reception because everyone knows he simply doesn’t deserve it. this isn’t just a poor performance, it’s a shocking run of form lasting 18 months at a time currently when arsenal REALLY need to play catchup. all this combined with his constant diving, whining and he gets booked all the time.

    therefor bringing cesc into the equation is nopnsense because he’s in a totally different boat. one has been consistently shit besides a few acceptable (hardly great) performances this season, the other has been one of our most important players with some quiter recent performances but cesc still remains important.

    do the maths, they’re TOTALLY different

  8. To the tune of the Pogues’ Fairytale of New York

    Manu eboue
    Wears the Arsenal shirt
    Came in 2003
    From the coast of Africa

    And then he raised his studs
    And gave Terry a punt
    Well that’s ok with me –
    Terry’s a right c*nt

    The chavs they booed him then
    But by this time next year
    ’ve got a feeling -They’ll all be City fans
    So support the Arsenal
    A club with history
    Manu Eboue
    Plays for the Arsenal

  9. Hadley nice tune but sorry to blow your bubble Abou Diaby punt Terry not Manu Eboue!!!!

    Careful you dont turn into the negligent press who jus dont get things right but good tune though lol

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