Dirty, dirty Arsenal

You're a dirty, dirty man
Oh in so many, so many dirty ways
You're a dirty, dirty man
And you've been hiding your little dirt all over this here place

- Joss Stone, Dirty Man

Adebayor is a dirty, dirty man. And he wants Arsenal to be a dirty, dirty team.

As Adebayor said after the FC Twente game:

"A lot of people talk about us and say we play good football. Good football is good but we didn't win anything [last season] and you play to win.... Sometimes you have to be dirty to win some games... Sometimes you have to forget about playing beautiful football and just make sure you win."

I agree with Adebayor wholeheartedly. It's nice to be the Harlem Globetrotters of the Premier League. It's a nice hook upon which to hang our hats. But it's also a self-limiting restraint. The object of football is to win, and the ulitmate objective of a Premiership football team is to win the league.

I think that, in pursuit of Wenger's vision of perfect football, we're losing sight of that. It is easy to sit back and be content with what you've got. It's harder to step out of your comfort zone and do things you're uncomfortable with. However, that's what we need to do to be successful. At the moment, we have a side that has great technique and which is very easy on the eye. However, what we really need is a side which doesn't concede weak goals and which can finish off defensively-minded teams.

And to get there, sometimes you've got to compromise on our principles. Sometimes, the ends really do justify the means. Sometimes, you come across something you want so badly that you're willing to change everything you are just to have it, because you've realised that nothing else matters but that.

Sorry, bit of a tangent there.

Actually, we were pretty close last year. Gallas' captaincy was remarkably effective in the first half of the season, and Flamini gave us a bit of bite in midfield. We were tight at the back, and we were scoring late goals all the time. That's the kind of mentality we need. We need a bit of luck, we need an early winning streak, and we need a bit of fortitude when the setbacks start snowballing.

And that's as dirty as we really need to be.