Manchester City v Arsenal - Saturday February 2, 12.45pm

[awooga83]

I think the point is the form he is on is world class but to be a truly world class player you have to maintain it. But saying his current form is world class isn't a probem because not many can touch him at the moment.

Alot of players can have world class form every now and the its maintaining it that seperates the truly world class from the very good.

 

[stiiphunn]

Alf is right. It is far too premature. He's been playing very well for 5 months or so and that's not enough. If one used such criterias then a lot of players would be world class.

 

[AnthonyG]

Good point Awooga. Right now Ade's in spanking world class form and that will do me.

 

[USArsenal]

I wouldnt even put Adebayor in the top 5 strikers in the EPL. Yes, he is on great form, but Ade still has a bit to go in order to being world class.

ehhhh.. dunno if i would say that.. maybe in terms of "career", he wouldnt be in the top 5, but on current form and difficulty to play against, i can only think of 2 or maybe 3 that would be ahead of him.. Drogba (when not crocked), Rooney & maybe Berbatov.... i would definitely put him in the current top 5 in the EPL..

one could include Torres maybe, but he wasn't ALL that prolific at Atletico the last couple of seasons before his move to 'Pool....

given that this is his first season as the "main" striker with us (not including RvP, of course), he has blossomed well...

 

[thegame24]

to be fair to Alfonso on this, Ade is in the PROCESS of becoming "world class"... i dont think he is there yet.. a longer run of form would be required to be truly considered world class....

That is more of a reasonable statement. We are guilty of getting carried away a bit on Arsenal Mania. What happens if Ade goes a month without scoring, does he get demoted to just being Premiership class?

If Adebayor is considered world class then so are players like Robbie Keane, Anelka etc. You can add Eduardo and Van Perise to that list as well.

I wouldnt even put Adebayor in the top 5 strikers in the EPL. Yes, he is on great form, but Ade still has a bit to go in order to being world class.

thats my point though, why is c ronaldo world class? he scores against ****e teams. Hes created **** all goals

 

[dutchMasta]

Ade still has to do more against big teams. Other than his incredible match at OT against MU last season, can't remember much against the other big 3 teams. Plus, he'll need to show his stuff in the CL.

And he needs to continue this form, or maybe even not this good, for another season to be labelled world class imo.

But he's working his way up and definitely has the ability imo.

 

[EMIR8_SOLDIER]

Great performance from the lads

All 3 goals were sublime in their own right and that win reminded me of our excellent game we had down eastlands in 05/06 where freddie scored a top goal and reyes killed them off with 2 world class strikes

Were back on top, 2 points clear but I dont even feel overjoyed, there will be more twist and turns but we must keep on winning

United and chelseas run in looks harder than ours

 

[USArsenal]

United and chelseas run in looks harder than ours

erm, cant really see that... smack dab in the middle of our remaining fixtures, we play Chelsea, Bolton, Liverpool and then ManUtd in succesive matches.. only Liverpool is at home... that's a pretty tough run of games right there.. while all the top 3 (or 4 if you include Pool) have to play each other, no one else has to play all the other top 3 in that close proximity with each other... granted the schedule could change depending on what happens in the cup competitions, but as it stands, that is an incredibly tough run of games for us right there..

 

[Shadow Moses]

Don't know why people keep mentioning Bolton. They are not the same team. We will walk all over them. You can mark this post.

 

[USArsenal]

whilst I agree that Bolton are not the same team, and especially now that Anelka is gone, but

a) we are playing them away
b) i was really focusing on playing Chelsea, Pool and ManUre in 3 of those 4 games..

regardless of Bolton (who i think we would beat at the Reebok), those other 3 games so close to each other makes it a very tough run of games

 

[dutchMasta]

Plus we've got the toughest FA and UCL games of the lot, all mixed in along with Man U/Pool/Chelsea, which makes it even tougher. All our big games will come in groups from now. Only towards the very end will we get some sort of "easy" period.

 

[Gurgen]

to be fair to Alfonso on this, Ade is in the PROCESS of becoming "world class"... i dont think he is there yet.. a longer run of form would be required to be truly considered world class....

I wouldnt even put Adebayor in the top 5 strikers in the EPL. Yes, he is on great form, but Ade still has a bit to go in order to being world class.

