By Andy Strouthous
October 26 2004

Anelka has hit a rich streak of form, some of his recent goals remind me of his heyday at Arsenal, except he is now physically stronger and can hold defenders off. Our defence will have to be at its best to stop him scoring, although our defence is usually stronger away from home. The last two times I saw Anelka at Highbury he was booed constantly throughout the match, and surprise surprise he scored each time. Old sourpus used to have off days, but booing him like the pantomine villain and Sherringham just inspires him.

However that's not the main argument against booing him, after all I quite happily boo Sherrigham knowing the bastard will score. I just do not understand why its been kept up for so long in Anelka's case. We are the Premiership Fair Play fans is it fair to boo him all the time? Couldn't we show some of our customary good humour in dealing with it. The Mary Poppins song "who needs Anelka when we've got Kanu" was brilliant.

I can see the argument for, but the argument against is less rarely put. So lets try, ok he broke his contract, but Vieira nearly did that this summer - quite rightly we are not booing him. But ah you might say he has done his time for Arsenal, he is entitled to go if he wants - yes - but he still had 3 years on his contract to go. A contract that increased his wage massively. Ah yes but he has done his share.

Ok Anelka only (only!) helped Arsenal to its second double and then became a sourpuss for the next season and then went on his way. True it was protracted and nasty, but perhaps that was partly the directors making sure they got every penny they could. Not very pleasant behaviour by Anelka's agents I agree. But the club got £22 million for him, and we eventually got Henry and lots of change. Anelka's leaving put us on the road to where we are now. He didn't piss off on a free, the club made £21 million profit on him.

When he came to the club he was very young and far from home and very lonely, and so he decided the solution was to leave England. At the end of the day Arsenal is not a prison camp, if players aren't committed to the cause they might as well go. He didn't go to Spurs or Man U, but Real Madrid, what 21 year old wouldn't have their head turned when tapped up by Franco's favourite team?

So who did best out of it, us or Anelka? Every other club who has bought him since has lost money on him, he lost his place in the French Team, he no longer plays in Europe - maybe there are times he regrets he ever left? But what have we got to regret? £22 million and the arrival of our greatest player ever. Just imagine if Anelka never left, we might never have got Henry and Pires. Of course that wasn't his plan, but who cares?

When Vieira nearly walked out on Arsenal this summer it was Henry who pointed out that very few players, if any, had ever walked out on Arsenal and done better, in fact they do worse, in most cases it has been a downward spiral. Perhaps it was Henry saying that, that persuaded Paddy to stay. No player is bigger than Arsenal, and we are not a selling club, Arsenal usually sell when it suits them, and no one else. Selling Petit and Overmars turned out to be very shrewd, their best years were behind them. Anelka left but after a short while we went on to bigger and better things. So do we really need to keep this booing up? Remember the way Spurs fans treated Campbell, true we haven't done anything like that to old nic, but there is a point to be made - why are they so bitter? Its because they haven't won the league for 43 years. We have no such need to feel so bitter, Anelka moved on and so should we.

Oh the preview? Well even if Keegan tries to close us down his teams are incapable of doing it, so if Arsenal go for it they could score a few, but then so can they. Would it be a good day for Campbell to come back? Tricky, because Anelka will give hell to a player who is not match fit. What's more we will have to watch out for the young Wrighty, what a cracker he scored against Manure last season. The key will be to keep Kolo on Anelka for as much as possible. I am not even going to make a prediction, last week I predicted a win and that was wide of the mark. Let's enjoy the game it should be fun.