Will Toffees prove sticky opponents for Arsenal?

I’ve been on shutdown over the Xmas period, so I apologise to our regular readers for the lack of activity over the past week or two. Here is an all too brief review of Tottenham, Portsmouth and Everton.

Tottenham – I’m not going to linger on this. We beat Tottenham, as we always do, although it was touch and go for a few minutes. Adebayor had one of his unplayable games, and Clichy generally got the better of a lively Aaron Lennon. Eight years and counting, although the Carling Cup might prove to be slightly tougher…we’ll see.

Portsmouth – as per usual, we started brightly, but rather worringly we looked like the Arsenal of last season for large parts of this game, trying to dance our way through the middle, often hitting a solid brick wall of a certain Sol Campbell – it’s good to see Sol playing so well, just wish it hadn’t been against us. Too many of our creative players lacked edge, although Rosicky looked sharp at times, and Emmanuel Eboue, as often is the case, zoomed out of the blocks, smashed a couple of shots over the bar, and disappeared on the hour mark. I can now set my watch by Eboue’s performances – if Eboue stops running, Arsenal have been playing for 65 minutes. Unlike Emmanuelle the pornstar, he will tease us with some racey foreplay before he loses steam half-way through, misfires and can't finish the job, leaving me unsatisfied and rigid, rather than content and relaxed…I’ll leave it at that, but you get my drift. If he could bang one in on the odd occasion he could be an incredibly effective player, but he just doesn’t have enough guile, or a footballing brain for that matter, to be a permanent fixture in the Arsenal team. When RVP is injured, we should resort to Bentdner, who is looking better and better. When Adebayor isn’t getting the better of the defence, he needs someone else to take some of the pressure, and Hleb as a second striker simply doesn’t do that. As a centre-back myself, I can assure you that I would not look forward to playing St Nicklas Bentdner and Emmanuel Adebayor, who are both big and strong, but also fast and unpredictable.

This has been a tough Xmas period so far for Arsenal, and it is only going to get tougher against Everton. I’m a big fan of David Moyes and his Toffees. They are tough and gritty, but also have pace and talent. Cahill is a fantastic footballer, as is Arteta, and they will prove a handful for Flamini. Let’s not forget we have Rosicky, Fabregas and Hleb. If that trio clicks tomorrow, we will win, if not, we could be looking at a point or less.

Hope you have all had a great Xmas and have a fantastic new year. We’re having a war themed party for NYE, I just hope the squad make use of their deadliest weapons (General RVP and Commander Cesc) and gun down their opponents over the next few days. (Apologies for over-punnage this year, but I suspect it might get far worse in 2008).

Martin Webb