Who Would Replace Adebayor?

The following article was written by our guest writer, Jamie Wright, a professional sports writer.

Adebayor to leave? Who would fill his boots?

With the slight possibility of Emmanuel Adebayor moving on this summer, who would you like to see as his replacement in Arsenal’s forward line next season?

Arsenal’s squad will be boosted with the return of Eduardo to full fitness in time for next season and it seems a safe football bet that the Croatian has been sorely missed throughout this Premiership campaign.

So, if you take Adebayor out of the equation, it would leave Eduardo, Robin van Persie, Nicklas Bendtner, Carlos Vela, Theo Walcott and Andrei Arshavin spearheading the attack for Arsenal.

Personally, I believe that Eduardo and Bendtner are the only two out and out strikers in this list. Van Persie, Vela, Walcott and Arshavin would all prefer roles off the main striker. This would, of course, leave a gap up front for a target man.

Considering that the sale of Adebayor could generate a great deal of money for the club, I’ve short listed three candidates that would suit Arsenal’s style of play and sufficiently replace Adebayor.

Edin Dzeko
The Bosnia and Herzegovina full international has been a revelation for Wolfsburg since signing in 2007 with 33 goals in 59 appearances. His goals and presence up front have helped put Wolfsburg within touching distance of their first Bundesliga title. He possesses great aerial ability standing at 6’3” but still owns great technique and would suit Arsenal’s style of play.

Amr Zaki
Egyptian striker Amr Zaki is currently on loan at Wigan from El Zamalek. He started the Premiership season in fine form by terrorising defences with his sheer power and pace bagging 10 goals in 28 appearances. With his future in doubt at Wigan and no permanent transfer on the cards maybe an Arsenal bid might be in the offing?

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
’The Hunter’ as he is known in Holland, might be the person to fill the void up front. The 6’1” striker currently plays his football at Real Madrid where he signed in January for a reported €20million rising to €27million. He has great technique, athleticism and is lethal inside the penalty box, both on the ground and in the air. His future at Real Madrid seems to be in doubt as he has been unable to break up the partnership of Raul and Gonzalo Higuain this season.
Enter Arsenal?

These three players would all add more firepower to the Arsenal squad next season but would you prefer to see other areas of the team strengthened first?

Feel free to add your comments below, and email us if you would be interested in guest blogging yourself! The email address can be found on the left side of the page.

Want To See A Review of 2008/09?

Hey all; we all know that this season has been pretty dreadful. Once again we were left without silverware and we were denied it most painfully along the way. But there are always positives, and I can name a few off the top of my head right now, including Almunia developing into a wonderful keeper, Van Persie finally getting a full season, and many of our younger players maturing into decent footballers.

So if you'd like to see a review of this season, there's a really special opportunity I have been made aware of that I wanted to share with all you readers. Later this year a comprehensive insight into Arsenal's 08-09 season will be available on DVD, titled The Gooner Review.

The Gooner Review is a feature-length documentary on Arsenal's 2008 - 2009 season created by the fans, for the fans. Endorsed by Arsenal legend Bob Wilson, the film will feature interviews from members of supporter's associations, ex-players, Gooner celebrities and fans that travel thousands of miles just to see their beloved team play in the Emirates. Unlike any film made about Arsenal before, the Gooner Review will follow the ups and downs of an Arsenal fan's season, and give the definitive account of what it means to support Arsenal.

Sound good? It's probably the best professional DVD ever made to review a season, just because of how they go into what it's like for the supporters; and that's what got me into the idea, but there's also this little bit: anyone who joins The Gooner Review Club on http://www.thegoonerreview.com/ can vote on who should be in the film, what questions should be asked, and which interviews should be kept in. Members also get the chance to be in the film and to come to the gala premiere, as well as getting a free Gooner Review hat.

Not a bad deal, is it? By the way, they're also doing weekly Podcasts on the official Gooner Review site, with fans and former players' views and opinions on recent games and current Gunner activities. So you can listen to that if you're the sort who likes podcasts; I am.

So I thought I'd let you all know about it. It's a slow news week as we build up to Man Utd this weekend, so whilst your sitting around waiting for any substantial news anyway, why not head on over to thegoonerreview.com check out The Gooner Review DVD, and maybe even become a member so you can get a chance at that gala premier. Until next time,

Fab 4

Another Victory For Anti-Football

There is simply no other way to look at Sunday's match against Chelsea: it was a victory for anti-football; a defeat of flowing, beautiful football; the kind we all love to be treated to when we watch our team play week-after-week. And yesterday the lads delivered, but were humiliated in doing so. it was truly injustice at it's most supreme.

As harsh as the defeat may have been, you can't look at the match and say we played terribly; you honestly can't, not without lying to yourself. We started brightly, had our first chance inside 20 seconds, and had several more after that, and really should have been at least 2-0 ahead before they even had a shot on target. By all accounts, we were the preeminent team.

But then some bad defending from a free kick (which resulted from a Drogba dive, what else?) lead to us going behind. It was a shocker, and no one but the most biased of Chelsea supporters could say they deserved the lead. But I never felt too bad, I figured that with the way we were dominating and running the game we would be level in no time.

