Adebayor - My great leap forward this season

Fulham 0-3 Arsenal


Whether it is in his mother’s house in Togo or Arsenal’s state-of-the-art training ground in Hertfordshire, practice still makes perfect for Emmanuel Adebayor.

The beanpole striker climbed high above the Fulham defence twice during the first half on Saturday at Craven Cottage to score with crucial headers. They were his 14th and 15th goals of a hugely productive campaign.

The 24-year-old believes the overall improvement in his scoring record is down to stay-behind sessions after training this season. However his spring for the first two goals was down to more rudimentary practice.

“When I was young, I used to suspend a ball from the ceiling in my mum's house in Togo and see if I could jump high enough to head it,” he said.

“Every time I managed to head it, I would shorten the string attached to the ball and try to leap even higher.

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"I don't know how high I could go, but ever since I played for Metz in France, I've always come first in every jumping test. And not just because I am tall.

"The first thing I worked out for myself back in Togo was that I should be able to win a lot of headers if I was tall and could jump even higher."

While Adebayor has scored more than his fair share of aerial goals this season, he has also developed on the floor. So much so he is vying with Cristiano Ronaldo for the Premier League’s Golden Boot.

"My finishing has improved,” said the player signed just over two years ago from Monaco. “I am working as much as I can to get even better by staying behind after training for 30 or 40 minutes to practise headers, volleys and one-touch finishing.

"I'm not in a rush [to win the Golden Boot]. Last year a lot of people thought I wasn't a good player or a good finisher, but this season I'm happy to be one of the leading scorers around.

"For now, I'll just keep chasing the goals and, at the end of the season, if I finish top scorer in the Premier League, of course I'll be pleased. But my ambition is to win the title, and everyone at Arsenal believes we can do that.

"To be honest I don't care whether people rate me as a finisher because I have a buzz about my game now, I have the feeling that Arsene Wenger trusts me and, at the end of my career, we'll see what I have won as a player.

"The most important thing is that I feel free now. I am starting most games and the first question I ask myself is not whether I am playing, or whether I am going to start on the bench, but whether I'm going to score."