Emmanuel Adebayor fears Tottenham implosion

Striker demands Spurs correct alarming dip in form

Emmanuel Adebayor (Getty Images)

Emmanuel Adebayor fears Tottenham’s season will implode if they cannot correct the alarming dip in form.

Adebayor played in last night’s draw here, which left Spurs needing a point at home to Panathinaikos next month to qualify for the knockout stages of the Europa League but he will miss the next three Premier League games following his sending off in the 5-2 derby defeat by Arsenal.

Adebayor will sit out Sunday’s home match against West Ham and the two games that follow, against Liverpool and Fulham. His side have won only one of their last six games in all competitions and the 28-year-old is worried.

“I try to keep positive so I don’t really want to think about how bad it could be, but worse than this, I think we’d be gone,” said Adebayor. “At the moment things are looking bad. We just have to try to find a way to get through this. Why aren’t things clicking? I don’t know. We’re all frustrated about the way things are going. We need it to start clicking soon, otherwise, trust me, we will find ourselves in difficulty. To get a draw against Lazio was our lucky day because they had so many chances. We’re not playing our best game at the moment and we have to improve.”

Adebayor’s season has still to get off the ground after he completed a permanent move from Manchester City during the summer following a successful loan spell the previous campaign.

The former Arsenal striker was injured at the start of the season, then found himself on the bench as manager Andre Villas-Boas preferred Jermain Defoe in the role of lone forward.

When Adebayor finally broke into the team, for the 2-1 defeat at Manchester City two weeks ago, he lasted a little more than one match before the red card at Emirates Stadium.

Adebayor acknowledged it has been a painful season for him but insisted he was happy to stay at Tottenham and that he had few regrets about his sending-off in the derby. He had put Spurs ahead at Emirates Stadium but the game turned when he was sent off for the 18th-minute lunge that caught Santi Cazorla on the ankle.

“Do I regret making the tackle? No. I’m a footballer and this is my job,” he said. “I regret touching the player but if there is another 50-50, I will always go for it. I’ve had time to watch it again on TV and no, it’s not been difficult for me. It’s one of the bad days in my career but these things happen — people have bad days at work. It could be worse. What if I’d played 90 minutes against Arsenal but got an injury that had left me out for a long time? People would have been saying: ‘Adebayor is out for six months’. At the moment, I’m out for a week. I’d love to be on the pitch to help my team-mates but I have to take it in a positive way.

“If people are talking about me leaving, that’s a new one for me. I’ve just signed a four-year deal, my family and I are happy in London and I’m happy playing for Tottenham.

“If the club want me out, I don’t have a choice but I worked hard to sign for Spurs so I cannot see myself moving.”

Spurs were lucky to get a draw in Rome as Lazio’s Libor Kozak missed a number of chances, even though Gareth Bale’s fifth-minute strike was wrongly ruled out for offside.