But Chelsea continued to defend resiliently, and we kept squandering our chances. And then before the break Chelsea went 2-0 up through an Anelka wonder goal. I could not believe our luck. And that luck continued in the second half when Toure put the ball into the back of our own net. He did nothing wrong: he had to try to tackle it away lest Drogba pounce, but it was just his luck that it swerved into the corner of our goal.

Still we ran the game, and when Bendtner came on we looked more dangerous than ever. We finally pulled one back through a headed cross (perhaps the way we should have tried to score all day) but then Chelsea got a solitary counter attack and scored perhaps their first and only deserved goal of the day. 4-1 was harsh, and it reflected nothing of the game.

From the scoreline you would believe that Arsenal were hapless and Chelsea brilliant (and so many of the papers are reporting it), but anyone who actually watched the game will know otherwise. We were the better team through and through, but we were far less clinical in the final third, and that, coupled with some bad defending (which in all honesty is to be expected when we're missing half our backline) led to our downfall Sunday.

It's hard to know where to look to find what went wrong Sunday. The attack was brilliant, if only they could finish, midfield was great attacking-wise, maybe not so good defending however, and our defense cannot I believe be blasted as being terrible in general: we were brilliant during January, February, and March.

But then it fell apart due to injuries, and that naturally leads to bad defensive performances; just look at Man Utd at the turn of the year when they lost much of their backline: they were dreadful. No team, no matter how much "depth" they have, will be the same defensively when half it's backline is missing. Full stop.

In the end I think the thing we missed most was lack of leadership on the pitch. I am and have always been very much in agreement with Arsene Wenger's apparent belief that players don't have to be old to be good or to win things. You can win things with kids, contrary to the popular statement, and last year proved that: we were brilliant until the psychologically devastating Eduardo injury, the effects of which I don't believe any team could withstand.

But this season something more was required. Kids are brilliant and can win trophies, but that has to be balanced by enough leadership to get the job done. Usually leadership and experience go hand-in-hand, and that's why older players are so often called a must for this team, but I don't think we require age as much as experience and leadership. Arsene Wenger said last week that he would try to bring in experienced players this summer to balance the youth in the team, and that is what is required. Not age, but experience and leadership. And with those qualities, I believe we have the potential to be as good or better than teams like Man Utd and Barcelona have been this season.

So what have we learned from the Chelsea game? Anti-football will continue to prevail as long as the teams playing beautiful football don't have the leadership and experience to overcome them. Man Utd and Barcelona did this season, and thus I'm thrilled that they've made up the Champions League final, but we this season did not. However all is not lost, and if we make the right purchases in the summer, I believe we will finally come of age next season and win something at last. Here's hoping for just that,

Fab 4

From Man Utd to Chelsea

Well, Tuesday night was just depressing, and seeing as you've surely read about 1,165,355 match reviews of it by now I won't bore you with another, but I will share a few thoughts and then talk about Chelsea on the weekend.

The game against Man U was supposed to be the big one; the game where the young guns finally showed their worth by returning to the Champions League final. And with the crowd fantastic as it's ever been and the players up for it, we started brightly, and were far and away the better team.

But then came the Gibbs slip which will undoubtedly live long in most gooners' memories, especially mine. You can't blame the lad for the slip up. Otherwise he was doing nothing wrong: his positioning was fine, he had Park covered, and until he misplaced his foot and it slipped on the always-wet Emirates pitch, he was doing a model job.

But when he did slip, when Park finished brilliantly, and when, two minutes or so later Ronaldo whizzed in an unstoppable free kick, the game was over before it had started. And it only went downhill from there. The spirit and confidence were gone, the goals were gone, and indeed many fans were gone. We conceded another on the counterattack and we scored a consolation penalty, but in the end we were knocked out in agonising fashion.

I was gutted, but just like the players must do, I and all the rest of us Arsenal supporters must move on. No silverware this year, but we can still finish the season with pride, and that begins with Chelsea on Sunday.

We host at the Emirates Sunday night a team who are, if it's possible, perhaps more deflated and dejected than we are. To be knocked out so cruelly (although seeing as I was hoping Barca would win, so wonderfully!) Wednesday night by the late winner from Iniesta killed their spirit and made players like Drogba go insane: cue his post-match antics.

So we have the home advantage, we've got Arshavin back, and we're not the only ones feeling miserable right now. All these things together makes me think that maybe, just maybe, we can snatch a win Sunday. We did it last year here and we did it at Stamford Bridge this season, so why can't we do it again?

And if we do, we'll only be three points behind them in the developing battle for third. Yes, it would be scant consolation, but I'd still like to finish third if we can and avoid next year's tricky Champs League qualifying round. If we win Sunday then all the pressure will be on Chelsea who can then not afford to slip up even once, or we'll pounce and steal their spot.

So come on lads, let's go out there Sunday and get some revenge for the F.A. Cup loss last month. We deserve it, and it can be done, so let's do it. Until next time,

Fab 4