While a lot has been made and said of Arsenal’s lack of strength-in-depth and the lack of true quality players as backup the club’s starting eleven (though this may have been somewhat quashed by Tuesday’s dazzling 6-0 Carling Cup thrashing of Sheffield United), one player’s quality in the Arsenal artillery has never been in doubt.
Brazilian-born Eduardo had been hailed by Arsenal boss Arsène Wenger as the Premier League’s most lethal finisher. Although this may seem slightly biased, especially considering that it came from none other than the man who signed the 25 year-old Croatian international for a fee in excess of £7 million, OPTA statistics have certainly shown that Eduardo was among the top three players in terms of chances converted prior to his horror injury at Birmingham in February. Indeed, Eduardo has received rave reviews from various other directions, including his international manager, Slaven Bilic and well-renowned Sky Sports co-commentator and match summariser Andy Gray, a prolific striker himself from back in the day.
The real question that Wenger must have surely began pondering in preparation of Eduardo’s pre-Christmas return is should Eduardo be given a place straight in the starting lineup, i.e. ahead of Emmanuel Adebayor or Robin van Persie? A dilemma indeed!
In order to answer that question, I suppose each of the aforementioned players’ virtues and limitations should be examined firmly under the microscope.
The Adebayor-van Persie partnership certainly seemed to be Wenger’s “fantasy” combination during pre-season and in the early weeks of the current campaign. However, whether this was out of choice or simply due to the circumstances of Eduardo’s absence is not entirely known.
Looking at the simple facts, Adebayor has been our most prolific striker over the past twelve months. But does this grant him an automatic first team starting place, especially after an inconsistent start to the season, not forgetting his summer flirtings with some of Europe’s biggest clubs and how a credible chunk of the supporters have yet to forgive him? The Arsenal fans’ views of Adebayor have certainly been mixed from day 1, where I have personally seen people switch from adoring his power and goalscorer’s instincts to absolutely crying in anguish over how many offsides the man is capable of generating per match in a matter of minutes.
4 comments Last one added 9 months ago — Leave a Comment
Shyam Parthasarathi 9 months ago
Good article - you've analyzed the various factors which affect the games of the three forwards.. but Eduardo's a much more intelligent player than Van Persie, who sits a lot deeper and makes Arsenal play a 4-4-1-1, if you may. Eduardo's much better with his head and is a much better finisher.. So, in tight games - he could be the answer.. with RvP, you're only looking for a moment of magic.
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chris 9 months ago
Good article,.. agree completely with the rotation that will be needed this season, with Bendtner, Vela, Eduardo all competing for a place. Carling Cup alone wont keep all these players happy. Physical away games we will see more of Bendtner, while Eduarodo will come into the frame in the tighter games, where 1 chance needs to be converted. But how can u drop RvP, the guy is technically better than anyone else and if he picks some form up we all knows u cant stop him scoring.
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Maire Ofeire 9 months ago
Really good article and it is a very interesting and hard question to answer. I think as you said that Eduardo will be used in Cup games or brought on as a sub until he is fully match fit and to make sure there is no physcological problems. All the strikers have there pros and cons, Adebayor may be better in the air but Van Persie has some lethal finishing and free kicks. As well as Eduardo coming back, Bendtner and Vela keep getting better, its a nice headache for Wenger to have.
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tobi aderotimi 9 months ago
This is a good article, but i think u should have included vela in ur analysis as i can definitely see him challenging for a start this season. I think that this is a better problem to have than the previous striker problems we've had, mainly lacking strength in depth when someone got injured....anyways i suspect that we may not even have a choice between Van Persie and Eduardo as Van Persie will probs due his usual routine of getting injured over the christams period and being sidelined till next season lol.
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