What Drogba reveals about Suarez - From an Arsenal fan's perspective

We have plenty of talent and potential; we even have bucketloads of skill and charisma. What we’re lacking, maybe more than a world-class striker (or such a player at any one position), is the kind of cunning and guile and ruthlessness that separates the merely good from the great.

I’m not claiming that Drogba is among the world’s greats by any means, simply that, in addition to the many skills he does bring to the pitch, his ability to change a game, regardless of his methods, is remarkable. He sees an advantage and seizes it remorselessly.

Was his brush with Miquel within the bounds of fairplay? It’s debatable. After all, we’d have to be careful how loudly we complain barely 24 hours after earning a soft penalty against Napoli. The difference, of course, is that Drogba went down like a sniper had hit him square between the shoulder-blades and Gibbs did take a bit of an ugly knock on the knee.

To us, Drogba’s penalty is rank simulation and deserving of a yellow-card, if not red; Gibb’s penalty is justice served for putting his body on the line. I’m sure that fans of Galatasaray and Napoli have their own interpretations.

This, however, is not an argument for signing Suarez. I’ve come to the end of this with my resistance intact, if nothing else. Sure, some of his antics would fall under the same banner as Drogba’s or Rodman’s, and I might feel fully comfortable in glossing Suarez’s future indiscretions should he commit them in an Arsenal kit.

Luis Suarez

However, I’m taking a longer view in hopes that I can bypass that uncomfortable moral accommodation. Too many of his choices have been selfish and have sabotaged his team rather than advanced it. He doesn’t just have a killer-instinct that impels him to succeed or carry his team to victory in the same way that Drogba so frequently has.

There must be someone out there who strikes the balance between the paladins we have and the assassins we need, someone cold enough to submarine a team other than his own in pursuit of glory. Villains don’t always wear black (although Galatasaray and Liverpool frequently do), and good guys don’t always finish last, but we’re sure getting tired of finishing fourth. Let’s hope that there is something to celebrate before week’s end.