Show some respect, Myles

Arsenal News Review is a popular site amongst Arsenal fans. Myles Palmer writes the bulk of the stuff and his ...erm... idiosyncratic style is like car crash reportage. You don't want to look but sometimes you just can't help yourself.

However, he's gone way overboard in his criticism of Emmanuel Adebayor in the last couple of days. In this article he refers to him as a 'clown' and here he slags him off for needing more chances than most to score a goal.

Marc Overmars did not need eight chances to score a goal. Nicholas Anelka did not need eight chances to score a goal. Dennis Bergkamp did not need eight chances to score a goal. Jurgen Klinsmann did not need eight chances to score a goal. Fernando Torres does not need eight chances.

Marc Overmars - season best goal total - 16 (97-98 and 99-00)

Nicolas Anelka - season best goal total (England only) - 19 (98-99, Arsenal)

Dennis Bergkamp - season best goal total - 22 (97-98)

Admittedly Torres has 28 or 29 this season but go find me a Liverpool fan, any Liverpool fan, and they'll tell you he was profligate earlier in the season. Klinsmann had a 29 goal season for Sp*rs back in 1995.

So we can see that Adebayor's 26 goals this season beat Bergkamp's best ever season, Overmars' best ever season by 10 and Nicolas Anelka's best ever season, the man who has had more money spent on him in transfer fees than any other player. Maybe they didn't need as many chances but they never scored more goals.

Palmer then goes on to suggest we buy a Senegalese striker called Mamadou Niang who plays for Marseille, seemingly on the back of a YouTube video. He cites 15 goals in 21 starts. Does nobody remember Sylvain Wiltord scoring nearly 40 goals one season in France. He hardly set the world on fire at Arsenal despite doing a decent enough job.

Anyway, the main point is Adebayor. Arsenal have played three big games in the last 10 days, Adebayor has scored in each of them. Nobody is suggesting he's the world's greatest player but he deserves far better than to be dismissed as a 'clown', especially when the alternatives suggested are some bloke nobody has ever heard of or Nicklas Bendtner who looks decent as a substitute but appears to believe his own hype rather too much.

The big man's goals won us game this season, he's not perfect, but he has improved and the slagging he gets is out of order, in my opinion.

If this article proves anything it's that the clown writes for Arsenal News Review.

Update: Michael from the Gooner Forum provides the following info:

Stats as of March 29th
Adebayor 23 goals in 106 shots (57 SOG) - 1 goal/4.6 shots
Ronaldo 34 goals in 216 shots  (109 SOG)  - 1 goal/6.4 shots

The fact is that Adebayor puts a higher percentage of his shots on goal than Ronaldo and also scores more goals per attempts than Ronaldo.  Ronaldo had only 9 more goals but TWICE AS MANY shots as Adebayor.  He's not nearly as wasteful as Ronaldo.   He also puts a higher percentage of his shots on goal.

Thanks, Michael.