I know what you’re all thinking by the title of this blog – you’re thinking I think Emmanuel Eboue is a good player – you’d be wrong in thinking that.
I do not think he’s a good player BUT I do not think he’s as bad as what everyone thinks. As the great Henry Fonda said in 12 Angry Men, I’m not saying he’s guilty or not guilty, I just want to talk about it.
Hear my reasoning behind this mayhem before judging my opinion. First up, for the past 2-3 months things haven’t been going well for our beloved Arsenal, and with that in mind everyone needs a scapegoat. Whether it be Phil Senderos or Emmanuel Eboue. When things are going well, and Arsenal are playing good football, nobody has any issues with any players – it’s the fickle world of a football fan.
The game against Liverpool was no different to any other game this season, but when we were playing well for the first 20 minutes of the game, Eboue was playing well too, I kid you not. As soon as we start playing badly, everyone gets on the scapegoat bandwagon and batters our forever scapegoatees, Senderos and Eboue. Watch the game again and look at Eboue’s performance – is it really any worse than Gallas, Toure, Clichy, Hleb, Adebayor, van Persie? I don’t think so.
The guys confidence is at a rock bottom low and this is clearly affecting his performances. I watched the Emirates Cup in pre-season and after witnessing Eboue playing a bloody good game on the wing for the first match, I was convinced he could be the solution to our right-wing problem. It hasn’t worked out yet, but these things take time. I don’t know about you all, but I have definitely seen glimpses – very little glimpses, but glimpses none the less.
Also, Eboue is not a natural right-winger, but let’s not forget that he’s getting used to the position and he will only get better. If we never gave players a chance, then Almunia, Senderos, Flamini, Hleb, Adebayor and Walcott to name a few, would not be at Arsenal right now.If it doesn’t work out, well at least he had the bollocks to crack John Terry in the ankles for kicking one of our players.
9 Comments
April 16, 2008 at 2:48 am
Very interesting, there’s not much support for Eboue at the moment, but he is a good player. I just don’t think he has the ability to be an attacking player. He’s fine going forward from right back, but as a winger I don’t think he works.
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April 24, 2008 at 10:15 pm
eboue has to go to be honest, he has a poor attitude, lacks the technical ability to be a regular in that squad im afraid. Check out http://arsenalheat.blogspot.com for daily updates on all things arsenal.
May 20, 2008 at 10:01 am
I make you right. Eboue might not have had the best season and his diving pisses everyone off but I really think he could shape up to be a great player for us. Wenger believes in him and look at how often he gets the ball passed to him in a game. I think he must be a different gravy in training and if he can just get his final ball locked in he could really start to make a difference for us. It’s hard to see past his failings this season but I really believe he has it in him to be a good attacking player; he gets himself into some great positions. I want to give him one more season and I think he might just surprise a lot of us. And like you said anyone who kicks that tosser Terry up in the air can’t be all bad.
May 20, 2008 at 12:42 pm
I hope we’re right Wright.
I think we need to give Eboue a chance. As I mentioned, some of our best players started slowly, even Pires and Henry were being criticised during the early periods of their Arsenal careers.
May 20, 2008 at 9:10 pm
i think wright got it wrong……………………ALRITE!
May 20, 2008 at 9:11 pm
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May 21, 2008 at 2:48 pm
I just saw the lookalikes post, blinding stuff and I still think your mate Dwayne might be a different gravy for us next season.
May 27, 2008 at 10:33 am
Eboue is a headless chicken thats been running around hacking people at the expense of theo walcotts progress, Hes a squad player at best, however I can understand his frustration, he seemed to be doing OK at right back, then we flogged lauren and the boss bought more cover in the form of Sagna, who showed eboue the subtle art of skinning people and leaving there shin bones pointing in the right direction, I honestly think the turning point for our season was the Birmingham break, the very next match Eboue is trying to end careers with his viscous tackles, and only because he is frustrated, imagine what he’d do if you boffed his wife!
February 25, 2009 at 10:20 am
I agree that Eboue is not as bad as he is made out to be BUT he is still not good enough for Arsenals first 11 and won’t be. When he does play well he’s a joy to watch but this comes along once in about 10-15 games. The rest of the time he’s lazy, can’t pass and falls over like a little boy. If he actually used his strength he would get somewhere instead of always diving and asking for cheap fouls. I know this sounds harsh but if you watch him throughout an Arsenal performance you’ll see all that I’ve said. Saying all this he is still useful as a squad player.