Adebayor confident of title surge

Emmanuel Adebayor hopes Tottenham can capitalise on the absence of their rivals’ star players due to the African Cup of Nations.

Chelsea forwards Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou, Arsenal attackers Gervinho and Marouane Chamakh and Manchester City brothers Kolo and Yaya Toure are all expected to be involved in the tournament in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea from January 21 to February 12, meaning they will be unavailable for their clubs.

Adebayor believes Spurs are capable of making up the nine point gap to league leaders Manchester City, and said the absence of the Toures and the other African player could harm their rivals’ chances.

“Manchester City are first at the moment but they still have to play all the big clubs because we’ve only had the first half of the season,” Adebayor said.

“That is what is going to be over very soon, and then we attack January. Are City going to keep playing their football the way they are now right up until the end of the season?”

“We will have to wait and see. But, while we have everyone here, they have two players going to the African Cup of Nations. Kolo Toure is not playing a lot but he is a great player for them. Yaya Toure has been amazing for them this year. So I don’t know.”

“We all know they (Manchester City) have a great team with a great team spirit and, at the moment, they are playing good football. But, if they get a couple of injuries, I think it would be very difficult for them.”

“In football you can suffer two or three injuries in a week – that has happened to us with Jermain Defoe and Aaron Lennon.”

Tottenham have only lost once since being beaten in the opening two matches of the campaign, and they face no title contenders until they travel to Etihad Stadium to take on City on January 22.

Adebayor went on to underline the importance of Spurs’ fixture list, commenting: “I’m not saying they are going to be easy games but, if you want to be in the top four, those are the types of games that you have to win, home or away.”

“We have to do no matter what it takes to win those games if we are going to achieve that much.”

“Otherwise, forget about it. But for me Tottenham are improving game by game. We have better players this year. We are improving and we have to keep our confidence high.”