Adebayor booing the highlight as season fizzes out

WE’VE grown accustomed to the shoe being on the other foot entering the last few furlongs of previous campaigns, hoping in vain for a favour from the enemy.

But with all prospects of silverware ebbing away on the back of a heartless Spurs performance, that’s failed to even ruffle the feathers of one of our Premier League rivals.

I can’t remember the last time the Lilywhites still had something to play for at this late stage. With them needing a win from us on Saturday, about the only consolation from a tedious goalless draw against Man City, was the knowledge that my Spurs pals were, for once, experiencing the sour taste of just such a disappointment.

You know you’ve endured an insipid 90 minutes of football, when the highlight of the afternoon has been the haranguing of Adebayor. For us Gooners, it was an afternoon of opposite emotions, welcoming back heroes and a comedy villain. With his buckwheat ‘barnet’ and harlequin-style boots adorning his bandy legs, the tall Togo striker was in character as the puckish circus clown. Distracting the crowd from the prosaic contest on the pitch, Adebayor spent the first-half sporadically stirring up a chorus of ‘he’s behind you’ style boos, every time he came off the bench to stretch his legs.

45 minutes which was only noteworthy for the number of times and the apparent venom in the way Touré kept clattering into the back of van Persie. I’d forgotten how fond our Dutch striker is of hitting the deck, but for a centre-back who’s always come across as a laid-back character, there was more than a hint of revenge to Touré’s incessant harmful attentions. These were all the more perturbing with van Persie starting his first match, following such a prolonged spell on the treatment table.

His absence is a convenient excuse for the Arsenal coming up short, in another so near but so far campaign. Any team would miss the world-class prompting of a player of Robin’s calibre. Where Nasri (Fabregas et al) floats over the sort of set-pieces that are meat and & drink to a keeper of Given’s quality, sadly we don’t have anyone else in our squad capable of consistently striking a dead-ball with such lethal intent. Although at the same time, van Persie reminded us on Saturday of the age-old problem that our best striker can’t be in two places at once, whipping in corners at pace and getting on the end of them! But to my mind, Robin’s more Berbatov than Rooney, stamping his class on games when given the opportunity, rather than grabbing matches by the scruff of the neck and forcing the issue week in, week out.

Having worked up the crowd with his Dick Dastardly warm up, this lacklustre affair peaked with the frenzy of disapproval that greeted Ade’s eventual introduction soon after the break. It was positively bizarre, as 50,000 rose to give Vieira a deserved farewell ovation one moment and were baying for his replacement’s treacherous blood the next. Perhaps Campbell felt some sympathy, as he alone has suffered such fervent acrimony in the past.

Perhaps it’s the cynical indifference of advancing years or the fact we’ve again ended up in the doldrums, as just about only team in the top half with nothing to play for. But I somehow struggle to get enthused by all the hype, for what appears to be such an exciting climax on paper, when the participants’ claims concerning their lofty ambitions, are contradicted by events on the pitch. Even the most blinkered fan can’t fail to notice that their overpaid heroes have grown so fat and lazy that it’s become a struggle for them to even feign their commitment.

There was a time when all issues at the business end of the season were defined by which team wanted it most. It would appear nowadays it’s merely a matter of willing one’s team to lose in a competition of mutual indifference.