Eboue the fall guy for misfiring Gunners

AS Emmanuel Eboue trudged from the field on Saturday, tears welling in his eyes and jeers ringing in his ears, he gave the impression of a man who just wanted to keep walking: down the tunnel, out of the car park and as far away from Arsenal as he could manage before his legs gave way.

Sadly for the Ivorian, Arsene Wenger appears to be a fan of tough love. The Arsenal manager intends to put him back into the firing line at FC Porto in the Champions League on Wednesday, hoping a public show of faith will banish the memories of the most chastening afternoon of the midfielder’s professional career.

It would be an extraordinary gamble. Eboue is not the first high-profile Premier League player to have been subjected to dog’s abuse by his own followers but few can have endured a more concentrated dose of opprobrium and it is difficult to see how his career in north London can possibly be resurrected.

Arsenal fans, an impatient bunch at the best of times, did not emerge with much credit, and Eboue, who started on the bench here, can claim rustiness following a six-week injury lay-off in mitigation.

But it was still shocking to see a player touted as the next great Wenger discovery three years ago pack more amateurish errors into 57 minutes than some schoolboys manage in a season — the sort of nightmarish tableau of misplaced passes and mistimed tackles which can only be shown after the watershed.

The nadir came in the dying seconds when, in his desperation to atone, he inexplicably tackled his own player, Kolo Toure, on the half-way line and sliced straight to Wigan’s Jason Koumas. As the visitors attempted to exploit the space left by Toure’s forward foray, the boos rained down from the stands in stair rods: moments later, he was replaced by Mikael Silvestre.

Wenger, who conceded he had not helped Eboue’s cause by deploying him in an unfamiliar left midfield role, will speak to the player this morning, and his team-mates have also been quick to lend their support. Emmanuel Adebayor, Eboue’s closest friend, offered a consoling hug as he left the field and Toure insists he will bounce back.

“He is like my little brother,” he said. “We have known each other for a long time and went to the same academy. It’s hard for him. He came on after six weeks out with an injury and that was his first game.

“The fans gave him a hard time and that is not usual at Arsenal. He has all our support because we know he is a great player. He tries his best for the team and I think he will come back. I know he loves the club.”

Whether Eboue has the will or inclination to rise to Wenger’s challenge to “come back determined to show how good he is”, is debatable. Yet there is also something to be said for Wenger’s theory that the player was merely an easy target for fans whose nerves had been rubbed red raw by another erratic Arsenal performance.

Having forged ahead early when Adebayor capitalised on dozy Wigan defending to sweep in his first goal since October, this should have been a comfortable afternoon. Instead, a spate of chances slipped by — Robin van Persie twice dragged wide of the post, while Adebayor and Denilson both struck the woodwork — and Arsenal ended the afternoon on edge, haunted by the ghosts of past failings against the lesser lights.

They escaped, thanks largely to Manuel Almunia’s point-blank save from Mario Melchiot late on, but it was still desperately unconvincing and it is harder than ever to envisage Arsenal closing the eight-point gap o the top.

“What is a miracle is that we are still in there with a chance,” Wenger insisted. “We have had some indifferent games but the thing that has saved us is that we have beaten our main rivals. That has prevented some damage.”

Perhaps it has, but as Eboue will testify, there are some wounds which will never heal.

REFEREE: Steve Bennett (Kent) 6: Slightly fussy in the first half but was better after the break: unsurprisingly, so was the match.

MATCH RATING: *** Arsenal’s failure to land a killer blow ensured this held the interest, while Eboue provided plenty of morbid fascination.