Pete Barrow: With few expectations Giants can upset the odds again

Sep 18 2009 by Peter Barrow, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Now I will accept that there are reasons why ‘mild Manu’ metamorphosed Jekyll and Hyde style into ‘mad Addy’.

His run-ins with Arsenal colleagues and his baiting by the Gooners fans last season are well documented.

And there is little doubt that the first fixture he will have looked for when the Premier League list came out would have been this one.

That is why I would suggest that, had you asked him five minutes before kick-off on Saturday, you probably could have got the same apology just couched in terms of ‘I would like to say sorry in advance to the players I am going to kick and for finding the Arsenal fans in the ground when I score – no matter how far I have to run’.

Partial sentence has been passed and hopefully Adebayor can return from his spell on the sidelines with that mile-wide smile on his face and a sunnier disposition toward his forthcoming opponents.

But just to harp on about apologies, City boss Mark Hughes came up with some surprisingly flimsy utterances in defence of his man.

Given Hughes’ approach as a player you would have thought ‘so he kicked a few blokes’ might have sufficed, but he too attempted to hide behind ‘the heat of the moment’ line.

One can only surmise that a summer of having to meticulously count the amount of zeroes you have just written after the number you first thought of on a string of cheques might just have got to Sparky.

IMAGINE this scenario.

You are one of the top performers in your field, you have won a string of the world’s major titles and just a week away from your 28th birthday, you have enough cash in the bank to keep you and those close to you secure until your dying day – and probably well beyond.

Would you be happy? I would be – but not Serena Williams!

Her outburst at a line judge as she faced defeat in the US Open semi-finals against Kim Clijsters smacked of the actions of a spoilt brat.

Instead of accepting that maybe this time the title was not going to be hers, she instead produced a tantrum Violet Elizabeth Bott, the lisping spoiled daughter of the local nouveau riche millionaire in the Just William books, would have been proud of.

Sadly the ‘I’ll thcream and thcream until I’m thick’ approach didn’t pay off for Serena, it merely hurried along her sad demise as the US Open’s tournament referee Brian Earley counted her out.

Fortunately for tennis Williams was never going to get away with her actions – one John Patrick McEnroe Jnr ensured a couple of decades ago that the game’s authorities are geared up for dealing with petulance.

And was she sorry? Well certainly not for a few days as she insisted ‘An apology for...? From me!’

It has not been an easy ride since the incident for Serena – despite having finally apologised to the line judge – as an appearance this week on Good Morning America saw her squirm as attempts at promoting her new book were repeatedly flattened as the host turned the subject back to her on-court outburst.

But at least as America gives her the cold shoulder for a while, she will have the time to think over some of life’s big questions – hopefully she will have started with ‘Why the universe does not revolve around me!’