Friday, October 24, 2008

Arsenal's young guns deserve to win the Champions League says Emmanuel Adebayor

Cesc Fabregas, Theo Walcott and even Aaron Ramsey excelled better than ever before on the European stage on Tuesday night.

But one of the senior partners of this otherwise youthful Arsenal side believes the only reward for the excellence on display in Istanbul will be to win the Champions League.

Emmanuel Adebayor began the scoring in the 5-2 win over Fenerbahce – only the fourth time Arsenal have scored as many goals on their European travels – and then insisted that silverware has to follow.

If Arsenal beat Fenerbahce again, in a fortnight at the Emirates Stadium, and Dynamo Kiev win at home to Porto, both teams will be guaranteed qualification with two games to go. Then Arsenal can concentrate on the Premier League.

"I think I need to win something with the club and that's my hope," said Adebayor. "I think we have been playing great football, and, when everyone has been talking about how the way we play, and now, we all know it's the time to win something.

"Playing good football is good, but, winning something is even better. Now, all of our hope is to win something, to achieve something.

"We know it's going to be tough. In England we've got a lot of great teams, and, in Europe, all the big teams are in the Champions League.

"So I know, and I believe in the squad that we can still do something if we believe in ourselves, I think that's what we are doing."

Arsenal reached the quarter-finals last season before losing to Liverpool and Adebayor added: "What we did last season is already behind us. And now, this season, what we want to achieve, to be honest, is to win it."

The form of the youngsters has given Adebayor fresh hope, as he added: "As you can see, those players are very young, we are very young, and, as a young player, you want to achieve something, that's for sure."

The key to success could lie with Cesc Fabregas, who was outstanding on Tuesday, making three of the five goals with precision passes.

"Of course, he's a great player," added Adebayor. "He gives great balls and he's one of the best young players in the world, there's no doubt about that. And playing with him, for me, is always a pleasure."

And Adebayor admitted that Fabregas's continued improvement could prove a problem for Arsenal, with the rest of Europe eyeing the young Spaniard jealously.

"Every big team wants good players and he's a good player, so, there's no doubt, that every single club would want him, but, I think, he's a great, big guy and, now he knows what he's doing."(Telegraph)

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