That's funny, most of us would.

Ade gets no credit in England. Every Dutch pundit has been going on and on about him being a fantastic footballer for over a year now. They rate him as one of the very best strikers around, along with RvP.

 

[Legend#1]

Rooney?

Don't mention him.

He's not a top striker.

He's regressed.

Even United fans are moaning about how poor he's been.


Adebayor **** on Rooney all season.

Ade also brings more to the team than Torres (whos I rate highly), he also does it away from home, unlike Torres.... Yet.

Adebayor is the best striker in the league atm.

 

[True Gooner]

Ades a better striker than Rooney and brings more to the team than Torres (granted this is Torres' first season)

The only players that can be considered over Adebayor is Drogba or Anelka..although somehow I feel that Ade is better than Drogba

 

[Alfonso]

Adebayor is the best striker in the league atm.

The thing is if Torres was in this Arsenal team he would have scored a ton of goals with the amount of chances we create and possibly more than Ade. Adebayor's goals/goal attempt ratio can still be improved upon and it was only in Dec how we all got frustrated with him at Pompey away. I am still not confident with Ade if he has a one on one, and this is crucial as in the big games you only get one or two big chances to score. Also, in the big big games Ade has not consistently proven he can get us out of trouble or make the difference. That is why I say its far too early to say he is world class.

Thats why I would still pick Drogba, Berbatov and possibly Anelka ahead of Adebayor even in his current form. That is not saying Ade does not have the potential to eclipse them, but in terms of talent, footballing brain and technique I dont think any of those strikers can touch Berbatov. In terms of effectiveness that is a different question. Also, Berbatov's work rate and ethic is prob the weakest out of all mentioned strikers. But if you had Berbatov at Man Utd under Fergies guidance the world would be his oyster.

I agree that Rooney has regressed but people forget he is only 22 as well.

 

[Legend#1]

Torres missed his fair share of chances.

 

[Rocafella]

it's hard to criticise ade using the points you have and then go on about berbatov. he's not even playing champions league football and his goalscoring is pretty rubbish really. i'll agree he's very good though. even berbatov can miss one on ones, as he proved against us.

 

[Invincible]

Adebayor > Drogba >>>> Berbatov >< Torres > Tevez

 

[Kain]

Can only really see a comparison with Adebayor & Drogba, the likes of Berba and Tevez can come short to the halfway line to join in with the midfield where as Drog & Ade need to remain uptop to be most effective. (Hence Ade's rediculously large amount of offsides)

Set pieces are a huge part of the game both modern and old, to have a 6"4 striker in the wall or on the attack is hugely effective.

I've not seen a striker as tall as Adebayor is with the pace, obviously age has to do with this but im pretty sure Ade could cover the pitch before the likes of Drogba, Crouch, Bendtner, Ibrahimovic could even reach the halfway line.

I guess another way of measuring how good a striker is, is by asking a person to put down their team ie a Liverpool fan might go Carragher>Gerrard>Torres and a United fan would go Ronaldo>Rooney> Ferdinand, but despite all the quality of the squad in Chelsea the first name down on paper will almost always be Drogba they build the team around him, and thats a tribute to his quality as a player.

+ Hes just scored a quality goal in the ACoN as i was typig this.

 

[j'nuh]

Adebayor is the best striker in the league atm.

The thing is if Torres was in this Arsenal team he would have scored a ton of goals with the amount of chances we create and possibly more than Ade. Adebayor's goals/goal attempt ratio can still be improved upon and it was only in Dec how we all got frustrated with him at Pompey away. I am still not confident with Ade if he has a one on one, and this is crucial as in the big games you only get one or two big chances to score. Also, in the big big games Ade has not consistently proven he can get us out of trouble or make the difference. That is why I say its far too early to say he is world class.

There isnt a single player in this squad that has won us more big games than Ade. He nearly always turns up to the big games.

As for the debate between Ade and Drogba - Their goals to games ratios are practically identical at a little bit below 0.5 per game. Considering Ade's finishing has got much better in only the past few months we should see him overtake Drogba in that department fairly soon. That fact, combined that Ade is a much better link player for me makes Ade the better player.