Slaughter the Right People

I had no intention of bringing up Emmanuel Adebayor in any way ever again. He's dead to me. However, when he was let off the hook based on the "extreme provocation" by the Arsenal fans, I feel a duty to defend our cluster of fans who were there that day.

I have been extremely critical of Arsenal fans in the past. I think the fact that the Emirates empties out before matches conclude is utterly disgraceful. I think their treatment of certain players goes beyond what would be construed as constructive criticism. I don't mean just the fans who attend matches at the Emirates, I mean the armchair managers at pubs also.

But, I have nothing negative to say about our away support. They are die-hard Gooners who understand the difference between slaughtering a player and supporting a player. In fact, I'm dead certain that they are the ones who have backed Adebayor and Eboue during their low ebbs with our club.

These fans have been pointed to as the mitigating factor for the favorable decision going Manchester City's way. There have been reports that these fans have chanted racist songs at Adebayor. Some have even suggested that they threw bananas at Adebayor, a claim also falsely channeled by El Hadji Diouf at Everton fans. I wasn't at the ground obviously, but I've read that these things are simply untrue. They gave Adebayor stick, but wouldn't you be tempted to as well if you had read all the things that Adebayor had said about our club after he left us. Now, there is no way to really condone the things that some fans did when he celebrated in front of us, but that has to be understood within the context.

You have people like Harry Redknapp saying that Adebayor was justified in giving us the stick back. He claims that if we racially abused him, Adebayor was just giving it back. A bit rich from Redknapp considering it was the Scum who originated the Elephant Chant about Adebayor. Redknapp also slates Tevez for not celebrating against West Ham claiming that Tevez has no history with West Ham so what does it matter. Well, for the record, Tevez was voted Player of the Year by the West Ham fans that year and remains a cult hero for helping stave off relegation that year. I guess that's no history, huh Harry? You're just bitter because your nephew gets rightly slaughtered every time they play against Chelsea.

Our fans have been targeted as some fierce provocateurs, while the West Ham and Millwall incident goes largely ignored. Our fans are hardly what you would call "hard." And for that reason, I have to stand up and say that they're not worthy of such criticism.

Which leads me to Sam Allardyce, the classless walrus who masquerades as a mastermind.

All sorts of people gave Arsene Wenger praise yesterday. Ranging from promising managers like Roberto Martinez and old war veterans like Neil Warnock, the endorsements came flooding in.

Cue Sam Allardyce talking about how it is some sort of an achievement considering that Wenger has stayed manager for 13 years. It was hardly a ringing endorsement, although the English media said Allardyce was praising Wenger. That was mixed with comments about how he knows how to get at our team and that mutual respect was as far as it went with our manager. Even Allardyce's mentor, Sir Alex Ferguson, now admits what a visionary our manager is. In fact, I wonder if Allardyce would even know what ProZone was without Wenger's presence in the Premier League.

To all this, I'll just point out the following:

- Allardyce seems to think that his teams can get results against our team. Well, look deeper and apart from a couple of draws and a defeat, it's largely untrue. Largely helped by a gifted player in Nicolas Anelka, he's just taking the piss if he thinks he knows how to stop our team from scoring.

- Since he left for Newcastle, his reputation has largely diminished. He's a failure, plain and simple. There are those that suggest he should have garnered the England job over Steve McClaren. He failed too, but look what he's doing now opposed to what Allardyce is trying to replicate at Blackburn.

- This Blackburn team is far different from his earlier Bolton sides. He lacks the ideal target man for his primitive offensive schemes, and he lacks the hard men in midfield to keep things tidy. He thinks he's unearthed the next Patrick Vieira in N'Zonzi, but to that, most would ask, "WHO?"

I hate Sam Allardyce. He's a petty, worthless man who has brought nothing to the English game.

On Arsene's 13th anniversary, I would love to see Allardyce reduced to a footnote in Wenger's illustrious history with our beloved Arsenal.