Monday 14 September 2009

More Arsenal reax

James Lawton, The Independent

Adebayor was immense in this game, huge and luminous in his natural ability. Unfortunately, this only made his lapse into dangerous and shocking professional irresponsibility all the more dramatic and, for Hughes, disconcerting on a day when he might otherwise have been celebrating a significant and untrammelled step forward in a project that has invited so much scepticism.

The big man from Togo showed us the beauty that lies in his natural gifts and why Hughes parted so enthusiastically with £25m – and then the beast.

Oliver Kay, The Times

This should have been Emmanuel Adebayor’s day — and in one sense, as he helped Manchester City to secure the fourth consecutive victory that underlined the genuine threat they pose this season to Arsenal and the rest of the established elite, it still was. But his performance all afternoon was one that called to mind the famous quote from a French football official who said of Eric Cantona, another maverick centre forward who made his home in Manchester, that “behind you lies the trail of sulphur”. Like Cantona, Adebayor allowed the sulphur to intoxicate him.

Ian Ladyman, Daily Mail

It is regrettable that memories of Adebayor's own play will fade into the background. His remarkable run down the left side towards the end, leaving his arch enemy Nicklas Bendtner slashing fruitlessly at his ankles, was perhaps the season's best piece of individual skill so far.

Also, it is a shame that the contribution of Craig Bellamy - selfless, industrious and skilful - will not receive more column inches today. The Welshman was playing because Robinho is injured and he was fundamental to this victory.

Daniel Taylor, The Guardian

Amid all the recriminations, the rushed apologies and the rancorous fingerpointing, it was almost overlooked, for example, that City's fourth successive victory represents their best start to a season since 1961. Not many people seemed to pick up, either, that a record City of Manchester stadium crowd was there to see it, too – 47,339 shoehorned in to see the latest evidence that English football's Big Four are on the cusp of becoming a Big Five.

Mark Ogden, Daily Telegraph

Adebayor’s temperament, which proved flawed during his closing months as an Arsenal player, failed the test once more when he should instead have allowed his undoubted football talents to make his point against his detractors. But the Togolese was on a mission. Apparently 'unloved’ by his former club, Adebayor certainly made his mark, but apart from a stunning headed goal, the imprint he left behind was formed by brutality and incendiary self-indulgence.

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