The Differing Faces of Emotion

After a week of professional and methodical International football, the passion of the Premier League happily returned this weekend and amidst the action also helped to display the ambiguity of emotion.

Manchester City’s Emmanuel Adebayor is possibly the greatest exploiter of this word after he explained away the unnecessary boot force used on Robin van Persie’s face by pleading emotion was the cause.

In a fantastic game of Premier League football that saw the ascendancy of Manchester City with a 4-2 win over Arsenal, the antics of Adebayor will sadly overshadow this.

Arsenal are a serious scalp for a club with aspirations of playing in Europe’s big league next season and need to be contained if a result is to be achieved.

This was understood by many in City’s starting XI, Adebayor though had his war face on and like Rambo II he was out for revenge. Unfortunately for van Persie, Adebayor’s revenge overflowed into violence as he was clearly shown stamping his foot across the Dutchman’s head causing a nasty injury.

Thankfully there is no serious long-term damage to the Arsenal forward beyond a few stitches, in an incident that had could have been far worse.

The Togo international striker was clearly high on adrenaline and keen to prove his worth to his former employers and did so with a well taken header, but did little to enhance his reputation with the Gunners and for that matter anyone with a sense of decency, by running the length of the pitch to gloat in front of the Arsenal fans, who were understandably vocal in their contempt.

Attempting to shimmy his way out of trouble and avoid the inevitable FA investigation, Adebayor prepared a carefully worded response to the blatant facts, by playing the emotion card.

The usual overflow of emotion in football is relatively tame. A frustrating kick of the post after a missed opportunity, players taking out their frustrations on the referee or at worst flying in with a miss-timed tackle, but usually no one gets kicked in the head.

Adebayor told the BBC “The emotion took over me. Now I just have to say sorry.”

He added: “When I score a goal, for two or three seconds I can’t control myself. To be honest, I’m very sorry for all this.

“Before the game, people have been saying and writing things. The emotions took over. People who love me and know me know how I behave.”

Unsurprisingly City manager Mark Hughes didn’t see the incident and completely uncharacteristically for Arsene Wenger neither did he. Who could have foreseen that?

“I didn’t really see what happened,” said the Frenchman.

Perhaps his reason for standing importantly on a raised ledge behind the dugout at Old Trafford a few weeks ago was to get a better view than the horribly obscured one he seems to find on a weekly basis.

The emotion witnessed though at Middle-Eastlands is not the best that the Premier league has to offer.

Adebayor’s antics have more of a soap opera feel about them. A spurned former employee exacting revenge on a former colleague in a vicious and dramatic attack is done better on Eastenders and the like.

Real emotion and passion involves you and becomes a part of your life even before the action has started and this has consumed me and been a part of my life all week.

Sitting watching Manchester United take Spurs apart on Saturday was just a pleasant appetiser before the passion of a closely fought Midlands derby.

Both teams were intent on winning but equally terrified of losing and were willing to give nothing away. Players flocked to block shots, chased down un-winnable balls and ran continually.

This resulted in a typically scrappy game, but as a Villa fan, it had me completely and utterly hooked.

Clearly I have bias regarding this game, but my passion for passionate football does not stop just off the M6, as for me a local derby always shows the kind of passion and hunger for the game that I would love to see every week, although this can be at the expense though of silky football.

This didn’t matter to me though as I was ensconced.

Without the glamour of a match against one of the country’s premier teams, this game is separate to the rest of the season and can determine success of the winning club in the local area, irrelevant of either teams league position.

Whilst it’s always a pleasant day out, a trip to Old Trafford accompanied by the customary annual thrashing doesn’t set my heart racing.

This though was football without the spotlight of fame and without the bells and whistles of a prestige game. This was emotion without anyone getting kicked in the head, this was passion and a yearning to win, this was desire to chase every ball and most importantly this was thoroughly enjoyable and satisfying as Villa won 1-0.

Posted By Dan Mobbs - Sunday September 13, 2009.
Tags: Emmanuel Adebayor, Aston Villa