Adebayor leaps to Arsenal's attack

English Premier League/Fulham 0 Arsenal 3:Back in the family home in Lome, the young Emmanuel Adebayor would be asked regularly by his perplexed mother just why she had to put up with the ball that dangled on a piece of string from her ceiling.

Her son would respond with a shrug before resuming his rhythmic jump-and-nod routine, heading as a boxer jabs and hooks a punch bag. Madame Adebayor might have been nonplussed, but Arsenal are benefiting from the aspiring footballer's desire to learn to leap.

A side more renowned for its grounded, flowing football than an ability to crunch headers into the net have developed a new dimension with Adebayor, 6ft 4in but armed with the ability to hang in the air as if plucked from a Jet Li movie, offering a focal point.

His headed reward on Saturday was emphatic, as he towered above, first, the left half and then the right of Fulham's flustered back line.

"He's a monster," said Jimmy Bullard. "A standing jump as high as the crossbar? No one in the Premier League can mark that."

The spring is the reward for hard work in his youth. Where Don Bradman would practise all day back at home in Bowral with a golf ball and a stump, Adebayor had his mobile. "I'd suspend that ball from the ceiling and see if I could jump high enough to head it," he recalled.

"Every time I managed to, I'd shorten the string and try to leap even higher. 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.

"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 without a trampoline."

The 23-year-old took his season's tally to 15, planting centres from Gael Clichy and Alexander Hleb beyond a static Antti Niemi to maintain Arsenal's challenge.

This was far from a thrilling Arsenal victory, but, if the dynamism was lacking at times, it was actually rarely needed. In Thomas Rosicky and Hleb, there was threat from deep to back up Adebayor's presence at the pinnacle.

There are shades of Robert Pires and Freddie Ljungberg at their pomp in Arsenal's current goalscoring midfielders.

The visitors' third, rammed into the corner by Rosicky after more slick approach play from Eduardo da Silva, left Fulham deflated. "They keep the ball, pass before you know, they're on your right shoulder, then on your left," conceded Bullard.

"You've got to have a fighter pilot's neck on. When I chased Hleb into the corner, I thought I'd put my cruciate out. He's got some turn on him. There's no one player conducting it all and there isn't really a weak point in their game."

There are plenty to Fulham's. It says everything about their plight that Bullard has taken on iconic status despite this being only his fourth start for the club.

They competed here while their midfield quintet was stifling yet, unfortunately for Roy Hodgson, that endeavour fizzled out after 19 minutes. Error-prone at the back and, without Brian McBride, starved of bite up front, they are tumbling towards the Championship.

Injuries have been cruel to this side. McBride is still not training every day with the first team, and Bullard will need time to rekindle his energy after 16 months out.

"We can't just throw someone in who has had a serious injury just because we know how good he has been in the past," added Hodgson.