At first glance, a comparison between Emmanuel Eboue and Theo Walcott would seem as daft as one of Fergie’s post-match rants. However, I’m going to briefly persevere with it. You see, the comparison is not specifically a football one, at least not when it comes to ability. It’s clear they’re both fine footballers with bright futures ahead of them, should they wish there to be. And that’s where my point comes in.

In Theo Walcott, we have a footballer, a young man who loves what he does, obviously works hard and is thoroughly respectful of those around him. He comes across as humble and he knows he’s not going to command a first team place week in, week out, at least not for now, but continues to shine whenever he is called upon. We never hear him moaning about a lack of chances and threatening to move unless first team football is handed to him on a plate. When refereeing decisions don’t go his way or he’s fouled, he only gives the official a look or a wave of the arm before getting on with the game. He’d rather stay on his feet and go for goal than manufacture a penalty from a ‘nothing’ challenge. Put plainly, the boy’s got a good attitude and I love that about him.

Then we have Emmanuel Eboue. Again, a young man with bags of talent; pace, passion, attack minded and a good crosser of the ball when he wants to be (it was he who supplied the inch-perfect cross for Henry to score the winner against the Mancs last year, I believe). But along with all that talent comes the boy’s temperament and that’s where he and Theo start to go separate ways. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate the guy, but if there’s one player in this Arsenal team I’d rather not have, then it’s him. For every sweet pass or dart down the wing, there’s a blatant dive or animated argument with an official. He’s the type of player that will run half the length of the pitch just to get involved in an argument that has nothing to do with him. I don’t like to see that from opposition players so seeing it from one of ours is just embarrassing.

In the recent games against Villa and Middlesbrough, he was fortunate to come away having not been cautioned once. That he managed to stay on the pitch for the whole ninety minutes at the Riverside frankly amazed me. He’s one of those cynical players who will dig in an elbow, scrape his studs down another player’s leg (Downing must still bear the scars) or leave his foot in (he even did it to Mental Jens during the 2-1 win over Steaua Bucharest!), then sport a look of utter disbelief when the ref pulls him up. If the same were to happen to him then of course, he’d be up in arms about it and rightly so. But then it doesn’t actually take that much to send our Manu to the ground these days. Battling for the ball at close quarters is bread and butter to footballers and most come away having challenged legally. But Eboue seems to see it as an opportunity to play act. I forget who it was against, but earlier in the season just such a battle was taking place. The opposition player’s arm came across Manu’s chest and down he went, clutching his face as if Ricky Hatton had just opened a can of whoop-ass on him. He rolled about and you could see him taking a sneaky look towards the ref to see if it had been noticed. No sooner did the referee caution the other player than our boy was up on his feet and bouncing around like a gazelle.

Now take Theo in the same sort of situation. Against Steaua he danced through the defence a couple of times and defenders’ limbs were coming at him from all angles. He was buffeted this way and that and still he didn’t go down. It just doesn’t seem to be in his nature. Some may say that a professional footballer is expected to go down, to ‘draw the foul’ in the penalty area. It’s fair enough that the onus is on the defender to not bring the attacker down, but Theo’s mindset is such that he doesn’t care what they throw at him, he’s hungry for that goal. In his mind must be what is apparently missing from Eboue’s – that fundamental respect for his fellow pros that stops him diving all over the place when a waft of air blows past him.

You might say it’s a trait of the African born players, to act this way. Well, while I see the same behaviour from the likes of Essien and Drogba, I can’t think of a single time I’ve seen our Kolo play act like that. As with any good central defender, it would seem to take a wrecking ball to knock Toure over. OK, so he likes a bit of an argument with the ref now and then, but not on the Eboue scale and certainly not on the Chelsea scale.

Anyway, I digress. I would dearly love to see Wenger take Emmanuel Eboue aside and get him to focus the energy he so clearly has in abundance, to helping the team cause. The guy’s got buckets of talent and would walk into most other Premiership teams, which is why I find him so frustrating. Maybe it should have been him and not Muamba who was shipped out to Birmingham on loan, I don’t know.

This may all come across as a bit negative at a time when (at the time of writing) we’re top of the league and have qualified for the knockout stages of the Champions League. But we’ve all got a player that, let’s be honest, we just don’t like for whatever reason. I’ve read a lot of anti-Hleb rants before and Alex Song has come for in for his fair share of stick too. It’s the same at other clubs - my Spuds mates can’t stand Gardner and a couple of Manc fans at work want to see the back of Carrick. But they’ll defend their players if I mention just how bad they seem to be. Never before have I been watching one of our games on TV and been unable to defend our players’ actions, until Eboue came along. With any other player, I’ll contest that ‘that was a fair challenge’ when one of our boys flies into a tackle or ‘that was virtually assault!’ when someone else in red goes down a little too easily. But where Eboue’s concerned, a rash challenge will go in, a blatant dive will be executed or an argument will ensue with the ref, and my Spuds mates will be all over me. My only reply, and this sickens me in light of those that are throwing the accusations, is that I’ve got nothing to say, no way to defend it. And perhaps that’s why I dislike the guy so much - he gives Spuds fans a reason to be right once a game and that’s just not on.

So come on Emmanuel, show us what you can really do. Get rid of the attitude and concentrate on playing your part in the best Arsenal team since the Invincibles.